In a new, seven minute animated video from The Intercept, narrated by and starring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) we are transported, via an NYC to DC bullet train, into the future. It is 2028, and what a world it is. On the downside, Hurricane Sheldon at some point left significant portions of Miami underwater, but on the bright side, former oil workers are planting mangroves under the direction of Native American elders. No, I’m not making this up.
Climate change is here + we’ve got a deadline: 12 years left to cut emissions in half.
A #GreenNewDeal is our plan for a world and a future worth fighting for.
How did we get here?
What is at stake?
And where are we going?Please watch & share widely ⬇️pic.twitter.com/IMCtS86VXG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 17, 2019
The style of the video is a paintbrush quickly illustrating page after page of the glorious Green New Deal. In fact, we are told, after Democrats take back the Senate and White House in 2020, it will usher in the decade of the Green New Deal, transforming not only the climate, but also, in fact more importantly, the economy. In fact, we are told it will change everything. There will be guaranteed jobs, Medicare for All (promised to be the most popular program of all time), and all the gummy bears you can eat. Okay, I made the last part up.
At the top, we are given a survey course of climate change science over the last 40 years and introduced to the evil oil companies and corrupt politicians who worked to silence the brave scientists. This pretty much brings us to today. The Green New Deal has been proposed, but its too big, too fast, say the naysayers, clearly being chided. As mentioned above, the proponents of the Green New Deal succeed.
The biggest problem, we are told, after the government takes over half the economy is a labor shortage, which kind of makes the guaranteed jobs stuff not make a lot of sense, but whatever. Next we hear about the universal childcare initiative, presumably some situation where the government raises your kid. We find out that “caring for others is valuable, low carbon work.” Okay. Meanwhile every building in America is being retrofitted for renewable energy, a process that would likely expend more carbon than it reduces.
By the end, a young woman from Ocasio-Cortez’s district who apparently in the space of 10 years went from working for AmeriCorps, to becoming an engineer, and then a teacher, successfully runs for Congress in 2028. Guess whose seat she wins? Yep. So where does that leave Ocasio-Cortez? Senator maybe? Who are we kidding; this voiceover from the future is coming straight from the oval office.
I have to admit. This is a great piece of political propaganda. For Republicans. If I was advising a GOP candidate in a swing district, I’d tell them not to run any TV ads but just buy blocks of time to show this bizarre dystopian vision of a country that could not be less like our own. There is no individual ambition. There is no small business. There aren’t even any families. All is provided for by mother state. When you understand that this what the socialists in the Democratic Party really want, it’s actually quite chilling.
What is so great about this short film is how obviously clear it makes it that the Green New Deal is not about climate change. If it were, nuclear energy would play a prominent role. Why doesn’t it? Because nuclear energy doesn’t require the government to take over free markets willy nilly. And that is what the Green New Deal is really all about. This is a video that should be shown far and wide since it unwittingly exposes the folly that is the Green New Deal far better than any of its opponents could ever hope to.
