The approach Matt is suggesting was the strategy the Big Greens pursued from 2008-2018.

Hundreds of millions went into this strategy for dealing with climate change. It didn’t work.

With a 1/100th of the resources, Sunrise changed what’s politically possible within 2 years. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1331719726658150405

The Markey-Waxman bill was the culmination of years of strategy and investment in an approach that could win Senate seats and/or GOP votes.

After it failed, the environmental movement had no path to victory.

@sunrisemvmt was created to change the terrain.

It has.

What Sunrise needs is liberal politicians and pundits to get on board and help them popularize the Green New Deal — instead of constantly shitting in a group of twenty-somethings who are taking on some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in our society.

The @sunrisemvmt is taking responsibility for creating a new common sense that moves beyond the neoliberal era, and making action on climate popular by linking it with jobs. That’s smart!

Lots of other groups with vastly more resources can win senate seats or GOP votes.

The biggest problem with Sunrise is asymmetric polarization. Fox News and the Republican Party have devoted countless hours and dollars to discrediting the GND.

But the Democratic Party and associated media types (with a few exceptions) have barely lifted a finger to defend it.

Matt is right that without taking back the Senate, the Sunrise approach is fucked.

But it’s unrealistic to expect the @sunrisemvmt can take responsibility for winning back any senate seats on their own. That’s a movement wide problem.

Theda Skocpal wrote a debrief of the cap and trade failure that was hugely influential to the founders of @sunrisemvmt.

Many of the founders were alumni of the divestment movement who came to see the limitations of a movement divorced from politics.
https://scholars.org/sites/scholars/files/skocpol_captrade_report_january_2013_0.pdf