Been there, done that

Green Deal a flashback to simplistic past

As a parent it is sometimes hard to navigate that line between encouraging a child to think independently, perhaps even differently from Dad, while remaining silent when a child is embracing nonsense in the public forum.

I suppose many my age who lived through assassinations of beloved political leaders, Woodstock, or infinitely worse, Vietnam, face that dilemma of trying to understand new thoughts proposed by younger generations while holding back “You’re a meathead!” as TV’s Archie Bunker would exclaim. Children of the mid-century have to remember our own sometimes reckless, sometimes idealistic days. We demanded free love, free speech and freely-moving breasts loosened by the braless, nascent women’s liberation movement. What goes around comes around as the youngest of our children or the elders of our grandchildren want free stuff too: free college, free Wi-Fi and, most shocking of all, “free wages” if you take seriously the Green New Deal explanatory addendum with its those “unwilling to work” proviso. Sheesh! If that’s not a tidbit for amplification by Sean Hannity, I don’t know one.

Recently I was channel surfing and happened upon “The Graduate” with opening credits just beginning to roll. I watched in disbelief as the narrative, once thought to have such depth and meaning in my youth, unfolded in cartoonish cliché and billboard-sized messaging. Was this really the iconic, angst-filled generational conflict movie of my age? How simplistic it was, from the over-the-top graduation party (where the graduate was the only youth present) at his parents’ sprawling California home, to one guest delivering that classic, single word of advice: “plastics.” That may be the only thing meaningful in the movie as it transcends then and now. Plastics were the opportunity of yesterday, if also a dig at shallow 20th century consumerism. Ironically, plastics are today’s opportunity from 3-D printers, artificial human organs to eco-engineering as we face seas of damaging plastic flotsam and jetsam. An aside to current-day discussion: banning plastic straws, I’m sorry, is a paltry, silly step when considering greater pollution, mostly out of U.S. control.

Which brings up again the Green New Deal. Like a detergent, bleach and fabric softener all in one, it’s the modern washday miracle to clean our planet and save mankind. Problem: Most all-in-one products, like conditioning shampoo, don’t do the job as well as those “sold separately.” And selling separately is exactly what U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and other far lefts and progressives need to do if they are to advance any of their green deal initiatives into actionable law.

Recall that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his fireside chats notwithstanding, didn’t get the original New Deal done with one single, sweeping act, and certainly not with a set of PowerPoint bullets. Our country was raised out of the depths of the Great Depression one issue, one law, one program at a time. Which is the tack AOC and Markey should take if they are serious and not merely bandying about self-serving sound bites directed to their political base while providing perfect counter-material for Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and others with right-side voices.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez: Do you really want to be responsible for solidifying Pres. Trump’s second term? Then keep talking. If not, then put away the Green New Deal as it is and begin drafting specific resolutions, topic by topic. I can’t believe a retired chlorine salesman from Arkansas has to illuminate the obvious.

There is little doubt we need a greener planet, reduction in carbon emissions, and infrastructure and transportation upgrading. Health care and income inequality need to be addressed, though the “deal” addendum itself states that shaking down the corporate robber barons and billionaires isn’t alone enough to do it. How surprisingly realistic. But you can’t be taken seriously when, during ancillary conversations, you decry cow flatulence, or worse, suggest we should stop making babies. Really? That population bomb myth is so-o-o last century. Turning off middle-class Daddy’s sperm spigot, no matter his color or ilk, will not save the planet.

And no airplanes? Europeans, so beloved by progressives as embraceable models, have yet to suggest grounding Lufthansa or Air France, even with extensive, existing passenger rail service.

My dismissing Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and friends as overreaching could cause me to be labeled a “meh” naysayer and stodgy old white man like those she contends with in chambers.

To that I say to her and my own kids, don’t be dismissive yourselves. Experience sometimes counts. After all, you youngsters didn’t coin the phrase “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” We boomers did.

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