Joseph Ellis: The Green New Deal isn't socialism. It's what the Founding Fathers wanted

cnn ^ | 04/18/2019 | Joseph Ellis

[ChicagoConservative27]

The Green New Deal is a bold and controversial legislative initiative proposed by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, designed to address four pressing challenges facing American society that have thus far eluded solution.

They are: reforming our extremely expensive and inefficient health care system; reducing our currently unprecedented levels of economic inequality; rebuilding our aging infrastructure; and recovering our global leadership role to combat the existential threat posed by climate change. If we fail to address and resolve these problems, all talk of America as a "city on a hill" needs to cease.

[Jim Robinson]

Uh, no.

[reasonisfaith]

So you guys are admitting that the only way to perpetrate socialism is to disguise it as something else.

[rightwingcrazy]

I believe this article asserts that the Founders wanted to trample over individual rights for what people in power declare to be the greater good. I’m pretty sure they wanted the opposite.

[workerbee]

[Green New Deal] is a collective response to our common problems with deep roots in American history, all the way back to the American founding. The operative word then was not "socialism" but -- members of the GOP might wish to sit down to hear this -- "republicanism."

How many fingers am I holding up?

[hadrian]

This Joseph Ellis -

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/21/opinion/the-lies-of-joseph-ellis.html

[butlerweave]

Founding Fathers would have laughed at Global Warming ,didn’t they wear Wool all the time ,LOL

[Verginius Rufus]

If I remember correctly, Joseph Ellis was one of those who rejected the hypothesis that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings’ children, until the DNA report on Sally’s descendants (which was published just before the 1998 election—reportedly the publication date was moved up so it would be before the election thinking that would help Clinton by showing that Jefferson was also guilty of misconduct). Then Ellis jumped on the “Jefferson fathered Sally’s children” bandwagon.

[redfreedom]

I fully understand their point. They can say anything they want to about the Founding Fathers and people will believe it. Simply because history and the principles of our Constitution have not been taught in decades.

[Fiddlstix]

Memo To Joseph Ellis:

Click the Pic

[old curmudgeon]

It is hard to believe that there are people so ignorant.

There is not one single word in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, nor anywhere in the writings of the founders calling for the ideas espoused by the author of this article.

But this guy has obviously had some communications with the founders and has found out what they really wanted for our country.

[Psalm 73]

How sad.
I've read three of his books and found them all an excellent read (esp. "Founding Brothers").
Nut jobs come in all shapes and sizes....

[x]

Ellis gives a skewed view of the plan. Other people are talking about the details of the plan. He's talking about abstractions, about vague ends rather than the real restrictions and prohibitions that the GND would impose:

They are: reforming our extremely expensive and inefficient health care system; reducing our currently unprecedented levels of economic inequality; rebuilding our aging infrastructure; and recovering our global leadership role to combat the existential threat posed by climate change.

That's a very pallid view of something that changes the way we live in radical ways. Ellis makes it sounds more like a public works project than a plan for restructuring and controlling the economy.

Notice too that he glosses over past conflicts among the founding fathers by pitting them all against the straw man of the anti-federalists. People overdo the contrast between Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians, but there were serious - bitter, violent - conflicts between them.

There's a loss of the middle for Ellis. Either you're for his plan or you're grouped with robber barons, segregationists, and opponents of the constitution. That's not very convincing. In fact, what he's doing is what he accuses those he criticizes of doing, that is relying on fear and scare words to make an argument.

The result is embarrassing. It's to be expected that Ellis isn't an expert on economics or the environment, but that he shares such carelessness with respect to history and fair argument is troubling.

[seawolf101]

Down is up, and up is down.

[Fungi]

Pure unadulterated crap. This jackass is a raving lunatic.

[mumblypeg]

Yeah, ok.
And the Founding Fathers wanted babies to be ripped out of their mothers’ wombs and thrown in the garbage.
That’s why they put that “right” in the Constitution.

[jmaroneps37]

Go away clown, the circus just left Washington and folded its tent.

[BTerclinger]

“It’s what the Founding Fathers wanted”

But, but, the Founding Fathers were white men and slave owners!

“If we fail to address and resolve these problems, all talk of America as a “city on a hill” needs to cease.”

They keep telling us what we can and can’t say and we will have to start the free helo rides.

[cdcdawg]

Yes, the Founders wanted this just like they wanted “gay marriage” and trannies reading to young children and U.S. troops off on endless foreign adventures and the population replaced and a whole host of other things that have them rolling over in their graves.

[Salman]

I can see a cogent argument that the Green New Deal isn't socialism. After all, isn't socialism supposed to be something about workers running things?

But I do not think the Founding Fathers could even conceive of such a thing. Certainly King George didn't (and couldn't) exercise such total control of the populace.

It requires modern technology for government to be that pervasive.