Hamburgers and Pickups

The speakers at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, including Donald Trump, took a lot of cheap but effective shots at the Democratic Party, especially the Green New Deal, the individual components of which are actually quite popular but the totality of which is political suicide thanks to the idiotic way it was rolled out.  One speaker framed quite clearly the issue for Americans who may have trouble with the Green New Deal because of its call for regulations on cattle ranching and its call for more fuel-efficient cars.  The Democrats, he said, are trying to take way your hamburgers and pickup trucks.

This claim is as asinine as the Green New Deal's botched roll-out, but, simplified for a mass audience, it has resonance.  No food could be more American than the hamburger (even though it originated in Germany), and no car is more American than the pickup truck, a manly vehicle meant to haul big stuff in a country where everything big matters.  Ford's recent commercial showing a parade of past and current Ford pickups hauling everything imaginable, including, tellingly, a trailer carrying a Bob's Big Boy sign, to the sound of Jerry Reed's 1977 country-and-western classic "East Bound and Down", sums up America better than any rap video from Donald Glover can. 

The Democrats need a rejoinder to Republican scare tactics aimed at the Green New Deal.  The Green New Deal may advocate policies to make beef production more environmentally sustainable but no one is being asked to give up beef, be it hamburgers or sirloin steaks.  And there'll still be pickups for people who need them, and a lot of folks out in the American heartland do need them, as well as carpenters and handymen in the big metropolitan areas on the coasts.  But the Green New Deal recognizes that most urban and suburban car buyers don't need a large truck, and, based on the fact that buying habits and living patterns are affected by government policy, seeks to encourage Americans who'd be better off with something more sensible than a Silverado or an F-150 to buy a smaller car or take more mass transit.

The only problem is, you can't put that explanation on bumper sticker.

As for me, I mostly eat hamburgers made out of poultry meat, and I don't need to tell you again that my car is a Volkswagen Golf - as European as a Ford F-150 is American - so I can adapt to a more environmentally friendly economic policy easily.  But I'm not like most Americans - something I've been reminded of in no uncertain terms - and if the Democrats have any shot of regaining the White House, they have to sell the Green New Deal to its skeptics rather than preach to the converted.  Too bad that is not going to happen.  While the Republicans have a perfectly succinct argument against it - "They're going to take away your hamburgers and pickups!" - the Democrats won't be able to come up with anything nearly as catchy.  Maybe that's because they screwed up the introduction of the Green New Deal so thoroughly, from its cow-fart references to suggestions of an undersea rail line to Hawaii (all graphite and glitter, apparently) to supporting people who don't want to work to the very fact that much of this was first-draft stuff that never should have gotten out, that they're stuck with defending the indefensible.  I'm sure that the Green New Deal's backers think that, with time and tact, they can make their plan in its totality popular with American voters.  Of course, they are flat-out dead wrong.  Because what's true of new vehicles is also true of policy proposals - you only get one chance to launch.   

And the launch of the all-new Chevrolet Silverado (above) has been pretty impressive!

So, Democrats, are you going to prove me wrong and sell the Green New Deal effectively?  Are you gonna do what I say can't be done? 'Cause you've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.