The Democratic front-runners respond to the Green New Deal

ONE OF ELIZABETH WARREN’S formative political tangles, which prompted her move from law professor at Harvard to senator from Massachusetts, occurred in 2005 over a bankruptcy reform bill. Ms Warren was concerned about the repercussions for middle-class Americans, especially women, who would have a harder time filing for bankruptcy as a result of the bill. A particular target of her ire was Joe Biden, then a senator from Delaware and one of the bill’s strongest backers. “Senators like Joe Biden should not be allowed to sell out women in the morning and be heralded as their friend in the evening,” she wrote at the time.

To this day the two are seen as ideological foes. Ms Warren appeals to the left of the party, while Mr Biden has made a concerted effort to court moderate Democratic voters. Yet both contenders, who are placed second and first respectively in the Democratic field in YouGov’s most recent poll for The Economist, have released environmental plans. The striking similarity of their schemes shows how the politics of climate change has evolved from a niche issue among Democrats to one of great urgency.

Those who called for a Green New Deal, particularly Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a first-term congresswoman from New York, can claim some credit for this change. A series of recent calamitous...

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