As expected, Republican activists and pundits went ballistic over the new ideas that fuel the Green New Deal and did their best to make people afraid of what the resolution is trying to accomplish.
In typical fashion, screams of "socialism" reverberated throughout Fox News and the Fox Business Network. Mealy-mouthed Hugh Hewitt characterized these initiatives this way: "It is despotic. That's it. It is not socialism, it is communism, it is fascism, it is despotism. It drains all freedom out of America and if we had a media class that understood a lick about history, they would know this."
Any attempt to bring fresh new and sweeping ideas into politics is always ridiculed by the right.
I clipped some video of the opening to Fox and Friends since that's one of Trump's favorite cable shows and they were entirely unhinged.
(Media Matters supplied the transcript.)
EARHARDT: If you don’t want to work, you don’t have to, and no more airplanes. Airplanes are --
KILMEADE: Finally.
EARHARDT: -- exactly, you have to take a train now.
KILMEADE: Now I have had all those miles on JetBlue. What am I going to do with them?
EARHARDT: Throw them away.
DOOCY: No more cars as we knew them, because she wants to get rid of combustion engines and things like this.
…
EARHARDT: 100 percent clean and renewable energy, banning nuclear energy, eliminating fossil fuels, wiping out millions of jobs.
KILMEADE: All right, keep in mind too, so, we're going to 100 percent renewable energy right away. So the oil and gas: Just stop drilling. You heard me. Pull out all of that stuff. Enough with the --
DOOCY: Fossil fuel, Brian.
KILMEADE: I’ve been saying this for the longest time. I’m so tired of the oil and gas. And by the way, let’s get rid of nuclear power too because it burns too clean and the natural gas that also burns clean. We’ve got to get rid of that because we are actually the world’s dominance in that. So, ensure prosperity and economic security for all -- that’s easy -- and then clean air, water, and access to natural -- to nature for all.
DOOCY: Yeah. Also upgrade all existing buildings in the United States to make them more green and more energy efficient. This --
KILMEADE: One by one.
DOOCY: OK so, get rid of airplanes, essentially, because they currently --
EARHARDT: Build trains over oceans.
DOOCY: Well, you know, that’s fast as long as there’s rail.
KILMEADE: Should we stop fixing LaGuardia? Because we’ve been rebuilding it for five-and-a-half years.
DOOCY: You know, they’re building a new terminal. They’re not really fixing the runway.
EARHARDT: So she wants to change the way you heat your home, the way you cook your food, replacing air travel with trains, unionize all jobs, guarantee income for all -- even those who don’t want to work. So, quit your job. Why would we wake up early and come to work when the company -- I mean, the country’s going to pay for us?
KILMEADE: And by the way: bad news for cows. Time to slaughter all of them quickly because of their propensity for gas.
Anything innovative, expansive and leads to a better life for America that is not in full support of the billionaire and corporate culture is automatically dumped on.
It's not surprising, but the words of Doocy, Earhardt, and Kilmeade encompass what state-sponsored propaganda is all about.
Karoli adds: This is Fox News, encouraging viewers to cower in fear, to never have big dreams, to never aspire to anything. They're merchants of fear and inertia.