Since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, working-class union members have been the backbone of the Democratic Party. The left claimed to advocate workers’ rights and was seen, rightly or wrongly, as the party who fought for the little guy.
Well if it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now—times have changed.
The election of Donald Trump to the presidency, aided by tens of thousands of Obama voters in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, was the first sign of a political realignment.
Now, the “Green New Deal” is highlighting these cleavages in stark terms, with the nation’s largest union organization forcefully coming out against it.
Last week, the AFL-CIO sent a letter to the bill’s lead sponsors—Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.—expressing its opposition to the proposal on behalf of the 13 million workers the union represents.
“The Green New Deal resolution is far too short on specific solutions that speak to the jobs of our members and the critical sections of our economy. It is not rooted in an engineering-based approach and makes promises that are not achievable or realistic,” wrote the AFL-CIO’s energy committee.
“We will not accept proposals that could cause immediate harm to millions of our members and their families. We will not stand by and allow threats to our members’ jobs and their families’ standard of living go unanswered.”
The AFL-CIO is absolutely right. The $93 trillion Green New Deal would bankrupt this country while throwing millions of Americans out of work. Unemployment and deficits would skyrocket, and energy shortages would plague our electric grid. These socialist policies would wreak havoc on our freedom and way of life, as they have done throughout history.
Proponents of the Green New Deal argue that all of these jobs will be replaced by “green” energy jobs, but it is unreasonable to expect these magical “green” jobs to even come close to replacing the millions of quality jobs we have in the energy industry right now.
This letter will not soon be forgotten. It represents a major shot across the bow of the far left by the working class of the traditional left. It’s made even more significant by the fact that Ocasio-Cortez has made a concerted effort to woo the labor movement.
Included in the Green New Deal resolution is a pledge to create “high-quality union jobs that pay prevailing wages.” Ocasio-Cortez also called for “strengthening and protecting the right of all workers to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain.” In other words, she took great pains to pre-emptively appeal to labor unions.
But the AFL-CIO correctly realized that her pledge is nothing more than hollow words. You cannot throw millions of people out of work and expect new jobs to fall from the sky.
That the AFL-CIO would attack her signature policy proposal with such critical language signals just how deeply workers feel threatened by it. And it is more evidence that big labor’s influence on the left is waning.
Major Democratic figures are lining up behind the Green New Deal, even as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and billionaire Michael Bloomberg express unease about it. It’s clear where the left is moving—and who’s being left out.
The union’s 13 million members are a vital grassroots asset for the left. In previous years, locking down this support would have been near the top of any Democrat’s priority list. Democrats still need their support. The question is whether they care enough about retaining that support to pull back from Ocasio-Cortez’s climate extremism.
If they choose the path of the Green New Deal, they will likely be rudely awakened to find that their once-reliable base has left them behind for a president who speaks to their needs.
Time will tell if major Democratic figures buckle on their support of the Green New Deal, but one thing is clear—we are living in fluid, ever-changing political times.
That’s ????great
Super divide the Left even more, depress impact on nation
Continue to pray for the United States of America, for our president, for our nation to be
secure and that God will awaken in us a new more fervent national cohesiveness. WE
need to be strong together. WE need our borders secure…. those who do not live in border
states may not see this onslaught of people who are being allowed in and being kept in by
time constraints and anchor babies. let them come… Let them come LEGALLY. Let the
left not use them for votes. Please pray for our nation.
Is Pelosi finally waking up?!
However there are a host of dems lining up for the presidents job. She will undoubtedly back one of them. But I haven’t seen one yet that is special that could win an election.
Democrats are losing black votes by the droves and there is nothing to win them back.
Illegal votes has done it so far and all the voter rolls are being looked at now I cant
Imagine why it took so long.
I am all for photo ID and please contact your reps to get this done!!!! This will stop illegals from voting and they are the only ones that kept the democrats in power!!!! Indiana even went through the Supreme Court to get it passed but have benefitted by the effort!
Act now!!!
I think the radical leftist progressives made their move too early, thank God. If they’d had a bit more patience and waited till they had a Democrat in the White House, they may have proven more successful. Given the current number of sorry Republicans in the Senate, I don’t think a Democrat majority would have been necessary. At the end of the day though, American voters must wake up and exercise some common sense and become educated on the issues. With a $22,000,000,000,000 (12 zeroes) national debt (and rising), the Democratic agenda calls for free education for all (after forgiving current college debt), free health care for all, and now a green new deal where we all live in a happy utopia. And our current enemies? Why, they will see our success and join us, right? Then we can make money turning guns into plow shares (because fossil fuel burning tractors will no longer exist). Imagine what our Founders would have to say about all this….
The Green New Deal is far worse than you can imagine. Our military runs on fossil fuel and nuclear energy. This would emasculate our military and put us at the mercy of the Russians and Chinese. Can you imagine a submarine with attached solar panels? Think!
Hopefully the “Democraps” will break into factions and fight with each other. If we’re lucky they’ll
split the party into three or four new parties and the Republicans can dominate
The Democrats don’t represent me or my needs, wants or desires.
This is an example of what is wrong in DC. With both parties. It is time we the people spoke, Term Limits, and wake them up that it IS NOT THE GOVERMENTS MONEY, it is our money submitted to fund or Nation. That welfare and bloated programs must go. Give back to the States what is the States, Education and a bunch of other programs need to go back to the states, then abolish the EPA and others.
Build the WALL, and here is a big on move the voting age back to 21, I was 21 my first tour in Viet Nam could not vote did not bother me a bit. I had other things on my mind other than voting, and politics was real low on the list really low on my list and stayed there till I was about 25 or so, (that was about my third tour in country).
Heavenly Father, I pray for those who have rejected You, your Word as well as for not acknowledging your blessings on this great Nation. Forgive them, restore them and teach us as a Nation to honor You Lord, your Son and to unite us as a country. Help us to extend mercy and grace as you have towards us; forgive our nation for it’s sins–Amen.
These Democrat Loons will ruin the economy and impoverish our once great nation if the voters don’t wake up! If the USA stopped the use of fossil fuels today, it would not cure (so called) climate change. Does anyone think that China, India, or any of the developing nations, all greater polluters than we, will follow our lead? Of course NOT!
Maybe the unions will eventually come to their senses and realize their support of the Democrat party is not in their best interest. Much like the miners in WVA.
Lots of turmoil within the DNC. Pelosi must be fuming over the attention that the three stooges (Cortez, Omar and Tlaib) are getting. The party of “circling wagons” are losing unity…GOOD!!!
I love the fact that the Dems scream when one of the deals that the president has made gets a hiccup while forgetting all the ones that have benefitted America’s labor force. And the simple fact that he has done so much to try to change the malaise of the Obama years. The unions would do well to give up their blind allegiance to the Dems and continue to build a long term alliance with the Republican Party.
“Green energy jobs”…Translation: Environmental work camps.
I hope our young College kids know what this Green Deal would do to our country and our jobs. i think the only people who would sign on such a bad thing is people who do not want to work or ever plan on working. They just want a free ride like all the illegals who sneak in our country by breaking our laws then expect our taxpaying Citizens to keep them and their families up. Cut out all the freebies and welfare for them and watch them run back to the border.
For all out there who read their Bibles, consider what Deuteronomy 28 says about a nation that is disobedient to God and forsakes Him. Debut 28:43-44 states “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail”. God’s hand of protection and providence is being, or has been, removed from this country. Unless this nation collectively asks for forgiveness and repents, God will not hear us and heal our land. His wrath is right at our doorstep. Repent! For the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness is coming very soon, and the wicked will have no place to hide!
Very interesting showing a significant opportunity! In the past, we have presumed these facts should help the Republicans. The stupid Republicans are too egotistical to understand that over half of their current base comes to them only because of President Donald J. Trump! This fact is driven home by the recent stupid statements by Jeb, Mitt, and the “Gang of Twelve” who just voted against The President, their own base, and the United States of America.
Wake-up AMERICA!! The only part of the Republican Party that cares about you, your opinions, and the United States of America is the group called today “FreedomWorks”. See freedom works.org!! The rest of the Republican Party is a mix of loser wimps who are “tools” for the Democrats/Communists and the “grumpy ole men” who are collaborators with the Democrats/Communists trying to establish the American “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”!!!
We need a true “Conservative Party”. The “Freedom/Conservative Party” consisting of the “FreedomWorks” Republicans, the few(?) “moderate” Democrats, and the Union Members will become the dominate political FORCE that will STOP the Communist Revolution that has almost destroyed our Constitution and replaced our Republic with a Socialist Dictatorship!!!
God gave us a President for all the people finally and by some severely hated but certainly not as many as some expect. With Prayer and Support we can again be a leader of the world .
The “Green New Deal” is of course a blunder of biblical proportions.
In addition to considering patience a sign of weakness Democrats have no sense of self-criticism..They have tunnel vision, a cognitive impairment and no hindsight.. They are monotonous recidivists who can’t see the forest for the trees.
The Green New Deal brings us to another apex in the World of political speculation, and heedless squandering of public resources… first and foremost of course is time.. which they attempt to monopolize mercilessly.
I remember, in my younger days, when a character in the movies or TV sold his soul to the devil for riches, fame, athletic ability, etc. Then one day it was time to pay the devil. Suddenly great regret and fear filled the person who had taken the devil’s deal. How else to explain what is going on with the new democratic party faction. Even the most obvious leaders of the party have taken the deal to guarantee their power, over that of the good of the American people. People need to wake up before the final pay back comes due. President Reagan once called the Soviet Union an “evil empire”. What is it going to take to wake up the courage in those that once had it, democrats and republicans, liberals, conservatives and most of all the new democratic ( LIBERAL) party.
This is not your Father’s Democratic Party. It’s a party of leftist and loons. I’m ashamed to be a part of the baby boomer generation. Our legacy will be the radicals of the 60s, drugs, sex, break-up of the traditional family unit, abortion on demand, rock’n roll and the destruction of the institutions of higher learning and much more. We will never match up to our parents legacy of the “Greatest Generation” that saved America!!!
The best weapon conservatives have is left wing overreach. (The reason it’s the best weapon is because Republicans don’t have to wield it.)
Note: For you casual readers out there, “conservative” and “republican” are NOT the same thing.
Many do not see the crisis we are in and thus do not responsibly act. I am at times discouraged by the number of people I meet (some Christians), who do not pay attention, do not want to know what is happening, do not pray, and some do not even vote. They do not take action (free online fax, write, petition) or donate to others who work on their behalf. God gave us marvelous brains, speech, thought, and a heart (passion), as well as, ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’. We, the people, in a Constitutional Republic have a duty to act and use these gifts as citizens. If we do not use, then we will lose. We do face a battle against generations of Americans that have been ‘influenced (propaganda) and are now truly ignorant . We are a people who have been overindulged and thus ungrateful. Arrogance has turned to insolence. Too many cannot ‘see their right hand from their left’, yet blindly march on. Mob (or $$) rule by these, (regressive socialists, anarchists, terrorists, ‘open (global) society), will not bring more freedom or a “better world”. It will bring only tyranny, (as history reveals), and now global tyranny is sought. Foreigners on the outside see this, and know it is a time when they can ‘divide and conquer’. So they finance and exploit the crisis.
George Washington once told his men, “we must all hang together, or we shall surely all hang separately.” That is a truth for us too. We need solidarity, and in that solidarity we can stand, pray, act, petition/protest in agreement. We may just see “mountains moved” (or in this case; walls built, laws enforced, order restored,….. ). Even if we don’t see ‘mountains moved’ and we remain a ragtag (old) army of patriots, may we be encouraged by the former patriot, George Washington. He saw the most deficient army marching with him – deficient in finance, in weapons, in numbers, in health (age), and even in clothing; and he feared the worst! Yet, he believed for the best, and was determined to ‘go the distance’. Americans led by Washington won, not by victory against the British, but by perseverance. Let’s ‘go the distance’.
Of course Union leadership will be hurt more by this than will the rank and file, but it is good to see that they realize the likelihood of the Bill passing as it is written is a bad deal for the USA as a whole. Caution must be exercised if the Bill begins gaining traction and looking at the changes will be an absolute necessity.
The left has no clue what’s going on. I almost feel sorry for AOC. She like Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have a whole lot going on upstairs. The Democratic Party is a dysfunctional organization. They have done nothing positive for this country since JFK.
Wake up union employees the Democratic Party is not for the working man all they are interested in is going Marxist. Many many years ago it was different but not any more.
Why doesn’t the UAW speak the truth or they Dumbocrats no matter what????????
I see the union put the wording right–there’s too little specific help given to workers–all the “New Green Deal” states is we need to create green jobs. Just like the need to create more energy-efficient cars, manufacturers of energy aren’t going to train or switch their present employees to these jobs while they are still making a massive profit. I am quite sure these jobs and technology are already in the works for many years now. But these leftist elites only want to pass rhetoric comments because it sounds good but noise doesn’t create jobs and jobs is what we need with good fair wages for the employees.
The Democratic /Republican Party have gone lunatic what an idiotic deal, are they going to swim to Europe/ Hawaii etc. besides
millions of jobs being lost in the US and worldwide. IDIOTS is all I can say. Idiot people who vote for them. Unfortunatly those of
us who still have any sense have to suffer with the consequences too. Wake up Americans before it is to late.
“Socialism is one of the most often expounded delusions and fallacies that has ever been elicited to. It consists not merely in a general leveling down of mankind, but in keeping them level once they have been beaten down.”
I t would be nice if you would explain what the “Green New Deal” is.
After reading this I found I have become Saintly….it scared the hell out of me!
The leadership (if they had any) would probably like to shelf the Green Deal but how can they, we only have 12 years before the end of the earth!
The idiots in the democratic party are going hard core to the criminal left! They are ruining the party and losing their traditional support of union members. I have worked around union members over the last few years and a large majority were fed up with the DNC, which made them vote for President Trump. Especially in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, etc. They think union leaders are corrupt, lost their ability and power to honestly negotiate contracts. They think union higher ups don’t represent or care about their members. Think the Clinton’s and associates are crooks. Looks like the DNC is self destructing!
There is no valid reasons to keep putting Marxist Democrats into power. Not ever! These people are through and through communists out for one thing only. The demise and destruction of these United States of America….PERIOD!
You cannot have people like this wielding the power. Not when they are hereby this hell bent upon implementing a policy that, to the tune of some 100 trillion dollars, intentionally bankrupts the nation thus forces hundreds of millions into disparity and suffering.
And do not for a minute ever forget how long they’ve been at trying to confiscate our firearms. These people should fear an armed society. If we lose that right, then we deserve to lose every other right as well.
I see another ‘use’ of the Green New Deal by the radical left/NWO. Being so radical, the Green New Deal can be disowned after causing a large rejection by most Americans and the current climate change agenda, going under several different titles, but all based on the UN’s Agenda 21/2030 total control oligarchy scam will be offered as benign alternative.
The Green New Deal should be called the Red New Deal. Like a watermelon, radical environmentalism is green on the outside but red on the inside. McCarthy was right. The communists and their “useful idiots” have penetrated the highest echelons of government — and society. God bless the President and his allies who are fighting against this evil nonsense.
And yet, when the elections come, these union members will still vote Democrat.
The Democrat Party has morphed into the Party of Radical Socialism And will not be tolerated by Republicans, Traditional Democrats, OR Moderates. It reeks of a terrible smell that is driving everyone but the most ignorant away.
I hope this translates into millions more new votes for Trump.
What is the “Green” in the “New Green Deal”? I assume this has to do with the color of most plants, suggesting environmental concern. Ok. This green comes from Chlorophyll which, with the energy from the sun’s UV energy, conmbines 6 molecules of H2O and 6 molecules of CO2 ===> Glucose, which is food for the plant. IOW, without CO2, “Green” would die. Oh, and the waste product of this chemical combination vital for Green plant life? Oxygen!
So doesn’t it make sense for the “Green New Deal” to be truly “Green”, the new deal really should ensure adequate CO2 is generated….shouldn’t it?
I would submit that since the time of wilson, then fdr..the “democrat” party has been working to destroy the Constitution and to turn the U.S. into a socialist/communist state with themselves in charge. Go back to the early 20th century American Progressives and their agenda…they want(ed) an all-white utopian society with themselves in charge. Every “social welfare” or “social justice” law or program passed has been in violation of the Constitution. Every liberal justice’s “opinion” based on “penumbras”, or “interpreting” the Constitution (ie, divining what the Framers meant IN ADDITION TO the plain English words they wrote) takes us further from a Republic. (For those who think SCOTUS or other federal courts are allowed to do that…read Article III. THAT enumerates the powers, and ONLY those powers the federal court system has).
Thomas Jefferson was right in his statements that unconstitutional laws, illegal laws, rules, etc. are not laws or rules at all, and could be “nullified” by just flat disobeying them. Individuals, cities, counties, juries, states have been doing that since shortly after the Constitution was adopted. ALL federal actions and laws must comport with the Constitution, NOT the other way around. The federal judiciary cannot “create rights” (think murdering babies through abortion or forcing states to accept gay marriage) when the federal government has NO standing in those issues (Read Amendment 10, then read the Constitution where the federal government has ANY authority in these issues.) The left has worked for around 100 years now to destroy the Republic. It’s time we fought back!
I swear the new green deal is one of the dumbest things ever I’ve seen come out of the democratic party. How can anyone take them seriously. Let’s get back to common sense folks.
So the Left is ‘breaking apart’ over the Green New Deal. Didn’t the bible say one of the Lord of Hosts’ tactics to protect His people was to sow confusion amongst their enemies? Trump 2020.
The Green New Deal is just more handouts of the DIMMs party animal, Francis the Talk’n Jackass, they have made sure the mules road apple are readily available to all that want to consume them…..after all they are organic…….(?)..Remember all the crap sandwiches handed out by the Fraud in the WH….Barry Sotero…..this is the newest cut of the old songs….
What do you think the probability is for unionized America to realize that their bonafide right to organize, especially where there may be justification for it, would be protected more wisely under a republican leadership (i.e. adminstration) than it would be under the crazy left; resulting in them voting for Trump or other responsible and wise conservative candidate? Intriguing thought, and I hope not too far from reality.
Is AOC really a legal congresswoman since she was cast at a Casting Call as a ” congresswoman?” So why is she being allowed to promote her Green New Deal and who is going to wind up paying for it…are the politicians who are in favor of her “unreal deal” willing to step up to the plate when the time comes to pay for it all, and use their salaries to pay for it since by then most of the working people will be out of work and living in poverty? We all know it is not for free by a long shot!!!! These people love to come out with their own freakish ideas of how our country should be run but don’t have precise answers as to who will end up paying for it. AOC’s idea sounds like she wants to reintroduce the covered wagons or have everyone use their legs for transportation since she wants to get rid of everything that makes our country work!!!! If AOC is an impersonator, then I wouldn’t put much credence in her out-of-this-world ideas…………she should be removed from office and let a real congressperson replace her.