Do you have “the intelligence of a sea sponge?”

Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems to think you do if you took her comments that the world will end in 12 years because of climate change seriously.

That’s right – an actual member of Congress is unhappy that the press, pundits and politicians took her words seriously. She tweeted this week that believing her widely reported and debunked claim that the world will end in 12 years was evidence that you “have the social intelligence of a sea sponge.”

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Does that mean the rest of her eco-agenda is a joke too? How about the “Green New Deal” and its calls to for government takeover of healthcare, banning airplanes, forced veganism, and providing income for those “unwilling to work”?

Let me know when I should start laughing.

These policy proposals are not meant as jokes. They are serious ambitions and part of the far left's goal of nationalizing America’s energy industry picking taxpayer-subsidized “winners” like wind and solar over “losers” like fossil fuels.

If you don’t think this is their plan just look at the record of the previous administration. In 2008 then-candidate Barack Obama said, “if somebody wants to build a coal power plant they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them." Sure enough, that’s what he did through regulations.

That’s the legacy of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the newest candidates in the 2020 race. He, along with Obama, presided over the disastrous war on coal that led to the loss of 83,000 coal jobs.

But Biden’s nowhere near as extreme as Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, at least as of now. That’s concerning for the environmentalist movement because Biden is currently trouncing the rest of the field in the polls. If he wins the Democratic nomination, they are afraid he will not back their grand vision of “Green New Deal.”

This leaves the environmental left two choices: convince Biden to change his position or deny him the nomination.

They’re beginning first by trying to force him to change his mind, and it explains Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent verbal assault on Biden.

She went after the former vice president slamming him over reports that he is considering a “middle ground” climate change plan. Ocasio-Cortez blasted such an idea on behalf of the eco-left.

“This is a dealbreaker. There is no 'middle ground' w/ climate denial & delay,” she tweeted.

In a Green New Deal rally at Howard University she referenced Biden’s long D.C. career saying, “If the same politicians who refused to act then are going to try to come back today and say we need to have a ‘middle of the road approach’ to save our lives, that is too much for me.”

These are the warning shots typical of any primary campaign: move to the middle on energy issues and she and her large, enthusiastic following of eco-warriors will walk. Ocasio-Cortez wants to force Biden to adopt the “Green New Deal” as nearly every other 2020 Democratic presidential candidate has done.

Her plan may be working. Following Ocasio-Cortez’s criticism, Biden began to change his tune.

“You never heard me say ‘middle of the road.’ I’ve never been middle-of-the-road on the environment,” said Biden. “Tell her... to look at my record. She’ll find that nobody has been more consistent about taking on the environment and a green revolution than I have.”

Biden went on to note that he plans to roll out his energy and environmental plan “shortly,” likely before the end of the month.

Time will tell whether the former vice president will accede to Ocasio-Cortez’s wishes and reject a moderate approach to energy and environmental issues. But if Biden’s latest comments are to be believed, he’s decided that making Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an enemy would do more harm than good.

Such a leftward lurch will make winning over moderate voters a challenge.

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If Joe Biden does cave to the far-left, it will show that he cares more about partisan politics than sound public policy.

Ocasio-Cortez may think coal miners have the intelligence of a sea sponge, but they have the memory of an elephant. They remember green politicians who threaten coal jobs. They won’t get fooled again.

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