“This vote [on BAAJA] is shameful. Communities deserve a seat at the table, but instead we are having our futures negotiated away behind closed doors. The ‘Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act’ betrays families and communities across this country by putting clean water, air and our health on the line. Working people should not have to sacrifice these basic protections for corporations that drive up costs, pollute our communities, and use their money and influence to write the rules.” -Mar Zepeda Salazar, legislative director, Climate Justice Alliance
“BAAJA contains provisions that would undermine Tribal sovereignty and roll back key environmental laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act. As a result, the public would lose key tools used to protect the environment and hold the administration accountable against ICE detention centers, Trump vanity projects, and more.” -Congressional Progressive Caucus
“As it currently stands, the bill would be an extremely serious mistake, in my opinion, and would do far more harm than good. Given how this Administration has run roughshod over the environmental laws and protections that are currently in place, now is not the time to give the Trump administration freer rein to double down on fossil fuels – which is what President Trump would surely do. And after last week’s historic election we will have a new Congress in January that can strike a far better balance.” Al Gore
For about 4 days last week I was elated, overjoyed, at the sweeping victories in so many states and so many levels by the Democrats over the Trump-led Republicans. It was historic. It was huge. Many progressives, not centrists looking to make deals with Republicans, were elected. As I said at a local meeting on Saturday, “there’s a lot to build on.”
Then came Monday evening’s vote in the existing, MAGA-run Senate on BAAJA. Not surprisingly, all but one Republican voted for it. But the Democrats were split, and because they were, the vote went Trump/Steven Miller/Project 2025’s way. It looks like the next and final vote on it in the Senate may come as early as this weekend. The MAGA’s are pulling out all the stops to get it passed.
For those Democratic Senators who voted for it, doesn’t the fact that it was a virtually unanimous vote by the Republicans give you pause?
As I’ve continued to stew about this situation I find myself wondering how different it will be once the new Congress is seated in early January. Yes, the Democrats will have an overwhelming majority in the House, and a good majority in the Senate, so you’d think this would lead to things being done differently. But the votes of the 22 Democratic Senators for BAAJA has to make us wonder. Will their desire to appear “bi-partisan” and “reasonable” lead to similar sellouts? If in a few days the Trumpists get the 60 votes they need for BAAJA to be enacted, the answer can only be a very outraging: “yes.”
I don’t expect that the overwhelming Democratic victory on November 3rd is going to lead over the next two years to sweeping “no to billionaires and fossil fuelers” legislation that the country and the planet desperately need. Partly it’s because, as we’ve just seen, some Democrats still just don’t get it. But it’s also because there is, or has been, a difference between what candidates say when they’re trying to win votes and what they do if elected to office. And, to be honest, given Trump and Miller in the White House, it is the case that there will be at least some times when a much-less-than-needed piece of legislation forces some compromise. That is political reality in Capitol Hill in Washington, DC right now.
But it’s not “political reality” in the country. All of us progressives and defenders of democracy need to keep building the up-from-below, multi-racial, reject-the-billionaires, people’s movement that is THE reason why there are possibilities going forward that were not there before the election. Right now, an immediate front of that people’s movement has to be the fight to defeat BAAJA. US Senators need to be flooded by us this week demanding they do the right thing. And if it passes we then need to shift to the House of Representatives to keep up this literally existential fight for the planet and our communities.
Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com