https://socialistaction.org/2019/04/02/democrats-fail-symbolic-vote-on-green-new-deal/
Democrats fail symbolic vote on Green New Deal
/ 22 hours ago
April 2019 Green New Deal (Peg Hunter)By GRAHAM ROGERS
The political theater of the U.S. Congress lurched through yet another
performance on March 26, as the Senate decisively rejected a bill put
forth by Republican Senator Mitch McConnell that copied Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez’s and Senator Ed Markey’s February non-binding resolution
calling for a Green New Deal. Forty-three Democrats, including all
Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate, voted “present” on the
measure—in effect, abstaining—while four Democrats crossed the aisle and
joined all 53 Republican Senators in voting against.
Democrats’ efforts to downplay the vote as a bad-faith tactic on the
part of the Republicans could not cover up the fact that the tactic
appears to have worked—the Democratic Party’s lack of commitment to
climate action was revealed once again.
The premise of the Green New Deal is that immediate, drastic,
large-scale action is needed to address climate change and its impending
environmental and social catastrophes. The Green New Deal’s proponents
invoke the original New Deal of the 1930s, which helped alleviate the
Great Depression until the U.S. entry into World War II ended it, as the
model for a massive state intervention to address social crises. The
initiative is being spearheaded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and
endorsed by all the Democratic presidential frontrunner candidates.
The actual policy content of the Green New Deal is still under
development, but its broad outlines were sketched in a resolution
introduced in February by Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey. The
resolution established two interconnected crises of climate change and
economic inequality, and called for a 10-year national mobilization in
order to address them. The resolution laid out goals of overhauling the
country’s infrastructure and industry along sustainable lines, creating
millions of well-paying jobs, addressing systemic injustices against
marginalized communities, and securing access to clean air, water, food,
and nature for all citizens.
The resolution went on to outline a series of projects that would
achieve those goals, including a federal jobs guarantee; full rights of
workers to unionize and collectively bargain; the decarbonization of
industry, agriculture, and transportation; just transition programs for
workers in disrupted industries; programs for universal healthcare,
education, and housing; and public financing and community wealth-building.
There is plenty to appreciate within even this rough sketch of the Green
New Deal’s proposals. Revolutionary socialists support a rapid, thorough
conversion to green energy, green transportation, sustainable
agriculture, and a just, environmentally sustainable economy. To the
credit of the Green New Deal’s architects, many of its proposed programs
fall squarely within this paradigm and are of inarguable benefit to the
working class. However, there are critical differences between the
solutions favored by liberals and progressives (including the
“Democratic Socialist” wing of the Democratic Party), and those promoted
by revolutionary socialists.
At the heart of these differences lies a difference in perspective on
the nature of the crisis. The Green New Deal’s “progressive” proponents
point to “bad actors” within an economic system that they consider
otherwise fundamentally sound, and endorse an electoral strategy through
which the Democratic Party can be won to a program that fundamentally
challenges capitalist profit prerogatives. They even claim that a green
sustainable future can be built without challenging those prerogatives.
Revolutionary socialists, in contrast, understand the problem to lie
within the nature of capitalism itself—particularly its imperatives of
constant expansion and the pursuit of profit over human needs. The
system cannot function without riding roughshod over social, political,
and environmental limits alike, and this tendency cannot be reformed
away. From the socialist perspective, therefore, a strategy that relies
on the pro-capitalist Democratic Party to implement an anti-capitalist
program is fundamentally flawed.
It cannot be emphasized enough that climate change is a threat to the
continuation of human civilization and possibly the human species, and
that action even more substantial than the scale envisioned by the Green
New Deal is needed for there to be even a hope of survival. Today the
ambient global temperature stands at 1°C above the pre-industrial
average—a seemingly negligible increase that has nevertheless brought a
host of observable negative effects.
Seventeen of the 18 hottest years on record have occurred since the year
2000. Storms, droughts, and floods have increased in frequency and
strength. Arctic sea ice loss has destabilized the polar jet stream,
causing the polar vortex phenomenon that brought sub-Antarctic
temperatures to parts of the Midwest this past winter. Half the world’s
coral reefs have died in the last 30 years, due largely to rising ocean
temperatures and acidity levels. The UN Food & Agriculture Organization
reports billions of dollars in losses in the global agricultural
industry due to weather abnormalities, a figure that is rising
exponentially. All of these factors, and more, point to a planetary
climate system that has already been pushed to the brink.
The latest emerging climate science gives us little cause for
reassurance. The voluntary agreements offered by the signatories of the
2015 Paris Agreement, even if followed, put us on a track to 4-5°C of
warming by the end of the century. The environmental effects of this
level of warming will be catastrophic. Scenarios for these levels of
warming already predict the drowning of coastal areas and the
displacement of millions who inhabit them; the collapse of agriculture
across Africa and the American Midwest, and the extension of permanent
drought across densely inhabited areas such as southern Europe; and an
80-90% reduction in the total human population as the ecosystems on
which we depend unravel under the pressures of rapid environmental
change. These realities, which are set to unfold over a matter of
decades, add up to an existential threat to human civilization that must
be confronted and addressed.
In the face of this emerging reality, the two dominant bourgeois parties
continue to choose petty partisan theater over a committed, principled
response. The March 26 Senate vote was a manifest example. Republican
Senators stood by their party’s stance of climate science denial and
openly derided the Green New Deal concept. McConnell himself called it a
“far left science fiction novel” while his colleague Mike Lee mocked the
proposal with images of tauntauns, Aquaman, and Ronald Reagan wielding a
machine gun while riding a dinosaur.
The Democrats, for their part, could not bring themselves to show even
symbolic support. This bizarre failure to maintain a consistent
position—especially on a non-binding resolution with zero legislative
consequences—should raise serious alarms for anyone expecting the
Democratic Party to be the vehicle of salvation from climate
catastrophe. How are we to square the circle of a party that claims the
Green New Deal as its own yet fumbles the first opportunity to walk its
own talk?
These postures, far from demonstrating a strong position against their
political opponents, merely waste time and energy we can scarcely
afford. Democratic leaders criticized McConnell for attempting to
“create division” within the party, when in truth, he merely revealed
divisions that already exist between its nascent progressive wing and
its entrenched neoliberal leadership. They demonstrate the underlying
schizophrenia of the Democratic Party establishment—outward lip service
to climate action and social justice belied by thinly veiled loyalty to
capitalist prerogatives and an obsession with the electoral capture of
power.
The Green New Deal, especially in its current developing form, will be a
contested terrain where all of the conflicting interests in society will
clash. It will attract those who genuinely understand the need for a
deep reorganization of society in order to survive the coming climate
gauntlet. It will attract those who prefer the Green New Deal as a
cynical means to channel environmentalists towards the ballot box. And
it will be opposed at every step by the forces of capital, which are
hostile to any challenge to their prerogative to amass wealth at the
planet’s expense.
The outcome of that clash—and the capacity of the Green New Deal to
deliver on its potential—will depend fundamentally on the class nature
of the struggle. Effective climate action lies in the working class
organizing in a powerful, independent movement capable of asserting its
own will—not in hoping that bourgeois politicians will change their
spots. The salvation of humanity rests on the vast majority entering the
struggle with their own independent organizations and building a mass
power that cannot be denied.
Photo: Peg Hunter / Flickr / via KALW
Share this:
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
19Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)19
April 2, 2019 in Democratic Party, Environment. Tags: climate change
Related posts
Challenges posed by the ‘Green New Deal’
New York Democrats shower Amazon with $billions
Midterm elections: Democrats’ ‘blue wave’ falls short
Post navigation
← Ilhan Omar: Anti-Zionist comments smeared as anti-Semitic
Get Involved!
Donate to help support our work
Get email updates
Join Socialist Action
Newspaper Archives
Newspaper Archives Select Month April 2019 (1) March 2019 (13)
February 2019 (10) January 2019 (16) December 2018 (12) November
2018 (15) October 2018 (10) September 2018 (8) August 2018 (12) July
2018 (13) June 2018 (11) May 2018 (19) April 2018 (15) March 2018
(17) February 2018 (14) January 2018 (13) December 2017 (13) November
2017 (13) October 2017 (16) September 2017 (15) August 2017 (16)
July 2017 (17) June 2017 (16) May 2017 (17) April 2017 (14) March
2017 (13) February 2017 (19) January 2017 (13) December 2016 (12)
November 2016 (19) October 2016 (12) September 2016 (10) August 2016
(10) July 2016 (14) June 2016 (14) May 2016 (9) April 2016 (12)
March 2016 (14) February 2016 (8) January 2016 (11) December 2015
(11) November 2015 (9) October 2015 (8) September 2015 (10) August
2015 (7) July 2015 (13) June 2015 (9) May 2015 (10) April 2015 (12)
March 2015 (9) February 2015 (11) January 2015 (10) December 2014
(12) November 2014 (11) October 2014 (9) September 2014 (6) August
2014 (10) July 2014 (11) June 2014 (10) May 2014 (11) April 2014
(10) March 2014 (9) February 2014 (11) January 2014 (11) December
2013 (10) November 2013 (11) October 2013 (17) September 2013 (13)
August 2013 (10) July 2013 (11) June 2013 (15) May 2013 (14) April
2013 (14) March 2013 (12) February 2013 (10) January 2013 (17)
December 2012 (7) November 2012 (8) October 2012 (19) September 2012
(2) August 2012 (27) July 2012 (18) June 2012 (3) May 2012 (19)
April 2012 (14) March 2012 (17) February 2012 (19) January 2012 (17)
December 2011 (3) November 2011 (33) October 2011 (14) September
2011 (13) August 2011 (34) July 2011 (24) June 2011 (19) May 2011
(19) April 2011 (15) March 2011 (15) February 2011 (15) January 2011
(15) December 2010 (17) November 2010 (1) October 2010 (6) September
2010 (3) August 2010 (8) July 2010 (7) June 2010 (2) May 2010 (10)
April 2010 (3) March 2010 (8) February 2010 (3) January 2010 (9)
December 2009 (6) November 2009 (5) October 2009 (16) September 2009
(3) August 2009 (2) July 2009 (5) June 2009 (2) May 2009 (7) April
2009 (6) March 2009 (16) February 2009 (9) January 2009 (10) December
2008 (11) November 2008 (8) October 2008 (16) September 2008 (14)
August 2008 (18) July 2008 (12) June 2008 (3) May 2008 (2) April
2008 (3) March 2008 (14) February 2008 (11) January 2008 (11)
December 2007 (8) November 2007 (1) July 2007 (1) June 2007 (1)
April 2007 (1) March 2007 (1) February 2007 (3) December 2006 (11)
November 2006 (11) October 2006 (13) September 2006 (15) August 2006
(11) July 2006 (18) June 2006 (7) May 2006 (14) April 2006 (6) March
2006 (14) February 2006 (5) January 2006 (2) December 2005 (9)
November 2005 (8) October 2005 (13) September 2005 (12) August 2005
(9) July 2005 (16) June 2005 (16) May 2005 (16) April 2005 (12)
March 2005 (14) February 2005 (19) January 2005 (15) December 2004
(14) November 2002 (17) October 2002 (19) September 2002 (22) August
2002 (21) July 2002 (15) May 2002 (21) April 2002 (21) February
2002 (15) January 2002 (15) December 2001 (17) October 2001 (24)
September 2001 (18) July 2001 (19) June 2001 (18) October 2000 (17)
September 2000 (21) August 2000 (19) July 2000 (16) June 2000 (26)
May 2000 (21) April 2000 (22) March 2000 (28) February 2000 (18)
January 2000 (20) December 1999 (20) November 1999 (26) October 1999
(25) September 1999 (18) August 1999 (40) July 1999 (38) June 1999
(24) May 1999 (27) April 1999 (25) March 1999 (26) February 1999
(29) January 1999 (24) July 1998 (12)
Search
View socialistactionusa’s profile on Facebook
View SocialistActUS’s profile on Twitter
View SocialistActionCT’s profile on YouTube
Subscribe to Our Newspaper
Upcoming Events
No upcoming events
Category Cloud
Actions & Protest Africa Anti-War Arts & Culture Black Liberation Canada
Caribbean Civil Liberties Cuba East Asia Economy Education & Schools
Elections Environment Europe Immigration Indigenous Rights International
Labor Latin America Latino Civil Liberties Marxist Theory & History
Middle East Palestine Police & FBI Prisons South Asia Trump / U.S.
Government Uncategorized Women's Liberation
View Calendar
Blog at WordPress.com.
Follow
--
---
Christopher Hitchens
“ What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
”
― Christopher Hitchens,