As has been said countless times: Don’t ask if a Green New Deal is realistic; ask if life on Earth without it is realistic.
Congressman Richard Neal of Springfield (MA-1) is the lone holdout in the Massachusetts delegation who has not endorsed Ed Markey’s Green New Deal platform. Some students from UMass Amherst confronted him about that, and — like Sen Dianne Feinstein before him — he offered the condescending, quizzical take: “Is it realistic“?
It should be out of the question to simply say to young people asking for a liveable future, “Sorry, it was too big a lift. We’re just not going to try. I give up.” Any elected politician who offered that with regard to national defense, terrorism, crime — or in Massachusetts, gun violence — would be shown the door with extreme prejudice.
Neal faced a primary challenge last session from Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, who didn’t get much traction (30%); he’s really asking for a serious and well-funded challenger if he can’t agree to protect kids in his district. I’d love it if Ben Downing (eg) would jump in — he’s been needing a promotion for a while. Any suggestions?
Christopher says
As I understand it, the Green New Deal is in the form of an aspirational resolution at this point. Really no down side that I can see in voting for it. We can talk about how realistic it is when it gets turned into actual legislation.