Ocasio-Cortez just brutally mocked a Republican Senator for saying she wants to ban cheeseburgers

The release of the outlines of the “Green New Deal,” a progressive plan to aggressively confront the looming specter of climate change and the ecological cataclysm that accompanies it, has predictably sent the right-wing and their fossil-fuel beholden politicians into an apoplectic frenzy.

That much was made obvious when Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming went on a ridiculous and disgraceful rant on the floor of the Senate today, deliberately misrepresenting the Green New Deal’s plan to scale back air travel and factory-farm beef and dairy production as an iron-fist prohibition that means you will never enjoy another cheeseburger ever again.

“There’s another victim of the Green New Deal, it’s ice cream! Livestock will be banned. Say goodbye to dairy, to beef, to family farms, to ranches. American favorites like cheeseburgers and milkshake[s] would become a thing of the past. Millions of American workers will lose their jobs. Living this green dream is actually a national nightmare.”

That declaration is so profoundly stupid one would be forgiven for wondering if an octogenarian right-wing talk radio host had wandered into the Senate — but no, that was a sitting U.S. Senator who represents less people than live in the city of Baltimore but somehow wields as much political power as California.

One of the principal architects and proponents of the Green New Deal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), took to Twitter to put this grumbling windbag in his place — and to remind the nation to not get drawn into the delusional hyperbole gushing from increasingly desperate old white men who can feel the winds of change blowing against them and know there’s nothing they can do to stop it.

Dealing with climate change in the twelve years we have left before we pass the point of no return is the number one priority facing the American political system, and we cannot allow the dark money of the fossil fuel industry or the machinations of greedy old men ruin the future for us all.

 

Colin Taylor

Managing Editor

Colin Taylor is the managing editor of the Washington Press. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice, equality, and universal health care in America.