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The Right Had a Plan. We Need One Too.

America should build things again, and we the people should own what we build.

The New York Times recently reported that four conservative operatives spent the Biden years quietly building the legal and regulatory infrastructure to kill the federal government’s ability to fight climate change. Russell Vought. Jeffrey Clark. Mandy Gunasekara. Jonathan Brightbill. They drafted executive orders. They got Heritage Foundation money. They solicited white papers from friendly scientists. They built the whole thing in secret so nobody could stop them before it was done.

Now they’re about to revoke the endangerment finding, the scientific determination that has underpinned every federal climate regulation since 2009. Myron Ebell, who’s been attacking climate science for damn near three decades, told the Times they were “pretty close to total victory.” He’s not wrong. They didn’t tweak the rules. They removed the foundation the rules were built on. Any future administration that wants to regulate greenhouse gases has to start from nothing. Four people did that. Four people and a plan and some think tank money and 16 years of patience.

I love Bernie Sanders. Let me just say that. He is the reason I got into politics. My first political job was on the Sanders campaign. I cofounded Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats because of what he started. I am a Bernie stan and will be until the day I die.

But when Bernie says we need to overturn Citizens United, I need him to finish that thought. Because overturning Citizens United requires a constitutional amendment. Two-thirds of both chambers of Congress, or a convention of states. Supermajorities in the House and Senate. Dealing with a Supreme Court that is openly hostile to everything we believe in. These are massive generational undertakings, and nobody on our side is building the infrastructure to accomplish any of them. The crowd cheers because the idea is right. Then everybody goes home and nothing gets built.

Build a wall. Round up immigrants. Drill, baby, drill. These are terrible ideas. But they are simple. The mechanism is........

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