Civil War on the Left, Ch. 64: No Fudging This

It’s going to be fun watching the Democrats fight amongst themselves to be the most “progressive” in the next Congress and in the run-up to the 2020 election. Paul has already noted the challenge Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge may present to Nancy Pelosi. But let’s not forget Her Magnificence, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (who has already being mentioned in the media as a “possible future Speaker of the House”), who has not only protested in Pelosi’s office, but also picked a fight with senior House Democrats about committee composition and jurisdiction. MSN reports:

A fight broke out in a closed-door meeting of House Democrats over climate change as a powerful veteran lawmaker fought with freshman star Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members-elect over the creation of a special panel for the issue.

New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, incoming chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee — backed by a number of other committee members — slammed the creation of the new climate panel, according to multiple sources in the room. Pallone argued that his committee and other existing panels within the House could take on the issue aggressively.

But Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rep.-elect Joe Neguse (Colo.) and some of the other progressive incoming lawmakers fought back, saying they ran on the issue and needed to do it. Ocasio-Cortez earlier this week pushed for a “Green New Deal” as she backed more than 200 young protesters at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office.

More from Politico:

Veteran Democratic lawmakers are closing ranks against new members pushing the party to the left on climate change. Incoming chairmen say they want to address climate change, but they are bristling at the tactics of Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other newly elected Democrats who say the party needs to come up with a “Green New Deal” that would decarbonize the economy within a decade. . .

“The idea that in five years or 10 years we’re not going to consume any more fossil fuels is technologically impossible,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), whose in line to lead the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told POLITICO. “We can have grand goals but let’s be realistic about how we get there.” . . .

Some lawmakers are looking for ways to harness the progressive energy within the existing congressional structures so everyone gets on the same page.

Yeah, well, good luck with that.

One of the themes of the media right now is how “diverse” the new House Democratic caucus is, but one aspect is studiously avoided—how this election has shoved Democrats much further to the left. This mid-term election is indeed a watershed election much like the 1974 election that saw Democrats gain 47 House seats, but which marked a distinct turn to the hard left. The new Democratic members of that election were called the “Watergate Babies.” I’m thinking we should just call this new class of Democrats “babies,” full stop.

The “Watergate Babies” also set about the upend the House, in that case changing committee rules to oust a lot of long-serving southern Democrats. I wrote about the Watergate Babies in the first volume of my Age of Reagan:

The official Democratic Party magazine, The Democratic Review, estimated that the incoming representatives were more than twice a liberal as the Democratic members they replaced. A Washington Post survey asked the incoming Democrats, “What nation, if any, do you consider a threat to world peace?”  The largest plurality, 27 percent, thought the United States was the leading threat to peace, with only 20 percent naming America’s principal adversary, the Soviet Union, along with Israel.

I suspect a similar survey today would report much worse numbers.

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