It has been nearly three weeks since AOC’s Green New Deal failed in the Senate, but millennials refuse to let the “Green Dream” die. According to a new survey by John Zogby Strategies young people want the public and private sectors to prioritize acting on climate change over creating jobs. However, with President Trump’s job numbers as they are now, this is a losing strategy for the 2020 elections.
The Green New Deal would have ruined our economy, as IWF’s Patrice Onwuka explains, “The deal would cut over a million jobs, raise energy costs for families, undermine our free market system, remove choice for the goods and services we want, discourage people from working, take us back in time in transportation, and leave us with a bleak future.” Yet, millennials were the biggest supporters of this (failed) legislation because they were willing to overlook these negative consequences.
Millennials need to start prioritizing jobs and the economy, given that they have unprecedented amounts of student loan debt. Turning to the government to fix all their problems through socialist inspired legislation will only further entrench their debts. A strong job market and booming economy is exactly the environment millennials should want, but their politics says otherwise.
As I explained before, republicans don’t hate the environment just because they aren’t buying into the environmental alarmism that popularized the Green New Deal. They have other priorities–like jobs and the economy. Benji Backer, a millennial conservative activist, argues that “The environment should (and can) by the issue that brings americans together during our current political divide. For that to happen, the tone on environmental policy must change.”
For so long the solution to climate change has been held tome on one side of the aisle; however, a conservative perspective on environmental policy re-focuses the conversation on the impact such legislation will have on the economy. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, renewable energy is creating jobs 12 times faster than other sectors of the economy. Free market solutions to climate change will keep burdensome regulation out of the private sector; where innovation can drive action not big government.
For now, AOC’s Twitter mob will continue to push for immediate climate change legislation, as they have bought into the environmental alarmism in traditional millennial fashion. It makes sense to fight with such urgency and passion if you have bought into the fallacy that the world is going to end in 12 years. It is up to economically responsible politicians to educate the youth about the importance of job creation.