Here we are: Sugarplums are dancing in our heads, advertisements are bombarding us to buy stuff we don't need, our president is manipulating the stock market (truly the only thing he knows how to do) by popping off about his fake tariff war and the earth is relentlessly heating up.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we will: It's undeniable that climate change is happening, and it's undeniable that there will be winners and losers - here and everywhere.
What's also undeniable is that Republicans will continue to call it a hoax and continue to smear any mention of climate fix as dreaded "socialism" and continue to mock every effort to help our earth and therefore ourselves.
That's harsh, you think? Nah. That's the world we live in today. But that won't stop some of us from trying to set the record straight and appealing to the better angels among us.
A reader this week took this page to task for not better explaining the Green New Deal and for seeming to expect all the answers to come through capitalism (See Climate 1 and Climate 2) - allowing the mockers to continue attacking the plan, falsely, as socialism.
The criticism is helpful: It reminds us that sometimes we don't see the forest for the trees. Or in this case, the Republicans for their wrappings of saccharine patriotism.
We've said before, but it can't be said too often or too loudly - so as to drown out the lies - that the Green New Deal is about energy, not gassy cows or hamburger eaters.
The Green New Deal is a bold environmental proposal by Democrats that is not unlike moving from a buggy whip to motorized transportation - just without the fossil fuel. The plan calls for the launch of a 10-year mobilization to reduce carbon emissions in the United States. Sure it's aspirational. So was a mid-20th century plan to put a man on the moon. So was ramping up steel production to win World War II.
Democratic socialism quiz
The description “democratic socialism” came into our lexicon this year with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s introduction of the Green New Deal, a plan the GOP loves to falsely call “socialist.”To understand where you stand, here’s a quick quiz, borrowed from a September 2018 article in The New York Times:* In an ideal world, who would control the means of production: private owners, the government or workers? If you said workers, you agree with democratic socialists.* In a capitalist system, do you believe government regulations are helpful or harmful? If you said helpful, you agree with democratic socialists.* Do you believe that everyone is entitled to a certain minimum standard of living? If you said yes, you agree with democratic socialists.* Do you believe labor unions are a positive force? If you said yes, you agree with democratic socialists.* Do you favor “Medicare for all,” or a single-payer government health care system where doctors are public employees? If so, you agree, at least in part, with democratic socialists.* If you think major social or political change would ideally be achieved through the traditional democratic process of elections, legislation, popular lobbying and grass-roots organizing, you agree with democratic socialists.
When did America - Republicans included - give up on being aspirational, especially when several energy experts and economists have said this plan is within the realm of technological possibility - maybe not all in 10 years, but perhaps 15 or 20?
But the GOP has dubbed the plan socialism - the most evil word they can warp up to scare American lemmings.
"They want to take away your car, reduce the value of your home and put millions of Americans out of work," Trump said at a MAGA rally this year after the plan was unveiled. Then the same president who hates to read derided the plan as a "high school term paper that got a low mark."
No, they don't want to take your car. They want to make your future car run on something besides gasoline and diesel fuel - something like electricity, powered by the sun, the wind, water or nuclear energy. And, by the way, already at least 37 percent of electricity in the United States comes from zero-carbon sources, including 20 percent from nuclear power. In the Tennessee Valley, 54 percent of power already is generated carbon-free. Is that socialism? No, but FDR's creation of TVA was and is American-style socialism, and we pay lower electricity bills because of it.
Specifically, the Green New Deal calls for supplying 100 percent of the country's electricity from renewable and zero-emissions sources, digitizing the nation's power grid, upgrading every building to be more energy efficient, and overhauling factories and transportation "as much as is technologically feasible" to remove greenhouse emissions.
Be careful that you don't put weather stripping on your windows this winter or replace them with energy efficient ones. You might be at risk of your crazy uncle accusing you of falling for a plan that's too socialist, too expensive and too extreme. You could get him back by asking him what's more extreme than spending trillions in FEMA money (our tax dollars) on rebuilding after catastrophic floods and fires, crop die-offs and lack of clean water?
But let's get in the weeds about socialism and capitalism and survival.
Webster's dictionary defines socialism as a form of society in which government owns or controls major industries. Marxist theory says socialism is the transitional stage between capitalism and communism. Capitalism is based on predominantly private investment in, ownership of, profit from and wealth from making or handling products and services. And Democratic socialism (the professed leanings of the Green New Deal's loudest proponents) advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production - with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management.
That's a lot four three- and four-syllable words to describe more than a few of our very American systems like Medicare and our national park system and - under our laws - even our air and water which are "owned" by the state, meaning we the people.
Congress, too, by the way, works for us. As should the president, despite his efforts to mock the Green New Deal and wreck our existing environmental regulation - the very regulation that has cleaned up Chattanooga's air to the point that we can see the valley AND the mountains.
From here on out, let's remind our elected officials (and friends and family) of these things daily, always insisting that we all deal with the real problems we face rather than the fake fears the lost GOP is all too happy to maliciously stir.