Ugh, not another Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez article? Wait! It’s not, I swear.
Well, it kind of is. But the ‘Green New Deal’ is worth discussing, if only for its total demerits and to revel in the fact that even the left seems to loathe it.
The latest brain fart by Alex from Yorktown Heights has already been the subject of criticism and ridicule by Nancy Pelosi, Mother Jones and Slate.
Sure, some don’t think it goes far enough. Heck, when the New York Times starts lobbying for the abolition of billionaires you know the Overton Window is shifting apace.
But, at least until 2020 — and as the president showed us in his State of the Union speech — socialism remains a great cudgel for the right to beat the left with.
Especially as it all kicks off in Venezuela.
Bernie bros and Cortez’s coterie will no doubt, at least to my mind, hand Trump re-election next year. More than anything because America is, en masse, on the hunt for fraudsters and corruption.
Look at the narratives in popular culture right now. The ‘Me Too’ manhunts, the Gucci black face affair, whatever the heck is going on now with R. Kelly, and of course the wonderful trolling of Maroon 5’s Adam Levine for his phoned-in attempt at a Super Bowl halftime show.
Younger millennials and their Gen Z overlaps are savvier than my generation and that of my parents. They have to be. They’re constantly being bombarded with surreptitious and super creepy sales pitches. Eventually, you become inured.
So when AOC and her cadre of congressional commies launches their “Green New Deal,” the world should be reminded of the latest Netflix craze, as I was: “Fyre.”
Following the strangely affable Billy McFarland and his reluctant recruits, Fyre is a play-by-play tear down of how what could have been the world’s “coolest” (read: douchiest) ever festival fell apart at the seams, leaving hundreds of entitled Insta-twats stranded on a wet beach in the Bahamas.
Honestly, by the time the show ended, I was glad Billy had done what Billy had done. And I’m glad Ocasio-Cortez is leading the charge for higher taxes; unreasonable renewable energy targets; and haphazardly attempting to tie identity politics to climate change.
Because while most Americans are indeed concerned about climate change, Ocasio-Cortez’s shrill socialism will help keep us away from knee-jerk responses that would wreck communities and industries.
It is not often I quote David French. Indeed it may never happen again. But in the interest of not Jill Abramsoning myself, here goes:
The Green New Deal hits the trifecta. First, the text of the resolution omits nuclear power from the proposal, saying instead that “100 percent of the power demand in the United States” should be met “through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources.” According to fact sheets distributed by her office, the Green New Deal “would not include creating new nuclear plants.” It goes on to say that “It’s unclear if we will be able to decommission every nuclear plant in 10 years, but the plan is to transition off of nuclear and all fossil fuels as soon as possible.”
Ten years? Ten years?
That’s like saying you could throw a massive festival in the middle of the Bahamas on an island with no plumbing, no housing, barely an electric grid, and all on the back of some social media hype.
Yes, the green new deal is the Fyre festival of politics, and Ocasio-Cortez is indeed the Billy McFarland of the piece.
My only hope is that she can leave as many deserving douchebags disappointed as Billy did. Oh, and that she doesn’t have to draft in Bernie Sanders to “save her” like Billy did with his buddy Andy King.
That would be bad.
Raheem Kassam is a fellow at the Claremont Institute and the Middle East Forum. He is the former editor of Breitbart London and author of two bestselling books: “No Go Zones” and “Enoch Was Right.”
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.