One element of the Green New Deal unveiled by progressive democrats, including current wingnut bogeywoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is to invest in high speed rail so that travel by less-polluting trains can replace travel by higher-polluting planes. This, fairly straightforward part of the GND has caused right wingers to lose their fucking minds, claiming, for example, that the GND will "outlaw airplanes." You know, just like how when the federal government built the national highway system, we outlawed horses.
But it gets even dumber. Via Memeorandum, I found this brand new blog which has the ultimate Ocasio-Cortez gotcha! It seems that AOC's campaign spent more on air travel than train travel for long distance trips. PWNED!
Does The Script understand the concept of a proposal like the Green New Deal? It is called a "proposal" because we don't have it yet. The GND recognizes that rail travel currently cannot compete with air travel, that's why it proposes to spend money to make rail travel better in the future (making it faster and more comprehensive) so that it will become competitive with and even better than air travel in most circumstances. Ocasio-Cortez or the other GND proponents are not claiming that American trains are currently better than planes for long distance travel. On the contrary, they are saying the opposite. The Script's "gotcha" post actually supports the premise behind the GND that planes are currently so much better for medium to long haul trips that even environmentally conscious consumers are going to fly for those trips despite the cost to the environment. That is why the GND proposes an overhaul of our system so that the cleaner modes of transit will be just as fast and easy as air travel. It seeks to incentivize a switch to the cleaner travel alternatives.
But it gets even dumber. Via Memeorandum, I found this brand new blog which has the ultimate Ocasio-Cortez gotcha! It seems that AOC's campaign spent more on air travel than train travel for long distance trips. PWNED!
Does The Script understand the concept of a proposal like the Green New Deal? It is called a "proposal" because we don't have it yet. The GND recognizes that rail travel currently cannot compete with air travel, that's why it proposes to spend money to make rail travel better in the future (making it faster and more comprehensive) so that it will become competitive with and even better than air travel in most circumstances. Ocasio-Cortez or the other GND proponents are not claiming that American trains are currently better than planes for long distance travel. On the contrary, they are saying the opposite. The Script's "gotcha" post actually supports the premise behind the GND that planes are currently so much better for medium to long haul trips that even environmentally conscious consumers are going to fly for those trips despite the cost to the environment. That is why the GND proposes an overhaul of our system so that the cleaner modes of transit will be just as fast and easy as air travel. It seeks to incentivize a switch to the cleaner travel alternatives.
