One of the most fascinating electoral developments of the last 4 years is that the era of the Southern strategy seems to finally be ending

Another thing that seems to be sneaking up on people is a state-level realignment around climate.

The left doesn't talk about things much in these terms but it's important to recognize that now that solar and wind are often cheaper than fossil fuels, lots of decent-paying oil jobs are going away, and Dems will take the blame -- green new deal or not.

Arguably this started in the Obama era. As wind+solar plummeted in cost, coal plants and oil sites closed, and people *did* in fact blame the Obama administration, even though the shift was driven by market-forces and strongly bipartisan wind+solar subsidies.

I don't think people appreciate how much this actually *strengthens* the case for a Green New Deal. We are going to undergo a rapid and irreversible transformation away from fossil fuels with or without it, and if we don't take care of laid-off workers there will be backlash

There are going to be a lot of stupid takes from liberals that a green new deal isn't necessary because the Market took care of it, and a lot of equally stupid takes from leftoids that a Green New Deal is PMC bullshit that regulates high paying blue collar jobs out of existence

I believe that the left needs to start adopting the same kind of rhetorical stance that neoliberals used to push their policies through in the 1980s: there is no alternative.

Because there isn't. The rapid, irreversible transition away from fossil fuels is underway. All those fracking workers in Pennsylvania in those ads who are worried that Biden will destroy their jobs have essentially already lost them.

The questions at this point are 1) if the transition will be fast enough and 2) whether the costs of the transition will be imposed on laid-off workers. We need a Green New Deal to ensure that the answers to those questions are yes and no, respectively. There is no alternative