Saturday, January 19, 2019

Why Now for the Green New Deal...


…and what is the motivation behind it?  Over the last few weeks, there has been a good deal of talk about the Green New Deal.  Most of the attention was spurred by the comments from the new diva of the House, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. But as the initiative has become more prominent, it has become adopted by more and more Democrats.  In fact, many of the aspiring 2020 Democratic Presidential Nominees have indicated varying degrees of support for the Green New Deal.  One wonders…What exactly is this Green New Deal?  Several liberal organizations penned a memo proposing the Green New Deal on January 10 of this year and delivered it to the House.  Here it is: http://foe.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Progressive-Climate-Leg-Sign-On-Letter-2.pdf.  Short on specifics and long on rainbows, the text of the letter sounds to me like what we have been hearing from the Left for many years now.  I find it extremely interesting to look at the sponsors of the memo listed at the bottom of the document.  I did a bit of research to try and find out who the ones from my state were and I suggest you do the same.  The message of saving the world from itself is neither new nor novel.  The larger question to me is why now?

Why pursue this rescue the planet recipe now…while the U.S. economy is running like a well-oiled machine?  While unemployment is at historical lows for most demographics?  While paychecks are actually growing and employers are bidding against each other for quality employees?  While we are actually withdrawing U.S. military assets from the Middle East morass?  While the manufacturing sector of our nation is once again investing in long-term production efforts and employment?  While we can see firsthand in our own communities how business and industry is shaking off the dust and decay of the Obama years and beginning to rise from recession’s ashes? 

One might also wonder…Why now, when the Democrats had a super majority in Congress for the first two years of Obama and could have passed any…ANY…piece of legislation their little ole liberal hearts desired?  Why now, when they know there is absolutely no prospect of ultimately approving these initiatives with Trump in the White House and the Republicans controlling the Senate?  There can be only one logical explanation for this curious combination of timing and activism.  It is purely political.

The Good Lord knows that the Republican Party is far from perfect.  At times, they are downright disgusting, incompetent, hypocritical, and scared to death of appearing to be something other than that which the polls tell them they should be.  They preach and preen when in the minority and then cower and surrender when they achieve the majority.  But for all of their many and obvious flaws, they have not sunk to the ethical depths which the Democratic Party now inhabits.  

From a policy standpoint, the Democratic Party is bankrupt; and they show no interest whatsoever in reconsidering that position.  At some point in the Obama Administration, perhaps during the outrageous and abnormal legislative adventures of Obamacare, the Democrats decided two things would drive their Party for the foreseeable future.  They willingly gave over the fundamental control and leadership of the Party to the extreme Left members of their movement.  This was achieved by both the political proactivism of the liberal segments and the cowardly inactivism of the moderate segments.  What the leadership of the Republican Party did when confronted with a radical agenda from its right was to recognize them, battle them, debate them, and placate them; but never to surrender effective control of the Party to them.   Across the aisle, the Democrat Party laid down in full surrender to the onslaught of liberal thought and policy.  They fully embraced the beast of liberal self-righteousness and all-knowing arrogance at the expense of any common sense and civilly open-minded moderate members. 

This laissez faire approach from a policy-driven agenda in favor of an ideological agenda has dire consequences.  Every day brings with it a new and wider view of the absolute corruption that occurred in the wicked matrix of the Obama DOJ, the mainstream media, and the Democratic Party.  Whether or not the entire sordid story comes out depends on whether or not Trump is elected to a second term.  The Democrats and the guilty parties involved have effectively strung out the exposure of their efforts and can likely manage to stay beneath the covers for another two years...but six will be a reach.  If history has any shred of credibility, it will clearly show that the so-called Trump-Russia Collusion fairy tale was the result of the most despicable and irresponsible abuse of power  by government officials in the history of our country.  What they did under the guise of government power infected with arrogant ideology is nothing short of Kremlinesque.  And on top of that abhorrent behavior, they have the arrogance to accuse the Trump Administration of trying to do exactly what they actually did.  Incredibly, this farce is treated as somehow normal by the media.  

The Democratic Party must be better than this.  If they aspire to ever stand again as the legitimate national political entity that they have traditionally been; one that espouses a particular philosophy of government, law, and regulation…then they must rise above this in a public way.  I still wait for some Democrat somewhere, somehow, and someday soon, to stand up and condemn this entire, reeking episode for what it is.  Lynch, Comey, Clapper, Brennan, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Rice, and their entire little cabal need to be exposed and branded for the rascals that they are.  People have to understand that calling them out on what they did does NOT promote Trump to some kind of saint status.  He is and remains the flawed President that he is.  But even considering his failings as President and whatever the weaknesses with his policies might be, there is absolutely no justification nor authority in our constitution or law for what the Deep State Democrats did.   Quite simply, they subverted our government through their appointed positions of trust in an attempt to implement their own, personal political philosophies.   They placed their own private concerns over those of the nation and our laws and regulations.  They were a rot and decay in our culture and the fact that they are still basically unexposed and unapologetic is an insult to every single citizen of America. 

At its essence, this is not a Democrat or Republican chapter of government abuse.  It is a sad story of personal character failings, an abandonment of ethics and morals by individuals in positions of power, and the surrender to the ideal of personal opinion over the rule of reason and law.  To me, Lois Lerner, the renegade ex-head of the IRS, will always be the poster child for this bunch.  As a retired federal employee, it still galls me beyond description that she was allowed to arrogantly plead the fifth before a Congressional Oversight Committee and today she draws a government pension.  If Donald Trump accomplishes nothing else as President, he must somehow flush the sewage that still exists in the Department of Justice.  I hope and pray that once confirmed, Attorney General Nominee William Barr will be the man that can do that.  You want more substance about the so-called Mueller Investigation; the one where, amazingly, the people doing the investigating are the ones who actually committed the actions being investigated?…then check out these two posts…



THIS is why we must not give absolute power to the government to spy on US citizens.  Our government, specifically the people who administer our government and the rogue Federal Judges who adjudicate that law, cannot be trusted with authority to look into the private lives of Americans based on their whims, ideals, and political philosophies.  The FISA system is not capable of effectively screening out the potential abuses as we have seen in this specific case.  It is a weapon far too powerful for our government to possess.

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This is where we are today.  The Democratic Party will have one of two different responses to any current policy question.  One will be to automatically reject any Republican (read that “Trump”) position out of hand with no alternative proposal.  The other will be to simply turn the question over to the Liberal mob that controls the Party these days for a Looney Tunes reply that has little credibility and less chance of reality.  The result of this approach to governing is the Democratic Party that we see daily in our government, our media, our society, and most of all of in our culture.   That result being partisan acrimony, venom, obstruction, and extreme policy proposals with no prospect of consensus. 

The Democrats, like the Republicans before them in the Obama days, have rather enjoyed their minority position in government and how the promises made from that vantage point carry little expense because of their infinitesimal likelihood.  When graced with the opportunity to fully implement their political agendas, Republicans and Democrats alike betray their rhetoric and high-minded goals.  Instead, they feast upon the carcasses of their defeated opponents, gloat from their high positions of power and authority, and bark incessantly about how serious they are about solving the ingrained problems of America…while actually doing nothing about it. 

Oh they have their moments.  The Democrats passed their Obamacare and the Republicans passed their Tax Reform.   But they both choked on the big ideas.  The Democrats could have passed any type of Immigration Reform they wanted…but they didn’t.  Instead of passing a health care initiative that they hoped would eventually lead to a single-payer system, they could have simply passed a single-payer system…but they didn’t.  The Republicans could have repealed Obamacare and replaced it with their own glorious concept of a health care system…but they didn’t.  The Republicans could have passed appropriations bills that would have foreclosed any opportunity, or necessity, for a government shutdown…but they didn’t.  The point is this: Talking about governing and actually governing are two entirely different things.  What a Party says when it is in minority status cannot be relied upon to be an indicator of what they will actually do when they reach majority status.  Politicians are liars.  Some lie with malice and intent.  Some lie as a result of willful naiveté.  Some lie because they are stupid.  But they all lie.  They lie most deceptively when they are in the minority.  They lie most obviously when they are in the majority. 

The Green New Deal is a version of Liberal nirvana that has a better home in comic books than in reality.  The Liberal fanatics in the House and Democratic Party may propose it, preach it, anoint it, support it, and may even pass a piece or two of it in legislative form.  They know that whatever they do about it will never be fruitful as long as Trump is in the White House and Majority Leader McConnell is in the Senate.  But if in 2020, a Democrat is elected to succeed Trump in the White House, and perhaps the Democrats even manage to regain control of the Senate…does anyone believe for one moment this Green New Deal will magically come together as the panacea for civilization?  Not…too…damn…likely.

Clarification Footnote…I am certain that certain portions of this post will be interpreted as partisan in a Republican sense.  That is not my intention and I am frankly uncomfortable with that position.  I have been and remain an Independent and try my best to tread a path between the philosophies and actions of the two major political parties.  Both have some good ideas and both have some idiotic ideas.  Both are populated by sinners as well as saints.  But the plain and simple truth is that the specific episode addressed in this post occurred under a Democratic President and was perpetrated by Democrats.  It is also a fact that the Democratic Party remains unwillingly to label these pathetic individuals the villains that they truly are.  As long as the Democratic Party continues to remain either silent or supportive of these actions and these people; they are part and parcel with them.  If you lie down with the dogs, you are a canine.  Democrats…put away your pettiness and bring out your policy swords.  Battle Trump with ideals; not carnival pranks.

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