Happy to Engage Workers...on Green New Deal, Ocasio-Cortez Accepts GOP Invite to Kentucky Coal Mine

[jalan48]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday accepted an invitation to tour a coal mine and meet with voters in Kentucky—taking advantage of an opportunity to engage with some of the Americans who could benefit most from a Green New Deal. The invitation came from Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), a member of the Congressional Coal Caucus who asked the New York Democrat to visit his district after she gave an impassioned speech in the House, blasting Republicans and centrists for dismissing the Green New Deal legislation that she is sponsoring as a proposal that would benefit only large coastal cities.

Ocasio-Cortez indicated she would use the opportunity to speak with Kentucky residents about how their lives and futures could be positively affected by the Green New Deal. The plan would create an estimated 10 million jobs in its first decade for Americans, including former fossil fuel sector workers, who would build a new sustainable energy infrastructure aimed at shifting to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/28/happy-engage-workers-and-community-green-new-deal-ocasio-cortez-accepts-gop-invite

How change can happen. AOC is doing the right thing.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Watch Bob Murray go full

ballistic against AOC. Hey,this is the new face of our Democratic Party,we have not seen this since the late Thirties and the mass union growth of our Nation.

[jalan48]

2. I feel the same way. She can bridge the divide with a message that appeals to both sides.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. This Lady is the

thorn in the Rethugs Side and they are pulling out all stops to end her career. Occasionally watch U tube flicks,you would not believe the number of hate tubes including those targeted at AOC. There are Pop up Ads running against her .

[PupCamo]

32. I really just want him to jump in the Ohio River

it's already polluted so what's one more turd floating around

[Wellstone ruled]

33. I want him to stand trial for the death of 26

Coal Miners Price Utah. Talk about a friggin coverup.

[UniteFightBack]

3. I applaud this !!! NT

[backtoblue]

4. K&R

[gratuitous]

6. THIS is how we make inroads

Go to hostile audiences. Listen to them. Talk to them. Explain your position directly to voters without Fox News filtering it. Generate some local media coverage and excitement, again without Fox News jumping in the middle of things. People will see Rep. Ocasio-Cortez in person, and that she doesn't have horns and a barbed tail.

A lot of people won't budge on their position. But we don't need every one of them to make a big difference. If she meets with 100 Kentuckians and just three or four of them say, "Hey, that makes a lot of sense!" afterwards, Republicans are going to have to actually fight that, instead of just taking those votes for granted. Every campaign dollar they spend shoring up Kentucky is a dollar they don't have to spend in Michigan or Wisconsin.

Oh, and don't just make this a one-off. The national party should send candidates and officeholders to Kentucky and other hostile territory every week. Yeah, it's fun being in front of large, supportive crowds in solidly Democratic environs, but going to Kentucky or Alabama or Texas is the scut work that clears the path to lay the foundation for the road to change.

[BlueWI]

11. Amen!

There a lesson here for all of us!

[onethatcares]

25. this,

is the best way forward.

I'm willing to lay odds her invitation will be withdrawn though.

[Blue_true]

38. Even if Barr withdraw the invitation, AOC can set up and announce her own visit, with dates

and locations. Our politicians need to go to places like this to interface with local democrats there and have give and take discussions with hostile crowds. Like someone pointed out, if our politicians go into a room with 100 hostile people and come away with 4 or 5 believing in the new ideas and willing to try them, that is a victory that makes republicans' lives tougher.

[Takket]

34. exactly..........

this is a STUPID move by the GOP. The whole way they solidify their base is to make them fear any source of info other than the GOP/Fox/Limbaugh. This is NOT a dor they want to crack open.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. In their gut Coal Miners know their jobs will keep dwindling with or without a Green New Deal

They understandably are playing for time, trying to hold on as long as they can when there are no other good work opportunities available.

Something tells me Barr will regret having invited Ocasio-Cortez. She will convince a lot of miners that she and other Democrats are the ones who will fight to make sure current miners are provided for and gainfully employed in the coming economy. That is the last thing Republicans want them to hear, because change is coming and Republicans aren't lifting a finger to prepare miners for that future.

[johnnyfins]

10. This absolutely. On a funnier note: At first read, I thought "Engage" was "Enrage"

[Wounded Bear]

13. Coal is dying, and rightfully so...

Yes, workers are worried about their jobs, but there are opportuinties to mining coal for a living.

Besides, any new coal development will be more heavily automated and industrialized to eliminate human workers.

I hope she reminds the coal workers that it was Dems who put black lung treatment into Obamacare just for them.

[Blue_true]

39. Those miners live in some of the most beautiful places on earth.

Stuff grow naturally there that does not grow anywhere else in the world. They have unique illnesses like black lung that can launch new technologies (that work to fix the problem and then innovate in time), they have lousy healthcare and schools. All that sounds like bad stuff, but in every single bad thing there lay one or more opportunities.

[allgood33]

8. I love this young lady! Mistakes and all. You can't grow without making some mistakes.

She learns quickly from her mistakes; more than I can say about some others.

[Hekate]

9. I hope she is treated with respect & not like a political pinata. I hope she can get through...

Last edited Thu Mar 28, 2019, 05:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Gods know Hillary tried, but the GOP had amused itself using her as a piñata for 30 years, until her very name was a punchline, and it was not her fault.

I have my fingers crossed for this new generation of women.

[Kurt V.]

16. i don't think this generation, men and women dems, gives a hoot about respect politically. It's

their future they're fighting for.

[Hekate]

21. I think you know what I mean. If the audience is encouraged to wear their MAGA hats & shout ...

...her down, or if the person who invited her to come over ends up mocking her as a socialist, I don't think she will be deterred. But it would be painful and humiliating, and still not get through to the people who need it most.

[Blue_true]

40. She will face a hostile audience. So what. That can be hugely beneficial to her.

Like someone pointed out, if a handful of former opponents leave believing that what she proposed is possible, that make the GOP have to work harder to rebraibwash those people.

[lagomorph777]

12. Sounds like the GOP made a huge error here.

These guys will be shocked at how they've been lied to, and what Dems can offer them.

[H2O Man]

14. Recommended.

She is a wonderful agent of change. Malcolm X often said that if you want to change people's behaviors, you must first change their thinking.Alexandria understands this in a manner that too few do.

[malaise]

15. Hope she has real security

That is all

[JI7]

22. yup, was thinking the same thing.

[Celerity]

24. +2

goon red alert in them thar hills

[Corgigal]

30. Along the same lines.

Barr is a piece of crap. I happily voted against him in my first Kentucky election. I always will. When AOC stops by, if I can get the dates, this former New Yorker woman and her family need to swing by. If she can hear my dialect, she'll feel at home.

[malaise]

31. Love it

[AllyCat]

35. Ditto

[keithbvadu2]

17. What if all the coal miners who got their jobs back because of Trump show up?

What if all the coal miners who got their jobs back because of Trump show up?

Huge crowd?

[Alpeduez21]

18. I live in coal country

There ain’t no reasoning. ANY objection to coal is met with fierce resistance. Fierce. This is republican territory. If repukes are so intractable how is talking to them for one visit going change minds?

[moonscape]

27. Maybe not change minds, but give a

viewpoint they don't hear when listening only to RW sources.

We need to do whatever we can to plant seeds

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. she could hand out copies of HRC's policy plans

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/climate/

[ ... ]

Invest in clean energy infrastructure, innovation, manufacturing and workforce development to make the U.S. economy more competitive and create good-paying jobs and careers.

[ ... ]

Cut the billions of wasteful tax subsidies oil and gas companies have enjoyed for too long and invest in clean energy.

[ ... ]

Revitalize coal communities by supporting locally driven priorities and make them an engine of U.S. economic growth in the 21st century, as they have been for generations.

Make environmental justice and climate justice central priorities by setting bold national goals to eliminate lead poisoning within five years, clean up the more than 450,000 toxic brownfield sites across the country, expand solar and energy efficiency solutions in low-income communities, and create an Environmental and Climate Justice Task Force.
[ ... ]

[kimbutgar]

20. I hope she stays safe when she goes there

You know there are a lot of unhinged repukes, orange maggot supporting, fox watching, gun toting crazies in Kentucky.

[DeminPennswoods]

23. I predict this will backfire completely on Barr

Coal miners aren't stupid, although they vote like it. The things AOC will say to them will strike a positive chord with them.

[moonscape]

26. Like: you can have one of the new jobs that won't kill you n/t

[DeminPennswoods]

37. Some want to be coal miners for life, but I bet the majority

just want a job that pays well with benefits. To me, that's why they are clinging to their coal-related jobs. Offer them a better alternative and they'll figure out coal mining isn't the be all and end all.

[Chin music]

28. Hope she has some good security.

Kentucky is off the hook. I think first pick of jobs should be from Dem states myself though.

[LonePirate]

29. Rep. Barr is trying to set a trap but AOC is far too smart and slick for him.

I'm guessing he is hoping she tells those coal workers they will lose their jobs and they will boo her out of the place. She will armed with new job prospects and a brighter, safer, healthier future for everyone.

[Celerity]

36. how Trump thinks electricity comes from coal