Democrats FRACTURED Over Far Left Policies, Green New Deal
Democrats FRACTURED Over Far Left Policies, Green New Deal. Mitch McConnell has called for a Senate vote on the Green New Deal and many Democrats are accusing the Republican of trying to sabotage the bill. Conservatives counter that allowing Democrats to vote on their own bill is what they should want, right?The issue is that the Democratic Party is split between moderates and the far left. Far Leftist wants socialist policy, which is attached to the Green New Deal, and Moderates just want reasonable policy they can get done.A vote on the Green New Deal will force Democrats to show which side of the line the stand on, and with more polls showing most Democrats want moderate policy it could hurt Democrats and further the split in the party.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal has been in the news for quite some time because it was met with derision and ridicule by people across the political spectrum and many journalists.
In fact, the frequently asked questions that they published were taken down and it generated a controversy.
But now Mitch McConnell is calling for a vote on the bill, and it seems like he's doing it to embarrass Democrats.
Democrats are fractured right now.
There's moderate Democrats who think the bill is silly, but there's progressive Democrats and the 2020 presidential candidates who are actually supporting it.
It seems like Republicans know there is a fissure in the Democratic Party, and they are using this progressive policy to force Democrats to show where they stand, thus actually damaging their party and their chances for 2020.
Today, let's take a look at the latest news on what's happening with the Green New Deal and Mitch McConnell's plan to call for a vote, and some data that shows, yes, as I've mentioned time and time again, the Democrats are rather split.
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Mitch McConnell is going to force the Senate to vote on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal.
McConnell said Tuesday that the Senate would vote on the Green New Deal introduced last week by Ed Markey and Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
I've noted with great interest the Green New Deal, and we're going to be voting on that in the Senate to give everybody an opportunity to go on record, McConnell told reporters.
The proposal, which is not expected to pass the Republican-dominated upper chamber, could force some Democrats to make a politically awkward calculation.
Democratic liberals, including all of the senators currently running for president, have come out in support of a legislation which calls for generating 100% of the nation's power from renewable sources within 10 years.
Scientists have said dramatic, immediate action is necessary to stem the catastrophic effects of climate change.
Democratic moderates have been less than enthusiastic about the proposal.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi derisively referred to the House version of the resolution as a green dream, while only 11 of the 47 senators who caucused with the Democrats have signed on as sponsors.
Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is widely expected to enter into the 2020 race, has declined to say whether he supports the proposal.
I'm not going to take a position on every bill that's coming out, he said Tuesday, according to Politico.
I support a Green New Deal.
I think we need to aggressively support climate change legislation.
That's my answer.
Republicans control the Senate with 53 members of the 100-seat chamber.
Democrats control the House of Representatives.
But it is not clear if the House will vote on the measure under Pelosi's leadership.
Conservative outlet The Daily Wire jumped at the opportunity to criticize the Democrats with this story.
Democrats panic after McConnell urges Green New Deal vote.
They get mocked.
Ryan Saavedra writes, Democrats are panicking after Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell said on Tuesday that Republicans intend to allow a vote on the Democrats'
massive government takeover, known as the Green New Deal.
But Democratic Senator Ed Markey, who jointly introduced the Green New Deal last week with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
claimed that McConnell allowing a vote on the bill was Republicans' way of secretly sabotaging it, saying,
Don't let Mitch McConnell fool you.
This is nothing but an attempt to sabotage the movement we are building.
He wants to silence your voice, so Republicans don't have to explain why they are climate change deniers.
McConnell wants this to be the end, this is just the beginning.
This isn't a new Republican trick.
By rushing a vote on the Green New Deal resolution, Republicans want to avoid a true national debate and kill our efforts to organize it.
We're having the first national conversation on climate change in a decade, We can't let Republicans sabotage it.
But the Daily Wire notes that many conservative personalities have voiced their confusion over this stance.
Stephen Miller, for instance, saying, Climate change is an existential threat to humanity and our
way of life.
We have put forward our plan to save global humanity, and Mitch McConnell is sabotaging it by putting it to a
vote, published tweet.
Jason Howerton said, A Democrat is mad at McConnell for allowing a vote on a
bill that was literally proposed by Democrats.
Cocaine Mitch really earned his title with this play.
Democrats are critical of the idea of voting on it, and it's a really weird story.
You'd imagine if the Democrats introduced a bill in the House and the Senate, they would be interested in voting on that bill.
But I do think there is some legitimate criticism in Mitch McConnell trying to push us for a vote immediately.
I do believe Republicans are trying to force Democrats to draw lines to show where they stand, but I think the idea that some Democrats have is they want people to discuss the bill before voting on it.
And Mitch McConnell is pushing it rather quickly.
Although I have to say, you can't really criticize someone for saying, okay, fine, we'll vote on your bill.
That's kind of the point.
Now look, I personally think we have issues with climate change.
I think I have to defer to the experts, which is the scientific community.
I don't know a whole lot about climate change, and when it comes to my personal opinions on issues such as these, or policy, I tend not to have very strong opinions, and I defer to the experts.
We have many different organizations saying that climate change is a legitimate threat, and I'm willing to say, okay, you know what?
Maybe we do need a Green New Deal.
Maybe we do need investment into renewable energies.
New green and renewable energy can make us more competitive on the international market.
It can offset our requirements on fossil fuels, which can make us stronger.
However, when the Green New Deal was first announced, I was very optimistic.
I said, you know, maybe this could be a good thing.
I know that there's some issues with massive government overhaul of some sectors, but maybe we can figure out a way to offset costs from overseas military intervention into renewable energy and technology, make those investments, and put people to work repairing infrastructure and implementing new tech.
Sounds like a pretty good idea.
And then we saw the actual bill's proposal, and it's about, look, there's a lot in it about racial equity and providing healthcare to all citizens.
I can understand an argument for climate change, where we want to implement new technology to offset some of these issues, but unfortunately it looks like at least half of the bill has more to do with socialist policy.
And I don't mean that in a hyperbolic sense, I mean literal socialist policy, like guaranteeing
economic security for all.
I know they removed the frequently asked questions, but Saikhat Chakrabarty, who worked with Ocasio-Cortez,
said they were looking at this language, and that it referred to people who didn't want
to take up new work after their jobs became obsolete.
So yes, they're talking about providing healthcare, education, and economic security to people
who are not working.
That has little to do with the Green New Deal.
If you're talking about proposing a series of jobs that the government is going to contract
out work, using taxpayer money to help repair infrastructure, and to implement new technology,
I'm listening, I really am.
But when you put issues about gender pay equity and racial equality and equity, I'm gonna have to question what your real intentions are.
But more importantly, outside of my personal opinions on the Green New Deal, yes, we have numerous polls over the past several months and year or so that show the Democrats are split.
And it seems like this is an attempt by Republicans to once again exploit the new progressive Democrats to put pressure on the 2020 candidates.
A poll I've shown recently and talked about quite a bit comes from Pew Research.
Pew is very credible.
They're considered to be nonpartisan.
And what we can see here is that Democratic views on their preferred ideological direction for their party shows that the majority in 2019, 53% want more moderate policy and 40% want more liberal policy.
What this typically means is people in the Democratic Party want to align more with the center or away from the center.
Plain and simple.
Someone who wants more moderate policy is willing to meet Republicans in the middle.
53% do want more moderate policy.
That's not a huge majority, but it does show there is a divide here.
And if the Republicans force this to a vote, they're going to put pressure on Democrats to show where they stand.
Vox published this story on January 27th.
the silent majority of Democratic House freshmen.
Where they note, national attention has focused on a handful of young left-wing
first-time members of Congress elected to safe seats.
But realistically, the future of the House lies with a larger group of
Democrats who act out narrow wins in newly purple districts.
Most of the freshmen come from swing districts.
We come from places where voters want us to focus on getting things done
that can actually be achieved.
Whatever you call it, these members are less interested in a 70% top tax rate
or a Green New Deal than they are in passing targeted fixes to protect the
Affordable Care Act and lower the cost of health care,
promoting renewable energy, and maybe looking for an infrastructure deal to fix crumbling
roads and boost rural broadband
to speed up slow internet in their districts.
They're happy to discuss the more ambitious policy ideas animating the left, like Medicare for All, But they still have serious reservations.
And not only is the left-wing outlet Vox acknowledging that these Democrats in the House are more moderate, not only does Pew show it, but Gallup has published something from November showing basically the same thing.
Democrats, Democratic-leaning independents, 54% want more moderate.
They say, if you had to choose, would you rather see the Democratic Party become more liberal or more moderate?
54% said more moderate.
This is reflected by Pew.
But then why is it that so many people think the Democrats are far left, or that the 2020 Democrats think it's safe to bet on the Green New Deal?
Well, once again from Pew Research, back in January of last year, Very liberal or conservative legislators most likely to share news on Facebook.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Plain and simple.
The progressive members of the Democratic Party get all of the media attention.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just a congresswoman.
Just one of many.
But she has 3 million followers.
Ilhan Omar is consistently in the news for her gaffes and misstatements on Twitter.
The more we hear about them, the more we think they're front and center.
And it may be that the more opportunity they get to speak, they will generate more support.
But plain and simple, the data shows us the Democrats are being fractured by those who want more left-leaning policy or more moderate policy.
And I think when we look at Mitch McConnell's position on pushing the Green New Deal to a vote, there's an obvious reason for it.
When the Democrats are forced to draw a line in the sand, it's going to reveal that split.
And it's going to put significant pressure on the 2020 Democrats, who are then going to have to choose which side they're going to take.
And if they take the wrong side, they may just lose out.
More importantly, I don't think it matters.
I don't think the vote on the Green New Deal matters at all.
The party is split, period.
That means no matter what these candidates do in 2020, they're facing an uphill battle, where conservatives are more likely to align around Donald Trump, and the progressives on the left don't know who they're going to vote for.
This may be my favorite example when talking about this issue.
This is from The Economist.
Far-left candidates did poorly in the Democratic primaries.
The vast majority of Democratic socialists lost to candidates approved by the party.
They say, candidates belonging to the moderate New Democrat coalition, or those endorsed by the party establishment, won 71 of their 78 primaries.
Jim Kessler of Third Way says that voters were looking for fresh faces, not necessarily for liberal ones.
And this graphic, if you follow my channel, you'll see me show time and time again.
Conservatives are centering around common ideas.
You can see the bell curve is very squarely in the middle.
Where over time, Democrats are being split.
And this shattering of the party is going to create a huge opportunity for Republicans to continue to win.
I believe there's a legitimate compromise.
I believe that moderate Democrats can push something forward that can help alleviate the problems of climate change while providing real incentives to Republicans to sign on.
Economic incentives, bolstering the economy, making us more internationally competitive.
But the left is more interested in pushing a bill that talks about equity and intersectional ideology instead of something that could work for everybody.
But as we've seen from Vox, many of the new Democrats in the House come from swing districts.
They're moderates.
That's great!
Let's put forth a plan that can benefit our country, that people can agree on, that we can actually get done.
Instead, we're looking at a bill that's loaded with ideology, whose fact page was rushed, pushed out to various news organizations, but then disavowed.
The whole thing became very confusing, and it seems like maybe they shouldn't vote on it, but if they do, I don't see how the Democrats can be unified around what the bill currently is.
Something needs to change.
But let me know what you think in the comments below.
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