As I’ve said in a variety of places, the worst thing I can say about Joe Kennedy III is that he’s running against a climate hero, a guy who we’re going to need to create a future for our kids. That would be Ed Markey.
You could say it rubs me the wrong way. And I am not alone, as the Globe’s Victoria McGrane reports. It’s essentially quote after devastating quote from local climate folks. Can he ever recover from this?
“It just confounds explanation to me, if he actually cares about the future of this planet, that he feels like it would be a good idea to launch a primary challenge against the guy who’s leading on this issue,” said Craig S. Altemose, executive director of 350 Mass Action, a statewide climate-focused group that has endorsed Markey. “Seems like it’s just a move that is primarily driven by ego and ambition instead of a thirst for justice.”
… [Climate leader Bill McKibben] called Kennedy’s primary bid “a gut punch to those of us in the environmental movement.”
It … goes on. And on. Not good, Joe! [Read the whole article — and subscribe to the Globe, by the way.]
But let me share another devastating quote, a totally sick burn … from JKIII’s own spokeswoman.
“He is also very proud of his own record and looks forward to engaging with voters on this and many other issues in the months to come,” Kaufman said.
“And many other issues”! This confirms — with some other substantiating evidence — that JKIII sees climate as just another issue, another box to check. He doesn’t quite get the threat to civilization, nor does he view climate as a framework that touches on literally everything, from energy to labor to racial inequality to agriculture to infrastructure, and on and on.
And one of those other pieces of evidence is Ed Markey’s challenge of a stand-alone debate on climate change among the Dem Senate candidates. Markey made the challenge right after Kennedy declared, on Saturday 9/21. The Environmental League of Massachusetts has offered to host; a date has been set for November 11; and candidates Steve Pemberton and Shannon Liss-Riordan have quickly agreed.
Where’s Joe? Still thinkin’ about it. How does that Barenaked Ladies song go? It’s been one week since you looked at me/Cocked your head to the side/and said I’m angry …
Anyway here’s the timer — I’ll put it in a prominent place on the blog so you can’t miss it.
jconway says
There are other issues such as trans rights, immigration rights, voting rights, gun control, and workers rights where Kennedy has been more vocal and out front than Ed Markey has been which is why he is gaining support from those parts of the party. There is a real risk for Markey-who is already down by double digits-to run as a single issue climate activist.
Need I remind you the state as a whole is not particularly ready to put its money where it’s mouth is on climate . It also re-elected Baker twice. As you point out communities on the business end of climate change like Weymouth and Winthrop routinely elect and re-elect short sighted leaders on climate.
Kennedy co-sponsored the Green New Deal and scores a point better in the League of Conservation Voters rating. He gets a 95% and Markey gets a 94%. There will be a lot of voters where this outrage comes across as hyperbolic and misplaced, especially when the real outrage is the White House.
This movement unfortunately leans lily white. It’s laudable the kids from Brookline, Arlington, and Cambridge got parental permission to cut school and protest, but my kids had to go to school and many have to work 8 hours in minimum wage jobs to support their families as soon as they get out. For a lot of people in this state, myself included, making the next rent check is a far more existential and immediate reality than climate change.
The alarmism is justified and we are running out of time. In the long scheme of things it is working class communities and communities of color, not to mention developing nations like the Philippines, that will bare the brunt of this challenge.
What is needed is a way to connect those threads together and communicate them to multiple stakeholders. I think the Green New Deal is the best way to articulate that, and I am interested to hear how one of its co-sponsors stacks against one of its authors. It’s absolutely essential that we debate this topic-but it’s also important for Markey and his supporters not to get tunnel vision on this.
My kids have relatives in Trump’s cages, people they love getting deported, we just lost a senior from last year who got shot over the weekend, so many have had housing insecurity and evictions, others face harassment on the job or just the indignity of flexible schedules. Many have chronic health care issues that only single payer can truly cover. I want their issues highlighted too. Obviously the community I live and teach in is underwater if we do nothing, but I don’t think lecturing people suffering from other issues that this one is the one that matters most is the way to win or be effective.
Christopher says
Uprated with the caveat that I disagree with your constantly being down on Markey going back to his other Senate races that I never thought was justified.
jconway says
I think I cited the Ornstein study that showed he was the most productive house member during the 2014 race and said he would be a workhorse and not a showhorse. Perhaps this belongs in the other thread, but I think a strong case can be made that in this political climate the best a Senator can be is a showhorse unless we have unified government, which is rare. It’s not that Markey is a bad Senator-it’s that the Senate is a bad place for someone with his skill set.
Charley on the MTA says
Let’s not engage in what the kids call “erasure”.
“Lily-white” … you might have been right about this at one point, but you are really wrong now. You obviously were not there at the Climate Strike — hey, people have stuff to do, I get it. But it was emphatically not just white kids from Brookline etc. The face of the movement is changing radically — and about time. Take a look.
The issue is “intersectional”, putting vulnerable populations even more at risk. Among other things, that means climate refugees, by the way — the ones arriving from Central America.
I’ll have a lot more to say about Markey and issues that are not climate. But as I said, this touches everything, and (hat tip to Naomi Klein) This Changes Everything. I won’t have someone that doesn’t take it seriously.
(BTW, Joe’s not that great a speaker. He’s fine, but he’s no RFK.)
jconway says
You seemed to disagree back when he gave his speech. I think we can both agree he’s a better speaker than Ed, which is the only relevant comparison for our purposes.
You may not have intended it but this came across as incredibly condescending
Teaching at an urban school is a calling not a job and I have a mix of immigrants from predominately Muslim or Central American countries and the kids younger than me who are glad Kapernick got booted from the NFL. They all work their ass of after school either in sports, JROTC, or jobs (sometimes second and third jobs) to support their families. They ask me questions like “how does credit work?” and “how can I pay for college?”. One of my favorite students is working on shutting down the Wheelabrator, but she’s looking at reducing local asthma cases instead of making it about saving the world. So it would be great if we could have gone, but we weren’t allowed to. Our district is the kind that loses money it MCAS scores go down.
My big issue with the climate movement-one you’ve consistently highlighted so this isn’t a dig at your work-is separating the personal from the political. You emphasize how unhelpful that framing is. I cannot afford family housing on transit and have to take a car to work. My commute and my wife’s goes up exponentially even if we park and ride at Wonderland. Flexitarian is healthier than vegan (or carnivore) and some cultures (Filipino) do not have authentic vegan dishes.
Climate change didn’t kill my former student, a bullet did. Climate change isn’t deporting or evicting the students and families I teach. So I think that’s something to appreciate too. The threat from Trump is real and it requires someone willing to take him on out in front and not just in the hallways and cloakrooms of the Senate.
I applauded the rally in your other thread on the topic and the young activists who were there. It’s not enough to win, you need a coalition that is capable of connecting that issue to other issues. There’s a reason Inslee went nowhere while Warren will be enacting his plan as the nominee. That’s the kind of coalition building we have to do. Kennedy has a better record of making that broad based coalition on a host of issues.
If the Green New Deal stays an Ed Markey/AOC issue it’ll remain a niche issue for climate activists instead of a wedge issue to win back working class voters and enact big structural changes across our economy. Kennedy gets this. Moral capitalism is how we frame the GND. It’s not an either/or issue but a both/and issue. We fight for climate justice and immigrant justice and social justice and economic justice. If Markey wants to win, he will need to understand that and fast.
Christopher says
How is who is the better speaker the only point that is relevant?
Charley on the MTA says
Hey hold up with this: “You may not have intended it but this came across as incredibly condescending” ff.
Obviously (to me), there are an infinite number of good reasons not to be in any one place at any one time, including the Strike.
You do the most valuable work imaginable. I salute that work — and your students persevering through great challenges.
But — you did make an incorrect presumption about the demographics of the Strike. Had you been there, I think you would have left with a different impression, and not made the remark you did. That’s all.
Please assume good intentions on my part.
jconway says
I did and I do. I knew you did not mean it that way and I apologize for my assumptions about the crowd demographics. It’s good to see young people and people of color get more involved in this issue.
I saw your Jane Fonda retweet and agree with you and her 100%. It’s possible to eat meat and support fighting climate change. It’s possible to drive a car instead of take the T and support fighting climate change. In my view it’s possible to vote for Joe Kennedy and support fighting climate change. That’s my wider point.
Charley on the MTA says
You’re right, I had measured praise for JKIII’s speech. This was — I admit — when I was much more of a mind to be supportive.
“Darned good” = “Fine” = B+ work. Again, not his grandpa.
jconway says
Nobody is his grandpa. John wasn’t as good as Bobby. Let alone Teddy.
I do think JK3 is learning the lessons of that campaign on how to make an inclusive populism work.
stomv says
Just FYI, Brookline is less white than Massachusetts as a whole. Same is true for Cambridge.
But don’t let the facts get in the way of your misperceptions, jconway (and repeated unchecked by Charley.)
jconway says
Fair points. But these are affluent districts that can afford to keep their kids skip a day to go to the rallies. I know, as a CRLS student we got parent excused to go to anti-Iraq war rallies. Revere doesn’t have that luxury. BPS is wicked diverse and gave their kids a free pass too-but not every district did that.
If I had a million dollars I could buy a three bedroom in either of those communities. I grew up in one and I love the other, but I’m a teacher, I don’t.
jconway says
Also are the rumors true? You running for Joe’s seat? You should. You’ll have my support.
Also who are you endorsing?
stomv says
I thought carefully about the possibility of running for Congress and discussed the idea with my loved ones. I’m staying right here in Brookline, and will run for reelection to continue serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. I hope to earn the votes of Brookliners and continue my role on Beacon Hill in 2021 and beyond, so I can continue to advocate for my community and the Commonwealth.
I love my job. I love my job at the State House, working with colleagues to move legislation that matters to Brookline, Massachusetts, and the world. I love my job in the district, attending community events and sharing ideas with neighbors. I love returning home to my family every day, reading bedtime stories to my daughter, checking my son’s homework, doing the dishes alongside my wife.
–
There are several strong candidates who have already emerged for the open seat. I will be looking for a congressional partner who will fight for the issues that matter to all of us, like social and economic justice, public education, and climate and environmental protection.
jconway says
Solid answer. Good to see you putting family and community first.
Christopher says
I don’t think the affluence of a school district is relevant to whether they decide to excuse their students.
SomervilleTom says
@ I don’t think the affluence of a school district is relevant to whether they decide to excuse their students:
I fear your white privilege is showing again.
For many families in poor districts, students being excused from school brings financial burdens that affluent families don’t even notice. Parents may have to take time off from work, or (for younger students) day care needs to be arranged. Students in affluent communities may drive, Uber, or take the T to out-of-town events, while students in poor communities can’t afford those luxuries. In poor communities, students themselves may have after-school jobs because they and their families need the income — jobs they can’t skip even if they aren’t in school. Students in affluent communities have much more flexibility in such matters.
This is similar to the internship opportunities that so often separate affluent from poor families. High school and college students from affluent families are able to spend a summer, semester, or year working at an unpaid internship where they build interpersonal ties to wealthy and powerful business and community leaders and officials. Children of poor families simply can’t afford the time off. The result is that the first round of paid positions go to the affluent interns who are already known to the hiring managers — children of poor families have to find something else to do.
In all these matters, the affluent communities, families, and children are disproportionately white while the poor communities, families and children are disproportionately black.
I wasn’t at the climate march. I don’t assert that it was “lily-white”. I did, however, watch the video that Charley posted. That crowd is, like it or not, overwhelmingly white. Yes there were some young black women speakers featured here and there. Nevertheless, look again at the crowd. Slow it down and turn off the sound if it helps. That video shows an overwhelmingly white event.
That is due, at least in part, because events like that are often MUCH easier for affluent whites to attend than poor blacks. The same was true, by the way, of the anti-war protests of the 1960s. The latter was even more ironic, because poor black men who were unable to get college deferments because they couldn’t afford college were much more likely to be drafted and killed or maimed than their more affluent white counterparts.
jconway says
Thanks Tom. I did not mean to invalidate the marchers in any way, but the reality is, my students like mine are often denied these privileges and we should be honest about that. I really appreciate you taking your time to articulate this important piece.
Christopher says
Fair points. I guess I meant that it does not cost the school district itself any money one way or the other to say yea or nay to the question, “Shall our students be allowed to take the day off for the purpose of attending this event?”
jconway says
I turned my rebuttal into its own thread.
Might as well come out as a Kennedy supporter.
Christopher says
OK, I’m supporting Markey in part because I’m a fan of his leadership on climate, but there ARE other issues. Jay Inslee was good at connecting climate to these other issues, but I would not be attracted to a candidate I felt was single-issue on this or anything else. We are NOT going extinct in the lifetimes of anyone alive today and I don’t understand why very recently we’ve turned the alarmism up to 11.
jconway says
I think that alarmism is valid, but it must be paired with a hopeful vision for a carbon free reconstruction of our economy. One that provides living wage jobs to working class people, affordable housing to working class communities, and repays the debt polluters owe to the public. I think the Green New Deal does this. The question is, who is the most effective cheerleader for convincing the skeptics? I don’t think it’s AOC or Markey. It may be the guy who was endorsed by the electrical workers.
Charley on the MTA says
The scientists at IPCC turned up the alarm.
And then AOC, Greta Thunberg and the Sunrise Movement kids showed up, representing the obscene generational inequity at work, and the urgency of immediate action.
If you had personally endured Superstorm Sandy; or lived in Puerto Rico; or Paradise CA; or had your farm flooded in Nebraska; or if you saw your Cape Cod beach eroding in front of you, sweeping away your life’s work — you might not view the climate crisis as somehow distant.
I have kids and I’m fighting for their future. It is 100% personal for me.
Christopher says
We need to keep working no doubt and part of me is surprised we haven’t made more progress since global warming has been a concern for as long as I can remember, but I can’t get on board with the nothing else matters because we’re likely to die out in a generation theory I’ve been sensing.
jconway says
I agree with you both. My wife’s family back in the Philippines has survived two typhoons since we have been together. The last one destroyed their older family home. Their country is at least smart enough to acknowledge the reality and adapt an aggressive renewable push. Even their loathsome President is better than we are on this issue.
I think there’s currently a greater than 50% chance that the world is uninhabitable in a century or two if we continue the status quo. That’s a real possibility and something we should all be vigilant in preventing. I also think there is a real opportunity to employ millions of working people in living wage jobs if we go through with the Green New Deal. Lately, I haven’t been hearing that second story and that’s the kind of story that taps into voters anxieties as well as their hopes.