A Successfully Unsuccessful Green New Deal

By Kimia Faroughi

Last year, the United Nations gave us until 2030 to put drastic policy measures in place to reduce climate change before the point of no return is reached.

This means that within the next 11 years, domestic and international political conflicts must be put aside, and the world must agree on climate change policy to ensure the health and well-being of our world. This is no small feat. In February of 2019, the United States got a little closer to achieving this goal. Senators Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey unveiled their proposal to combat climate change, while at the same time establish comprehensive social reform: the Green New Deal.

The Green New Deal is almost a liberal fantasy as it lays out a 10-year plan of moving the U.S. economy completely off of fossil fuels, reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions significantly, creating jobs, establishing universal health care, increasing wages, and more. Its name stems from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s series of social reforms passed during the Great Depression to pull the U.S. out of economic despair.

The resolution is clearly extremely comprehensive and, consequently, extremely polarizing. While many 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, such as Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, and environmental activist groups have endorsed the Green New Deal, Republicans have labeled the Green New Deal as “garden-variety 20th-century socialism.” This means that while the intention of the Green New Deal was to improve the environmental and social condition of the country, the debate around it has quickly, much like anything else in the government, become about party politics.

Because the Green New Deal is extremely popular among the American public, especially among younger voters, Democrats are siding with the resolution. For the GOP, the Green New Deal has become a way of causing tensions within the Democratic Party. With presidential elections coming up and many Democratic candidates in the field, climate change policy will obviously be a major talking point in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently put the Green New Deal to a vote in the Senate as a way to get Democratic senators, many of whom are 2020 candidates, to solidify their positions on climate change reform.

The intentions behind McConnell’s political move were clear. Republicans are vehemently opposed to a resolution as ambitious and comprehensive as the Green New Deal and, since they hold a majority in the Senate, there would be no chance that it would pass. The Senate vote would, therefore, not help the Green New Deal gain any traction within the government, and was more likely used to pressure Senate Democrats.

Predictably, the resolution did not pass and received a 57 to 0 vote. All Senate Republicans and a few Democrats voted “no,” while most Senate Democrats voted “present” attempting to acknowledge and avoid McConnell’s political tactic.

As a piece of legislation, the future of the Green New Deal does not look bright. However, the Green New Deal has brought the issue of climate change and climate change reform to the forefront of American politics. Many Republican government officials who refused to even acknowledge the existence of climate change a few years ago have now stated that climate change is certainly happening. Even though they are strongly opposed to the Green New Deal, this is a major step towards effective climate change reform. Some Republicans have even put forward their own climate change proposals.

So, while the Green New Deal was unsuccessful in the government, the conflict and debate that has surrounded the resolution for the past few months have brought the issue of climate change to an unprecedented position in American politics. Ultimately, the threat that climate change presents on the U.S. and the rest of the world goes beyond political party affiliation. If something like the Green New Deal has brought climate change reform closer to being a bipartisan issue, then it can be considered a success.

[Sources: scidev.net, washingtonpost.com, thehill.com, nytimes.com, politico.com]