Democrats are basically just adding green' to old terms

Having coalesced, to varying degrees, around the IDEA of a "Green New Deal," if not an actual Green New Deal, Democrats are looking for new things to green.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who's got 14 or so full-fledged plans for action as president, unveiled something she's calling "My Green Manufacturing Plan for America."

If the original Green New Deal was modeled on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's efforts to pull through the Depression in the 1930s, Warren's Green Manufacturing Plan for America has more of a World War II vibe.

It's actually a green master plan with three green subsets: the Green Apollo Program, the Green Industrial Mobilization and the Green Marshall Plan.

The original Apollo Program was the series of space missions in the 1960s that ended with man on the moon.

Warren's Green Apollo Program is a sort of $400 billion moon shot for clean energy.

The Industrial Mobilization for World War II was the transition of the US economy from peacetime to a war footing, where everything fed the war effort.

Warren's Green Industrial Mobilization is a $1.5 trillion commitment for the government to buy American-made, clean energy products.

The Marshall Plan was the postwar effort to rebuild Europe and in doing so combat communism.

Warren's Green Marshall Plan would sell the new clean green stuff to the world.

Warren is a Green New Deal supporter, so her Green Manufacturing Plan for America is meant to work in concert together.

In fact, there are more details and specifics in Warren's plan than in the larger societal transformation manifesto that is the Green New Deal. Further, while the Green New Deal is only partially concerned with the environment, everything in Warren's plan has to do with being more friendly to the environment and leveraging those efforts for the economy.

The allure of being green is obvious. Combating climate change is a near-universal priority of Democrats in 2020, if polls are correct. It's less important important to Republicans, which may be why President Donald Trump spends so much time mocking renewable energy and trying to paint the Green New Deal as a radical takeover of the US economy.

He is not, however, above the old trope of trying to affix the word "clean" to coal, or, as he calls it, "beautiful clean coal."

But if we're at the point of just affixing the word green in front of old government programs, it could muddy the importance of the word. Why not a Green Square Deal? A Green Contract with America? It's too soon for a Green Space Force. It definitely is not too soon for a green reboot of the Marvel universe. Green Iron Man, anyone?

There are endless opportunities in this type of greenery.