Fear Of The Green New Deal
Fear of the Green New Deal plays right into the Republican wheelhouse of demagoguery. Whenever the GOP needs votes it always turns to its ace in the hole — fear-of. And that fear-of is ground zero of the human mind. More precisely I refer to the negative tribal impulse (fear of the other) that springs from the foundation of the primitive mind — the ego.
Usually the less educated, the less sophisticated and the less worldly one is the less influence one has over one’s irrational notions and fears of life. Thus within this type of being the negative tribal impulse is free to run wild, making it easy pickings for Republican operatives.
This is so much so that the sly Republican majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is already licking his chops, rushing to put some sort of Green New Deal referendum up for a vote, just so he can bring attention to it. For the normally ever so dour McConnell, he seems ready to explode with joyous excitement at the prospect.
Now, I don’t know if the Democratic left fully understands the nature of the vulnerability of what it is that they are pushing, because the left always seems blinded by intellect — that rational part of the mind capable of overriding the more reptilian ego. They passionately believe that because something makes perfect sense that others should automatically see it that way. They never seem to comprehend how easy it is for the Republican right, via the good old dog whistle, to conflate the left’s notions with fear of socialism and mostly fear of the other, which in this nation of 72% Whites is fear of a non White take over.
Never forget that one of the nation’s most notorious slim balls got elected president — with the help of a host of dirty tricks — by bellowing fear of the other discourse, the rallying cry of which of course was build that wall.
On the other hand, each year the American electorate grows ever so slightly more sophisticate, and thus able to see trough the Republican demagoguery of fear. After all Barack Obama did get elected president twice. So maybe if the Democratic left understands exactly why folks are frightened by their Green plan, they will find ways to sooth those fears and manage to defeat GOP demagoguery. One thing is for sure, it won’t go well for Democrats if they end up panicking and running away from what is good like they have done so often in the past when the right wing yelled boo.
