In a cynical ploy to divide Democrats, Mitch McConnell promised this week that he would bring the Green New Deal to a floor vote in the Senate. While Chuck Schumer is pledging to hold his caucus together, red staters like Joe Manchin are taking the bait. In an interview with The Undercurrent, the senator derided the ambitious climate change legislation as a dream, saying that he has "to deal with the facts on the Energy Committee."
The facts? The facts are that humankind is facing a dire crisis of its own making, and that President Trump and his GOP enablers are doing everything in their power to exacerbate it. The Green New Deal may be ambitious, but ambition is what a crisis of this magnitude calls for. Walking on the moon was once a dream, but American tenacity and innovation made it a reality.
And majorities in both parties increasingly want the government to take substantive action to address global warming. McConnell thinks he’s being really clever holding this vote, but he's handing Democrats a huge opportunity to draw a stark contrast in values between the parties going into 2020. They would be wise to take his gift. The Green New Deal may not be perfect, but it’s a bold bid for the future of this country and the planet.
To borrow from Langston Hughes, what happens to a Green Dream deferred? There's too much at stake for the Democratic Party to risk finding out.
