Univision anchor Jorge Ramos’ most recent column is a rehash of recurring tropes, but also features a strange apologia for radical liberal Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as well as the distinct odor of censorship.
Ramos’ column, titled “The Green Dream”, is arguably one of the first (if not the first) on-the-record mention of the controversial proposal by a prominent member of our national Spanish-language media. The original Spanish-language version of this column was published on Univision’s website, yet was blacked out of the network’s newscasts.
The column itself is a mashup of two familiar themes, chiefly: climate alarmism and Ramos’ excessive deferral to younger generations. The Green New Deal lends itself to feeding into both, given that its chief proponent is Ocasio-Cortez. But notice the contortions it takes for Ramos to note the Green New Deal and its critics, and be sanguine about its likelihood of passage while carefully praising Ocasio-Cortez' initiative. It is as if he were avoiding to engage - or worse, attempting to shield Ocasio-Cortez - from her own proposal. Ramos writes:
I wish I were being alarmist. I am not. I have only a few years left before I’m gone. It is the next generation that will face the music, my kids and yours.
That is why it came as no surprise to me that 29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — the youngest woman ever elected to Congress — was the one to take action and propose a Green New Deal. Her proposal — unattainable, according to her critics — lays out a number of ambitious goals for the next 10 years, including meeting the United States’ power needs entirely through clean, renewable energy and vastly expanding the nation’s investment in high-speed rail.
Such a plan would require the country to make radical changes, starting now. And the truth is that there is no political will to make that happen. That’s why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to the Green New Deal as a “green dream.” Fortunately, Ocasio-Cortez is as sharp with her speech as she is on social media. When asked about Pelosi’s remark, Ocasio-Cortez responded by refashioning the words into a mission statement: “I think it is a green dream.”
Even if the proposal is never put in effect, it’s worth noting the sense of urgency that has built up around it. This is, after all, a literal life-or-death situation.
This being a Ramos column, there is no exploration as to the enormous costs of the Green New Deal, or the radical transformation of the nation’s political and economic systems that would ensue from passage of such a bill. The actual substance of the proposal and its effects on the country matter less than the appearance of “Doing Something”, and Ramos goes to extra lengths to let the record reflect that he praised the kids for trying hard, even if the proposal is unlikely to go anywhere.
Perhaps this explains why the English-language version of the column does not appear to be published on any Univision-affiliated site. Ramos’ usual Splinter byline features his previous column on Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s first days in office, and coverage of his recent illegal and arbitrary detention in Venezuela. But no “Green Dream”. Weird. One wonders whether the column was deemed to be insufficiently woke (and therefore unfit for publication on Splinter), a sad irony given that Ramos did much of the heavy lifting to put its predecessor on the map.
Ultimately, the “Green Dream” is a vehicle through which Ramos can heap praise and spotlight on Ocasio-Cortez, while avoiding tough questions on the radical Green New Deal. Rather than adhering to self-styled instinctive opposition to power, Ramos coddles it and affords it his fullest measure of obsequiousness, the furthest thing from his storied "contrapoder" ("opposition to power") schtick.
