Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Dr. Willie Soon & Climate Depot – The Laborers’ International Union of America has released a statement deploring the damage Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has done to the progressive cause and efforts to curb dangerous climate change.
LIUNA on the Green New Deal
Statement of Terry O’Sullivan, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, On the “Green New Deal”
Washington, D.C. (Feb. 7, 2019) – The “Green New Deal” resolution released today is filled with lessons. It is exactly how not to successfully enact desperately needed infrastructure investment. It is exactly how not to enact a progressive agenda to address our nation’s dangerous income inequality. And it is exactly how not to win support for critical measures to curb climate change.
Attaching a laundry list of laudable proposals unrelated to climate change – proposals which LIUNA and other progressive organizations have long fought for – to the sails of fantasy ensures that they all go down on a sinking ship. Infrastructure issues must be addressed in infrastructure legislation, while climate issues must be addressed through climate legislation.
We enthusiastically support real measures to move toward a carbon-free energy future. We also believe in science, which dictates that we will never reach that goal without lower-carbon bridge fuels such as natural gas and carbon-free fuels such as nuclear power.
According to the resolution, a “Green New Deal” would require every car to be electric-powered and ban all fossil fuels, among other proposals. It is difficult to take this unrealistic manifesto seriously, but the economic and social devastation it would cause if it moves forward is serious and real.
While rhetorically mimicking one of the most successful government initiatives in our country’s history, there is a significant difference between the real New Deal and the “Green New Deal.” The real New Deal put green in working people’s pockets, won massive public support and lifted our nation out of despair. The latter threatens to destroy workers’ livelihoods, increase divisions and inequality, and undermine the very goals it seeks to reach. In short, it is a bad deal.
###
The half-million members of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – are on the forefront of the construction industry, a powerhouse of workers who are proud to build America.
Source: https://www.liuna.org/news/story/liuna-on-the-green-new-deal
I think I speak on behalf of all of us at WUWT when I say we are all looking forward to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez emerging from her safe space and entertaining us with her next climate action brainstorm.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Unfortunately for LiUNA, they will feel the wrath of the extreme Left. How dare do they attack a beautiful young woman of “color” and future of America? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😜😜😜😜
+ several.
The left has abandoned and betrayed working people.
One can’t abandon and betray anyone unless you were once on their side.
One can abandon and betray everyone who’s trust and standing one once sought.
If the Green New Deal is implemented, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be well-positioned to become First Secretary of the United States Socialist Republic (USSR)
The Russians and the Chinese fully support this Red New Deal!
Raw New Deal
Look closely, she is going trans gender and will soon be called Barney.
while the vast majority of countries do nothing…
what a joke
As her climate and energy idiocy becomes increasingly exposed, I suspect here nickname “Occasional Cortex” will become wildly popular.
Again, “Occasional” gives too much credit to someone who sponsored such a fantasy manifesto posing as serious legislative guidance.
I, therefore, vote to change the satirical derivation of her name to “Occluded Cortex”, which indicates a total obstruction of consciousness.
I like “Occasionally Coherent”.
Loco Oco.
The problem is the Revisions to create New Green Deals II and III.
Those will sound doable now and slide trough Congress to some future Global Banking President
She’s not known for her thick skin. I’m curious how she’ll respond to this strong critique by a far left organization.
Snowflake (emphasize FLAKE) that can’t take the heat.
Hollywood will come to her defense…once they leave their walled-in lavishly equipped mansions. 🤔
But I thought walls were immoral. 😉
Only when Republicans build them!
Spuds:Noted in the State of Union one of the cleverest quips in a long time. Talking about the rapists, killers, sex slave dealers, drug dealers…crossing the southern border and the democrats supporting it and battling against building a wall, Trump observed that the millionaire Dems in California have built their lavish homes behind their own secure walls! Trump said he wanted to build a wall to protect Americans who can’t afford to build their own.
Too many brain storms. Brain is damaged.
Brain was damaged and filled with air. Air created inner skull storms that make her spout incoherent words.
That assumes there was a brain to damage. After all the washing it received in the national indoctrination centers (IE public education), I’m afraid all her brains were long since washed out of her.
“You mean wiped, like with a cloth?”
and H.R. lands a hit against HRC!
Like Bleach Bit, or maybe just plain, old bleach.
I am more inclined to think it means “Wiped, as with T.P.”
Anyone that pushes socialism/communism in the 21st Century has already demonstrated limited brain function. Bernie Sanders has been doing it for decades. They probably got it from Maxine Waters.
Perhaps one day the LSD flashbacks will end and Bernie will come to realize it isn’t the 60s anymore.
today on aus radio a survery of under 40s in ussa and australia showed60% for democracy and the 40% others think something else might be better…
theres your new ed systems kicking in
When the very liberal labor unions are going against you on the Democratic side, you are in trouble big time.
I think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the right person at the right time. A perfect example of a clueless person rising to prominence on her looks and outgoing personality directly through a clueless media.
She is so far out in left field that her ignorance actually highlights the stupidity of these plans. The best part is all the other Democrats getting behind her, highlighting their ignorance as well. Soon this house of cards will collapse and everyone will be ducking for cover.. except it will all resurface in TV campaign commercials next year. Video never goes away.
“A perfect example of a clueless person rising to prominence on her looks and outgoing personality directly through a clueless media.”
Change her to him and you’ll have a perfect description of Obamao.
Indeed. Which is why, as big a joke as AOC is, the right should be careful not to underestimate her/her followers in their grab for power.
You’re right, John.
Not only is her agenda avidly supported by a certain set of the population, but she may be something other than what we have been shown.
I watched as she walked onstage at a “woman’s” event and delivered a short speech. Her bubbly puppy persona exited stage left, while she transformed into an articulate, focused and charismatic speaker. She delivered her manifesto in passionate tones which roused the crowd.
She has the power to move millions, despite her flawed message.
Hitler was a very charismatic speaker too and when he marched into Vienna, the people came out in the tens of thousands to cheer him. I believe, that’s the day, the power went to his head!
You are correct, Alan. People “see something” that causes them to overlook the details and that should cause alarm. Knowing history, there is no telling where this will go.
My point exactly. There are way too many Victims of the “Stockholm Syndrome” who are willing to support her. Maybe retiring to Belize is in my future after all? 🤔
Just don’t kill McAfee’s dog!
Your comment misremembers that Obama actually ran in 2008 as a moderate democrat who believed in wealth creation via free enterprise with redistribution of wealth afterward to take care of social justice issues. He ran against socialized medicine in 2008….well to the right of Hillary Clinton. He ran as a fraud and got away with it. AOC has the distinction of being honest, at least, about her leftism.
Obama with Bidenisms.
At least Obama was smart enough to never go on TV and act like this:
Presenting age-old problems as if you are the genius who has just discovered them and then “solving” them with simplistic ideas that have consistently failed.
This is what people are falling over themselves to listen to?
I think she is a good advertisement of what University Education has become today. Nothing but a joke!
Exactly! She is the poster child of liberal brainwashing from kindergarten through college. She is an “educated” idiot
An educated “useful” idiot.
This is why they hate old white guys, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Technological revolution, the Space Age…
“When the very liberal labor unions are going against you on the Democratic side, you are in trouble big time.”
The largest membership of labor unions today is government employee labor unions which are extremely liberal/ socialist/progressive.
The manufacturing labor unions leadership are also very liberal, though their rank and file have a better grasp of reality. Note that a lot of the rank and file in the manufacturing & trade sectors are forced into unions due to collective bargaining.
Trust me, not everyone who is a government employee is a “progressive”.
Correct – the rest are out and proud Marxists.
Jokes aside, I am aware that your Government Department May Vary, and yes I do personally know a few pretty Right people on the Government’s pay check, but I feel safe in saying that the vast majority of public servants are basically higher tier Work For the Dole types and would never survive out in the private sector.
I’m sure the media will continue to fawn all over her as they did and continue to do with Barry O.
I predict her re-election campaign will prominently feature this, something like, “…bravely taking on the powerful labor unions, she fought for your rights…”!
While Sandy may have been a bit premature LIUNA and others have the same end goal. “nation’s dangerous income inequality” the Marxism calling card from the past.
In another article, Bill Gates is whining that rich people like him don’t pay enough taxes.
https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/nobody-deserves-to-be-this-rich-bill-gates-19277011
If Bill weren’t just doing this just for show, he could easily right a check for a few billion dollars to the US government.
Indeed, when ever a rich person complains the rich are not paying enough in taxes the first question that should be asked of them is “Then why haven’t you written a big old check to the government to make up the difference between what you are paying and what you think rich people like you should be paying?”
I have no doubt whtsoever that Gates has always used sophisticated (legal) tax planning to pay as little as he can. And that that has been many, many millions, and thus millions of times what most pay.
As Thomas Sowell said:
“What is your ‘fair share’ of what someone else has worked for?”
To answer Sowell’s question, my fair share of what someone else has worked for is exactly zero.
However, anything gained by rent seeking, particularly direct government subsidies, came out of my pocket in the first place, and I’d like to have it back, please.
Our current prosperity is not entirely due to our own efforts. We have all benefited from the legacy of previous generations.
Those who created that wealth, distributed it as they wanted to.
Ah. The perfect song for Sandy:
This is going to be interesting watching AOC’s blatant in-your-face power grab style conflict with progressivism’s modus operandi, i.e., achieve power incrementally, or progressively, in darkness.
This Uber vacuous brain is the gift that keeps on giving. In total, the silliness in the Democratic Party is strong and has room to grow. Must buy more popcorn.
You’re right Pamela. The show is just starting to get interesting. The wingnuts on the left, when given enough time, always wind up eating their own. Their policies are based on emotional appeal rather than rational thought. When a clutch of them get together, typically with no grownups in the room, they always try to ‘out left’ each other, eventually reaching a state of total absurdity, a shining example being Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk.
I love when they eat their own. Oops, almost out of popcorn.
I support Ocasio-Maduro in her struggle to lead the Democrat Party. This reminds me of donating to the Green Party in 2000 for Ralph Nader’s presidential run. LIUNA’s statement is a macro aggression motivated by colonialist induced white privilege. Progressive’s must rally to her support.
You left out the male target. That could get you sent to the Green Gulags in the first round of backstabbing coup by the socialist elite.
When labor unionists make more sense than the latest “it” girl and all the democrat presidential candidates concerning the Green New Deal – for example recommending:
“lower-carbon bridge fuels such as natural gas and carbon-free fuels such as nuclear power.”
I wonder if the democrats are heading to the same place the Whigs ended upon – the waste bin of history.
The unions and the metropolitan elites that constitute the Left in most countries these days are totally out of touch with each other. Unions have always been about getting “more” for the workers, not intersectional justice and fantasy Green dreams. Marx and Lenin wanted the workers to be rich, Stalin’s plans were for the USSR to become more wealthy than the USA, but the modern left expects their wealth to stay intact whilst they enact their ludicrous, self-important dreams.
Unions have always been about getting “more” for the workers
that may have been true when they were first formed, and certainly something they’ve always given lip service to. Since then they’ve primarily been about getting more power for the Union bosses. If any “more” materializes for the workers that’s just a bonus not the real goal.
Union bosses have always been the first to get rich. Even in the early days of the unions.
Indeed, it is safe to say that the only people who have EVER benefited from unions, are those that run them.
My first day introductory briefings at one company included the blunt statement, “We are opposed to unions and if you knew more about them you would be too.” and then provided the answer to the anticipated Why with this: at any company that votes in a union, what is the first thing the union does? No, it’s not set up a negotiation meeting. It’s not meet with the workers. Before they do any of that, there is something far more important (to them) that they do…
…
…
…
Arrange with Payroll to have the union dues deducted from your check and sent to the union. If you ever get the chance, try it some time. Ask a union newly voted in to do anything else before they arrange payroll withholding, see what answer you get.
Marx wanted the workers to be rich?
Debatable. What you need to remember about Marx, and by extension about nearly all of his followers, is that he existed in a third group outside the ‘Workers’ and the ‘Owners’. His plan was that he was trying to help the ‘workers’ but in reality he was just trying to kick over the ant hill in the hope everyone who thank him and give him a position of power in the new establishment. For him and his like this was a low risk. He was not a worker and hence had no risk of losing his source of income. He was not a factory owner and hence had no risk of having everything he had built removed and destroyed.
To word what Marx was trying to do another way, let us imagine that I came up to you and told you that you could do better in life. I need you to quit your job, ditch your partner, stop paying rent and then you can get a much nicer larger house to live in with a swimming pool and a sun deck and I can move in with you.
Then, six months later when you have lost your job, your marriage and your home I will look at you living in a cardboard box, say ‘Opps, sorry, guess we did something wrong’ and keep living in the same place I was always living.
Your life is ruined, mine is pretty much much the same and I now get to go to your neighbour, tell him to quit, leave and stop and that THIS time we will get it right and we can both move into a wonderful new house together.
Marx and friends don’t really want to ‘free’ the worker, they want to control him so they can move into a position of ‘organising’. Of course the flip side is that Capitalism in many ways wants to exploit the worker by paying them the lowest amount possible. The real moral here is not ‘Capitalism is Bad’ but ‘Don’t Be A Worker’ and this is also the major flaw in Marx’s writing.
Marx made the assumption that the self employed owner/operator class would get eaten and destroyed by the pure Owner. Instead rather than being destroyed these groups either succeeded or grew to become new Owners and, seeing an opportunity, new self employed groups climbed out of the Worker group.
Don’t Be A Worker. How? Climb out and improve.
Marx, rather than letting people improve their way out of the lowest group through hard work, instead decided to drag everything down (with him bravely stepping in to help organise the transition to the new order).
Marx, and sorry boys and girls but it has to be said, was a manipulative prick.
Of course the flip side is that Capitalism in many ways wants to exploit the worker by paying them the lowest amount possible.
Which is only half the story with free-market Capitalism. In Capitalism, the worker also wants to exploit the business by getting they highest amount possible. If Company A is paying X and Company B is offering to pay X+Y for the same type of work, the worker can quit Company A and go work for Company B. For you see, in Capitalism, unlike socialism, it’s a two-way street, both parties are free to come to a mutually acceptable price point the value of work the worker provides or walk away to find another with whom they can reach such an agreement. If your current job isn’t paying you want you think you are worth, go find work elsewhere with a company that will. or start your own business. (just a few of many options workers have in a free capitalist market).
Under capitalism, the rate of pay for a worker will always approach the marginal utility for that worker.
The reason for that is simple, and akin to what you mentioned above.
(I’m going to ignore things like taxes, cost of tools, etc. just to keep the example simple.)
Lets say a worker is able to create $20 worth of widgets per hour.
Lets say that he’s currently being paid $10/hr.
The company across the street realizes that if it pays this worker $15/hr, it will still be making a profit of $5/hr when it hires the worker. So the worker goes to work for $15/hr.
This process repeats until the wage approaches marginal utility.
Of course the wage will never actually get to marginal utility for a number of factors.
1) The company wants to make a profit.
2) Cost of management, wages for supervisors, secretaries, the guy who empties the waste baskets.
3) Cost of materials
4) Uncertainty – Companies are always worried about the next downturn in the economy and try to stay as lean as possible so they don’t have to fire people.
The short version was, we don’t know what it’s going to look like, we just know we have to tear down and destroy the existing order so that the New World Order can spontaneously rise from the wreckage! And thus I will be kept in moderation for a time because I said New World Order, that’s a no-no.
AOC like Al Gore, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are just corporate hucksters with a brand to sell.
Easily spotted by keen observers like this labor union. Well done to them.
Unions call all the shots in the Democratic Party so the GND will be “disappeared” quickly, not because of common sense or science or voter sentiment but by union dictate of the few.
I’m getting old and cynical. It seems like this is all a put up job and that AOC’s job is to be so over the top crazy that it makes all the other crazy left seem almost reasonable….
I agree.
The Laborers’ International Union of America
Never heard of them.
It’s “Laborers’ International Union of North America ” – a Union of Canadian and US laborers formed in 1903 (membership is about 80% US and 20% Canadian). They donated US$1 million to a Hillary supporting SuperPAC in 2016.
I must admit, I too had never heard of them previously, so had to look them up on the net.
The Dems have long been able to hold a coalition of groups with varied self-interests together despite these often being at odds with the goals of other groups within the coalition.. We are now seeing the inevitable fracturing of this coalition as the stresses are starting to release their pent-up energy.
These are the same people who proclaim that it is evil for a company to donate to a politician.
Meanwhile they are shoveling car loads of cash to politicians.
And the folks who employ the same logic that it’s a woman’s right to her body, to kill hey baby up to and including after birth, but murderers and rapists do not deserve the death penalty.
Aye Caramba.
Same logic that it’s ok for homosexuals to harass a Christian baker yet they defend the atrocious anti-homosexual tenets and actions of Islam.
That’s collectivism. Bedfellow of moral relativism. It is these abuses of logic and morality that pushed me into conservatism.
It actually brought me back from anarchy, even though fundamentally, I still maintain we shouldn’t found out society on violence.
But these people are violent, just give them enough power. They must be stopped
This group thinks the Screw Deal was very “successful.” Even the nuts think AOC is a nutcase.
I’ve always suspected that there was one kid in the Special Needs class who was more Special than the others.
“Green New Deal co-author Sen. Markey mocked for accusing McConnell of ‘rushing’ Senate vote”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/green-new-deal-co-author-sen-markey-mocked-for-accusing-mcconnell-of-rushing-senate-vote
As a member of LIUNA, I am immensely glad that they did not endorse the latest “brainstorm” from the DNC. Working members need to realize that the Democratic Party is not necessarily their friend.
Then again, neither is LIUNA.
I was a Teamster in California working for UPS while in college. Well paid workers are a plus in a healthy business. Have raised pay well above the average in every industry I have participated in since. Also raised expectations to keep the money flowing onto the bottom line. Several of those businesses were failing while paying low wages when I got involved. A winning formula each time so far.
Well paid workers are only a “plus” if their productivity matches their wages.
Paying workers more than the wealth they are creating will always bankrupt a company.
A company that pays substantially below the industry average, will only get those employees that the other companies don’t want.
Know you caught the raised expectations part. The wages were increased as productivity increased. Some of that was paid out in quarterly bonuses. ROI also shot up like a rocket. Win Win. Not for every situation but has worked half a dozen times in different industries.
I’ve also seen it fail a number of times.
Case in point. Minimum wage increases.
Apparently you found a winning formula to raise morale and improve the productivity of the workers despite the best efforts of the union! 😉
When I was forced to be a teamster I was a little curious as to who got my money. I stopped by the office, paid my monthly in cash (they did not take it out of paycheck for first 6 months); the receipt lady wasn’t there so I didn’t get one … they said they would mail it.
I didn’t get around to paying the next month. They sent me a demand letter. Same thing the month after. I called and left them a message on their answering machine … told them about the cash payment and that I needed the receipt … didn’t hear from them again for the next three months … quit (just before probation period was up) and went back to school.
Seems like it was easier to leave me alone than to reconcile the money they had stolen from the other members.
Small time thieves and big time thieves.
“The real New Deal put green in working people’s pockets, won massive public support and lifted our nation out of despair.”
The original New Deal may have had massive public support and did put some money in some people’s pockets, but it did not lift our nation our of despair. It actually turned a 2-4 year economic depression into a 10 year economic depression. Far worse, it strengthened the centralized Federal Government, birthed the idea of the Nanny State in America, politicised the Supreme Court, made massive public debt acceptable and opened the door to socialism as a viable way to govern. Basically, the original ‘New Deal’ planted the seeds for the eventual destruction of the great experiment known as the United States of America.
In the year 2039, the planet is sure to be just fine,especially if it is a little warmer than it is today. Unfortunately, the good ol USA will likely only exist in history books. Like the Soviet Union, we will have become economically unviable; a victim of our own internal spending policy. Whether that will lead to fractured, smaller nations, or one big Pan American socialist dystopia, I cannot say, but our imminent demise was assured long ago, with the adoption of the original ‘New Deal’.
Yep … there are not many of us who recognize FDR to be the Socialists that contributed the most to the eventual fall of the US of A. Woodrow Wilson was the original, who started the Federal Reserve, … on its third try. He new that controlling the money supply was the first step in controlling the nation, .. and even said so himself, .. pp I might have just signed the death certificate of the US. FDR .. was the original “never let a catastrophy go to waste” …. he liked it so much he created a catastrophy for the purpose of ushering in his Screw-U Deal. From there, they took over the courts, the media and education (the three pillars of the Fabian Revolution) … and have been sinking us ever since.
Agree 100% on the New Deal. It was the final nail in the coffin…leading to good ol’ WW2 with it’s express goal to make China what it is today…and the USA what it is not today!
The Green New Deal shows how effectively Hollywood works. I am sure they are proud of themselves. We are doomed…
Birthing a conspiracy theory, it is my belief there is an attempt to get Hillary (or possibly Biden) the Dem nomination. What better way then to have this AOC lunacy put out there, be endorsed by every Dem candidate running left of each other, then Hillary or BIden come in as centrists later to save the Dems from destroying their party.
As far left as the media is, did anyone wonder why the Washington Post would break that American Indian registration card on Warren before her announcement? I think Hillary was behind it because she is mad that Warren sat on the fence and refused to support her last election.
The left wing media also running hit pieces on Tulsi Gabberd and Amy Klobuchar right when they announced.
Or maybe not….
Good plan, but the incompetence of the Hillary-Biden group handed the Presidency to a man no one thought had a chance. They are playing with fire, and may once again get burned.
Think the AOC lunacy league’s chances are worse than Trump’s were?
Clinton/Gore worked well for the Democrats last time. Why shouldn’t it work this time?
Hillary-Biden may have been incompetent as campaigners, but you forget they are entitled and that is what matters most.
The only reason Trump was elected Republican nomination, is that the large field of Republicans watered down the vote and he was just different enough to stand out and garner enough votes early on to gain viability. After that the left wing media gave him free campaign time 24-7 because they thought he was the gift placed on a golden platter and they wanted him winning the R nomination. Of course their well laid plan was thwarted by the most incompetent campaign in history. The rest is history.
I don’t doubt that is a possibility but you have to understand that even the moderate Dems have either been “infected” or are scared crapless of these individuals if they don’t go along with whiplash of lunacy. The “green” religion is strong. It has nothing to do with actually reducing pollution and promoting energy efficiency. It is all about control of people.
That visage looks like it’s ready to explode….
Either she believes what she says (scary thought) or she doesn’t (scary thought). And she either doesn’t realize the damage she would cause (scary thought), or doesn’t care (scary thought).
or at times she truly believes, and other times she truly doesn’t;
and although, through the sometimes grey haze, she is conscious of her different personality, neither side cares.
Hang on a second. Has AOC just let the cat out of the bag? Is all this noise about global warming during one of the coldest winter interludes any of us can remember just an excuse to destroy capitalism and grind America into the dust? You couldn’t fault people for possibly thinking that once they read the fine print. I think a preschooler could grasp the effect of telling folks they can get paid even if they feel indifferent to actually working and producing. And suggesting you will rebuild all standing structures in the US (some of which were built hundreds of years ago) within ten years to meet standards of efficiency that exist only in the minds of ambitious engineers is a bit of a stretch, unless what you really want is to stop every other productive activity that keeps people alive and comfortable so as to dramatically curtail the personal CO2 emissions of those who still have food on their plates.
Remove the source of power that provides 80-85% of our energy and replace it with windmills and solar cells that only work part time and which would require a massive source of rare earth metals and gazillions of megawatts of traditional energy which is no longer available to build? And no more internal combustion autos, no more flying? How is that going to work? High speed trains? Yeah – California just showed us how effective that will be. Only someone fully intent on sabotaging the American economy and turning into an even poorer and more dysfunctional version of Venezuela could have come up with this. A more educated, clever and experienced saboteur would have had the insight to keep these thoughts hidden and certainly would not have put them on paper and broadcast them widely as has AOC.
Americans should hope that others with similar motivation are just as foolish and transparent in their goals, but one can’t count on that.
Here’s the problem, and extreme danger. Most (?) people vote based on what’s in it for them. She has cobbled together a lot of free stuff in her agenda. 42% of Americans do not pay taxes. Offer them more stuff they won’t have to pay for (or so they think), and you will get a lot of votes. The other stuff – modifying every building, eliminating planes, getting rid of fossil fuels, PAYING for everything – doesn’t matter to them. They don’t think any of that will ever affect them. They don’t have buildings, seldom fly, and are ignorant of where electricity comes from (or just believe, we’ll simply get power some other way, Duh). Other people’s problems; they are finally getting what deserve – free college, free healthcare, free basuc income.
So an extremist may well start with a 40%+ voter base when you add these voters to those who believe the other party is evil, plus a bloc of inner-city who vote however they are told by community leaders. So ‘sane’ voters must make up over 80% of the remaining voters, and actually VOTE.
Once in office, the free-stuff will be abandoned because of cost, but the government take over of everything from cows to planes to buildings, and the confiscation of personal wealth, will begin.
These extremists must be defeated in the primaries of the Democratic Party, but they seem to be so focused on getting votes that they are brain-dead to the suicidal pact they are creating.
If a supporter of AOC’s policies wins the party’s nomination for President. I’ll finally arm myself (it was difficult to resist buying weapons under the last administration). It will be a signal that the country is on the verge of collapse.
I must pick a nit. 42% (if that is the current number) of those taxpayers who actually file a Federal Income Tax return do not pay any Federal Income taxes. That doesn’t mean that those persons don’t pay any taxes.
And in the small print in the bill, it is proposed to add an annual Federal assets tax. I wonder how all the folks who have any personal wealth look at that proposal.
You have recycled the “…XX% don’t pay any taxes, and so they’re a permanent D voting block…” trope that sank Mitt Romney. Even if his figures were correct, correlation does not equal causation, because apparently he had become left leaning enough to commit the Left’s most grievous error… assuming that everything is static. It is not. The 47% that don’t pay taxes is a fluid population. I have a degree in engineering and I’m registered in two states, with nearly all others available by reciprocity, but for a period of about 42 months in the early ’90s I was unemployed or underemployed. Two of those years I got the earned income tax credit. In 2013 my income went >$100k, still almost entirely from wages. During the time I had no or low wages and my tax return said the government was giving me money, I didn’t want to be there, even with the government handout it sucks, there is NO “discretionary” income, there’s not even enough income to buy food and keep a roof over your head. So even though I got money from the government I was not going to vote for any politicians that promised to “…take care of [me]…” because that alone would limit my mobility, accepting that deal with the devil would make it nearly impossible to break out of that lousy existence.
I am certain there are some among the “…pay no [income] tax…” crowd that are the same place I was, down through no fault of their own and therefore certainly not “out”. I hope enough of them continue to see that having the government take care of them traps them in that existence with no easy way out, making it the new slavery, so they will at the least fall in the “undeclared” category. I remain an optimist about my own future and that of this country. For the grand U. S. of A., I declare the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
That’s not what Romney said.
He stated that people who don’t pay income taxes won’t be moved by promises to reduce the income tax.
So an extremist may well start with a 40%+ voter base when you add these voters to those who believe the other party is evil, plus a bloc of inner-city who vote however they are told by community leaders
That assumes that the “pay no [income] taxes” and inner-city crowd actually goes to the polls (the “other party is evil” crowd tend to be the most motivated to vote of the three blocs you describe). An argument could be made that a certain portion of the 40%+ base being unwilling or unable to take care of themselves (and thus leave it to government to take care of them) are likely to be unwilling or unable to take the time to 1) learn the differences between the candidates (and thus knowing which candidate is promising them the most free stuff) and 2) actually go and vote.
So while there is no doubt that there is a [large] portion of the voters that are voting for the free stuff, you can’t just look at the “pay no [income] tax” % to determine what the portion of actual voters that comprises.
Make do mistake, it is an issue that make it more difficult for saner heads to prevail, but it’s not (yet) as dire as you describe.
If a supporter of AOC’s policies wins the party’s nomination for President. I’ll finally arm myself (it was difficult to resist buying weapons under the last administration).
If a supporter of AOC’s policies wins the election (and gets the house and senate as well), one of the first things they’ll do is pass laws to restrict your ability to do so. Taking away the people arms is always the first thing totalitarians/authoritarians do once they get into power.