***Sunrise Movement members cite this VOX piece to explain their sit-in outside Pelosi's office.***
Having read this piece, I think I have a better handle on the thinking of the people behind the sit-in -- and the potential for uniting the party behind a "Green New Deal." But I also think we need a leader as strong as Nancy Pelosi for this extremely ambitious plan to have a chance to get through Congress -- after 2020 (which is part of their plan).
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/11/14/18094452/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-nancy-pelosi-protest-climate-change-2020
The activists called on Pelosi to lead Democrats in developing an ambitious, comprehensive plan to address climate change — a Green New Deal. Halfway through the protest, rising Democratic star and Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visited to show her support, which drew a torrent of media coverage.
SNIP
I’ll be honest, though. I’ve seen intra-left disputes on climate change reprise themselves over and over again, to no one’s benefit, and when I heard about this protest, I felt a twinge of dread. Why target Pelosi, who has always been a climate champion? And how is she supposed to have a comprehensive climate plan already when she hasn’t even taken the gavel? Aren’t there worse enemies of the climate to protest?
But I talked it out on Twitter, emailed with a few of the organizers, and now have a better handle on what’s going on. And it turns out to be quite a bit richer and more significant than what you might get from the headlines.
SNIP
The resolution — supported by the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats, two youth-led organizations pushing for a Green New Deal — has a number of interesting provisions, but two demands are central: that the committee be given a mandate to develop a Green New Deal that would decarbonize the US economy, and that no members be appointed who accept donations from the fossil fuel industry.
Specifically, the committee “shall have authority to develop a detailed, national, industrial, economic mobilization plan for the transition of the United States economy to become carbon neutral and to significantly draw down and capture greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and oceans and to promote economic and environmental justice and equality.” It would be required to produce a draft plan by January 1, 2020, and draft legislation by March 1, 2020.
In other words, the committee must produce a package of legislation ready to move if Democrats take power in the 2020 elections.
SNIP
= new reply since forum marked as read
as speaker. The stakes are too high for on-the job training (which hopefully our Speaker takes some younger ones under her wings and gives them for a future transition).
is being twisted by the right, and some left.
The competence of the pros who dealt with this was taken as a given. 
And with Ocasio's built-in power base, no surprise at all that both Pelosi and Tlaib made time in severely overpacked schedules to turn this into a positive meeting. Of course.
I'm just spouting off about this group's approach, Jhan. Regarding representatives democratically elected by their constituents as opponents and obstacles, unless they've shown that to be so, is to be anti- democracy.
I am glad they got a chance to actually see the top female leader they've been subverted into believing they need to take down -- to mark this year of women's ascension to the halls of power. Sigh.
