The Green New Deal’s Shock Troops

The news didn’t last long in the cycle. But it deserved more attention. Americans don’t need an army of indoctrinated global warming zealots lecturing, hectoring, and harassing them over their insignificant carbon dioxide emissions. They should be aware of what their “superiors” in Washington want to unleash on them.

As reported May 5 by Fox News, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive lawmakers are calling for the creation of a 1.5 million-strong group of civilians to work on federally funded projects addressing climate change as part of their sweeping Green New Deal legislation.”

This $10 billion show, which President Joe Biden wants as part of his “infrastructure” plan, would be called the Civilian Climate Corps, its foot soldiers trained to work with community groups on projects intended to “reduce carbon emissions, enable a transition to renewable energy, build healthier and more resilient communities, implement conservation projects with proven climate benefits, and help communities recover from climate disasters.”

We can imagine the “training” the members will receive. They won’t be learning the Boy Scouts’ oath, studying the great works of this nation’s founders, or pledging to uphold the Constitution. They’ll be told that human activity is overheating the planet. That American and Western lifestyles are unsustainable and must be reeled in by government. That environmental injustices have to be rectified by policies that will hurt the middle and lower classes. That the only way to stop the march of global warming will be the enactment of the Democrats’ socialist wish-list legislative agenda.

By the time they’re “trained,” the agitators will be armed with so much pseudo-science and Marxist ideology that they’ll be rabid fanatics, actively looking to trample over anyone who disagrees with them. Is it too far off to imagine roving gangs of these acolytes demanding public displays of allegiance the way Black Lives Matters militants forced ordinary Americans to raise their fists in solidarity with that movement? Will we find them publicly heckling – and worse – pickup truck and SUV drivers, picketing in front of large homes (and blocking driveways), and badgering anyone who dares eat red meat in restaurants?

Worse, taxpayers will fund the activities. Corps members would be paid at least $15 an hour, and enjoy health care and other benefits. Apparently they will also be provided with child care, $25,000 to go toward educational debt, and $50,000 for additional schooling.

That pay package coupled with endless opportunities to rampage under the protection of the federal government means the corps will surely be recruiting from Antifa’s pool of prospects if not directly from its ranks. Is there a sniveling, privileged, entitled, hopelessly immature, virtue-signaling, woke white kid who could pass up such good fortune? 

Let’s hope some adults in Congress will step in and never let them get the chance.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board