Green New Deal mocked in Fyre Festival parody, as GOP turns plan into punching bag
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Republican lawmaker is making fun of the troubled Democratic rollout of the Green New Deal, comparing it to the catastrophic 2017 Fyre Festival -- part of a broader push by the GOP to turn the radical proposal into a punching bag.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., released a short video that shows what looks like a typical ad for a festival similar to Fyre interspersed with captions presenting some of the more controversial aspects of Green New Deal proposals, while somewhat exaggerating others.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“A socialist utopia.”
“Kill off all the cows”
“Ban all the airplanes.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Underneath the text are images of party-goers, beach walks and other malarky that wouldn’t be out of place in a festival promo.
"We'll just print more money," it continues.
"Green New Deal, Trust Us," it finishes, with a man washed up on the beach.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The comparison between Green New Deal and Fyre is appealing for Republicans. Fyre Festival was promised as a super-cool experience filled with top-notch food, luxury housing, top bands and supermodels hanging out. Instead participants were famously given basic cheese sandwiches and housed in tents.The resulting furor went viral and made international headlines, and has resulted in two recent documentaries about the disaster.
Walker was making a comparison between the botched festival and the the troubled rollout of the deal last week.
In addition to proposing an enormous government overhaul of the nation's economy, transportation and energy usage, the resolution was married by a confusing launch.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The far-reaching but often vague proposal, formalized in the resolution, hit turbulence as reporters either discovered, or were given by Ocasio-Cortez’s office, two FAQs that included radical ideas such as phasing out air travel and giving economic security to those “unwilling” to work.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office later pushed back, initially calling one of the documents a fake before conceding that the FAQ was genuine -- but just not ready for public consumption yet.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}One version was published on Ocasio-Cortez's website before being taken down, while another version was published by NPR.
The language, which included questioning whether America would be able to get rid of “farting cows” quickly enough, was met with some shock and also some delight from Republicans.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., highlighted some apparent division among Democrats when he said the Nebraska Democratic Party chair apologized at a breakfast for national Democrats' "crazy anti-agriculture talk." In the tweet was a picture of a cow with its tongue out.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NDP Chair Jane Kleeb, in a statement to Fox News, said that the Green New Deal is a "critical next step to confront climate change" while making clear her comments concerned other statements from liberal lawmakers.
"What is not helpful are comments from progressive leaders saying we need to stop eating meat in order to solve the climate crisis," she said, pointing instead to existing solutions being used in Nebraska such as solar, biofuels and cover crops.
The comment was an apparent reference to remarks to VegNews by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who said that "this planet simply can't sustain billions of people consuming industrially produced animal agriculture because of environmental impact."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, with the slightest of grins, told reporters Tuesday that he was planning on bringing the Green New Deal to a vote in the Senate: "We'll give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal."
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It was noticed that McConnell’s tie was, perhaps appropriately, green. Meanwhile his official Senate account tweeted: “We're going to vote in the Senate and see how many Democrats want to end air travel and cow farts.”