The Green New Deal/ The Birth of a Notion: Slouching toward Suburbia Part 3
The Green New Deal is the title of a story that’s yet to be written. It being a work in progress is both blessing and curse.
American politics
How to Take on Fascism without Getting Played
The growth of polarization makes it possible for haters to come out from the margins, form larger groups and make political trouble. Why is polarization increasing now, with the accompanying growth of fascist groups?
Climate and the New House Majority: Slouching Towards Suburbia (Part 2)
Climate change is once again in the public eye having hitched a ride on the coattails of newly elected Congressional candidates swept into office by November’s blue wave. The buzz is palpable, even though the most avid climate hawk knows that no major environmental legislation will be passed by Congress and signed into law before the 2020 national elections.
Why You Couldn’t Find Big Media Coverage of Haaland and Davids
The hunger for validation from the legacy press of the authentic Indigenous narrative is no longer a hunger but a famine imposed on our very democracy; that to understand the story of this great nation can not be done without including the Indigenous narrative.
Slouching Towards Suburbia The In-Between Green Constituency (Part 1)
Correlating the poll data with the outcomes of the 2018 midterms leads easily to the conclusion that America’s suburbs will be the battlefields on which the 2020 election will be fought.
The Religion of American Politics
We each in our way must do what we can, even in the absence of faith, to make our future tenable. We can’t expect others to take care of us. We can’t expect solutions. But we can treat others with respect and dignity…the way we all want to be treated.
The Flight from Nature
Thus one of the things that I want to explore in posts to come is how we got into ways of thought that treat modern industrial lifestyles as normal and desirable—how people in the industrial world, that is, got caught up in a self-defeating attempt to escape from nature, when human beings are at once inescapably dependent on nature and inescapably part of nature—and how that frankly bizarre habit might be swapped out for something saner.
COP24 or COP-OUT-24? When Nations Don’t Play Well with Others
The Paris Accord was truly historic in its having gotten 195 nations to agree to it. In this day and age getting any agreement between nations on a matter as politically sensitive as climate change ranks as a minor miracle. Getting everyone of the nations to live up to the agreement is quite another matter.
The Demise of the Official Future
I have long argued that people’s concerns about modern life and the future have been poorly reflected in politics, and it is this that lies behind the unease and disenchantment in the electorate, not just the conduct of politicians and the merits of specific policies.
War of Words
Coming from a pacifist background, and obsessed with linguistics, I’ve grown uneasy with the way war shapes our words. The thought struck me earlier this year: By pitting one group against another, do war metaphors undermine our ability to address the complex problem of climate change, the biggest global crisis we face?
Unwinding Democracy: What It Means for Climate Change
Democracy survives by the consent of the governed. It requires rules that are fair, just and followed—by everyone. Should the three branches ever become one, democracy will be lost.
Green New Deal: A Bold Vision for America’s Future
On Tuesday 13th November 2018, a group of young climate activists descended on the office of Nancy Palosi, expected to lead the Democrats in the US Congress. They were demanding that she set up a special committee to create a proper climate action plan for the country – a Green New Deal.
