I had drastically underestimated the extent to which the “Green New Deal” was not a New-Deal for Green, but instead an FDR-style reinvestment in the American people. This isn’t a deal for green, or for energy – this is a new deal for everyone.
The Green New Deal includes provisions for strengthening unions and the right of workers to organize. It includes strengthening labor standards across all industries. It demands an end to the broken promises of the indigenous people of this country. It establishes that we must provide all people of the United States with high quality health care, affordable housing, and economic security, and includes a provision for a federal jobs guarantee.
These projects are not about “green”. They are about a nationwide mobilization to fix the broken promises to the American people, especially “frontline and vulnerable communities” like communities of color, indigenous populations, people with disabilities, and the unhoused.
This is a fundamental attempt to shake-up and repair the broken promises to all of the people of the United States, bringing more of us into an era of prosperity, and using that effort to mitigate the oncoming climate disaster. Regardless of where it goes, to me, this particular resolution feels hopeful – something I can say about almost no other bill or resolution I’ve seen in the past decade.