Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took a swipe at Sen. Mike Lee on Tuesday after the Utah Republican criticized the Green New Deal as “ridiculous.”
“Like many other women + working people, I occasionally suffer from impostor syndrome: those small moments, especially on hard days, where you wonder if the haters are right. But then they do things like this to clear it right up,” Ocasio-Cortez, 29, tweeted along with a screen shot of Lee next to a post of smiling babies. “If this guy can be Senator, you can do anything.”
Like many other women + working people, I occasionally suffer from impostor syndrome: those small moments, especially on hard days, where you wonder if the haters are right.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 26, 2019
But then they do things like this to clear it right up.
If this guy can be Senator, you can do anything. https://t.co/vU4ChbTnnr
Lee, for his part, said he was addressing the Green New Deal with the “level of seriousness it deserves.”
He proceeded to use charts with photos of “President Ronald Reagan firing a machine gun while riding on the back of a dinosaur,” as well as one of Aquaman, a screen shot from Sharknado, and more, to demonstrate his point that the Green New Deal is “a joke.”
Lee then concluded by arguing that more children is the real way to address climate change.
The solution to climate change is not this unserious resolution, but the serious business of human flourishing – the solution to so many of our problems, at all times and in all places: fall in love, get married, and have some kids.https://t.co/N2gYdJFldt pic.twitter.com/ekoFlaECSd
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) March 26, 2019
“The aspirations of the proposal have been called radical. They’ve been called extreme. But mostly, they’re ridiculous. There isn’t a single, serious idea here.” See @SenMikeLee’s speech on the #GreenNewDeal. Come for the speech, stay for the @FloorCharts. https://t.co/X9aDC9NEx2
— Club for Growth (@club4growth) March 26, 2019
Climate change is an engineering problem – not social engineering, but the real kind.
It’s a challenge of creativity, ingenuity, and technological invention.And problems of human imagination are not solved by more laws, but by more humans!
More people mean bigger markets for innovation.
More babies mean more forward-looking adults – the sort we need to tackle long-term, large scale problems.
American babies, in particular, are likely going to be wealthier, better educated, and more conservation-minded than children raised in still-industrializing regions.
As economist Tyler Cowen recently wrote on this very point, “by having more children, you are making your nation more populous – thus boosting its capacity to solve [climate change].”
Finally, Mr. President, children are a mark of the kind of personal, communal, and societal optimism that is the true pre-requisite for meeting national and global challenges together.
The courage needed to solve climate change is nothing compared with the courage needed to start a family.
The true heroes of this story aren’t politicians or social media activists.
They are moms and dads, and the little boys and girls they are, at this moment, putting down for naps… helping with their homework… building tree houses… and teaching how to tie their shoes.
The planet does not need us to “think globally, and act locally” so much as it needs us to think family, and act personally.
The solution to climate change is not this unserious resolution, but the serious business of human flourishing – the solution to so many of our problems, at all times and in all places: fall in love, get married, and have some kids. (Mike Lee)