Leftist Senator Dianne Feinstein was recently affronted by an even more leftist activist group using small children as political props as a tactic of confrontation.  Here is a clip.

One child in the group then told Feinstein the Green New Deal must be passed because "some scientists have said that we have 12 years to turn this around" and avert a climate change catastrophe.

After Feinstein explained that "it's not going to get turned around in 10 years" — a core element of the Green New Deal — a woman accompanying the children scolded the senator, telling Feinstein that "you're looking at the faces of the people who are going to be living with these consequences."

Feinstein, clearly frustrated, fired back.

"You know what's interesting about this group?" Feinstein said.  "I've been doing this for 30 years. I know what I'm doing."

Feinstein missed her chance.  Here is what I would have said to the children:

Do you believe that if we don't enact the Green New Deal, the world will end in twelve years?  You do, don't you?  I respect that, but let me ask you: why do you believe that?  Is it because your teachers told you to believe it?  Did they tell you both sides of the story, or even that there are two sides to the story?  Did they ask you to research the pros and cons and to come to your own conclusion?  Or did they tell you to be good little robots and to just believe what you are told without thinking for yourself?  And what will happen next year if you get new teachers, and these new teachers tell you to believe them when they say dreadful things, and that you must not question them?  At what point in your life, if ever, will you stop automatically believing what someone tells you to believe and start investigating for yourself, even if people call you names, even if they try to bully you, like right now they are trying to bully me?

Alas, Senator Feinstein said none of that.  She missed a teachable moment.

Image: David Lee via Flickr.