What are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Flaws?

what the hell is happening there, when did The Thick Of It become real life

did you pay attention to politics during the original TX of The Thick Of It

Uh oh, she's just in total free fall after the dress debacle. Way to torch your online constituency.

"I think that President Biden has been a good faith partner to the entire Democratic Party" -- AOC pic.twitter.com/W9oC9hmmNV

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 3, 2021

Deep thoughts with Jack Handey over here https://t.co/9fhii4C49Q

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 9, 2022

She’s on fire today

At least she leads by example. She clearly banned all books from her house years ago https://t.co/SGMheBuFzn

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 9, 2022

Jake's "Neither are" is also bad tbh

Excellent interview with Remnick:

This piece, which draws some conclusions from the Remnick interview, is good, too:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/17/what-aoc-learned-from-trump-00009700

great answer

When you are asked questions about whether or not Nancy Pelosi should stay as Speaker, when you’re asked questions about the rather advanced ages of Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn, and Chuck Schumer, does it make a difference? You’re saying it’s structural. It’s not generational.

It’s both. The reason we have this generational situation that we do is also, in part, due to our structures. The generational aspect of things is absolutely pertinent to the kind of decision-making. There is this world view, this appeal, of a time passed that I think sometimes guides decision-making. President Biden thought that he could talk with Manchin like an old pal and bring him along. And, frankly, that was what the White House’s strategy was, in terms of what they communicated to us. That’s how they tried to sell passage of not even half a loaf but a tenth of the loaf. It was “We promise we’ll be able to bring them along.” There is this idea that this is just a temporary thing and we’ll get back to that. But I grew up my entire life in this mess. There’s no nostalgia for a time when Washington worked in my life.

What divides AOC and her allies from others in the party is above all a theory of power: How to gain it, how to use it, how to keep it. It is a difference grounded in a cultural mindset about how politics should look, sound and feel.

this seems very otm. it is hard for old line dems in leadership to see and feel that their world has passed on, because they stand at or near the pinnacle of power and believe they control that world, so it's impossible they could be left behind. in their minds they own it!

What’s funny about that quote from the Politico piece is that Harris, the writer, is one of those old-line institutionalists to the marrow of his bones. With his dying breath he’ll huff out one last recitation of the legend about Reagan and Tip O’Neill drinking together.

I read the POLITICO summary before The New Yorker story and almost didn't keep going.

Predictably the pull quote is the one about DC being a shitshow, but her immediately identifying student loan forgiveness as the keystone issue which Biden could act on at once w/o going through the Senate and would significantly affect the midterms, is far more telling. The Progressive Caucus leadership has a really good grasp of the electoral realities of 2022. More so than Biden or the old-line top leadership.

A part of me (a true dumbshit part of me. Me, an idiot) wants to believe biden’s handlers are waiting until september to do stuff like student loan forgiveness so it doesnt fall out of the news cycle

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez flies first class from Texashttps://t.co/AZdKXDT65u

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 20, 2022

gasp

If I made $175k a year I'd never fly coach again.

Coach is hell on my back and knees and... everything.

If I made $175k a year I'd never fly coach again.

People who make $175k a year fly coach all the time, it's the people who travel constantly on work's dime and thus have hyperdiamond loyalty status with its auto-upgrades you're seeing up front (this probably includes AOC!) -- it's like the $35 lunches at restaurants in midtown Manhattan, nobody is paying out of pocket for that shit

plus it's self-perpetuating, lots of these programs give frequent fliers 1.5 or double miles earned per mile it's easier to get the next year

The only times I've flown first class has been for work, except the one time I left myself get bumped from a full flight for a $500 voucher.

Slurping scotch in first class before COVID era was fun. I made lubricious eye contact with several hot guys who like me couldn't believe their good luck at sharing space with me.

Think it says a lot about the conservative mindset that they think anyone who doesn't make a vow of poverty yet champions causes to help the poor are some sort of hypocrites. You see it play out with black athletes as well: how dare they show concern about those less fortunate!! They benefitted from society yet now criticize it!

I think we should shame conservatives who don’t go out of their way to urinate on the poors

It's not just the conservative mindset, liberals have been known to pull that card on the progressive wing when it suits their purpose.

The only time I ever flew first class was between SLC and Denver that was and upgrade based on some leftover voucher. As soon as I was seated I asked for and received two glasses of bourbon and enjoyed the hell out of that 45 minute flight.

Conservatives think it’s hypocritical because they themselves cannot understand why anyone would champion causes that do not directly benefit them

I've never flown first class, but I can imagine if you are a public figure that flying first class might afford you a modicum of privacy and protection from some run of the mill jagoff in the back.

Frogbs exactly, that's what I was driving at

Maddens me when they pull that shit on black athletes because hello, they're the only ones with a platform. When it's some "average" citizen making the complaints the dismissal is just as quick but the rationale changes to "pfft they just want free shit"

According to sources, AOC plans to abstain on the Bandera Protection Act, a proposed addition to the US Constitution that would allow Congress to prohibit by statute and provide punishment for the physical desecration of the flag of Ukraine.

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 20, 2022

This is what the dum dum left thinks is a joke

the classic dumb guy move of "but we live in a society where it's believable!"

The fact that this is believable is what's scary

— Jessica (@JES_BH) May 21, 2022

Smart move there, Max, boosting your tweet by borrowing the name of someone people are actually interested in, because otherwise no one cares what you think.

What divides AOC and her allies from others in the party is above all a theory of power: How to gain it, how to use it, how to keep it.

Sounds good, but will it get her power? Does she have power? How can she get more?

on eBay and Amazon

power matters when you feel threatened; otherwise you try to ignore that it exists in human relations

Unless you’re a politician - then it has to be at least one of the primary things you’re thinking about, even if you’re the rare politician with a beating heart

If your power is not at stake, you might have empathy based on your life experiences.

and when is power not at stake? i assume we're defining our terms differently, especially because i never define my terms

power is always at stake, whether you think it's there or not. people who do not know it's there are just fine, i want to be like them, and they do not belong near politics. AOC's particular power comes from her empathy for others - or at least the perception of it - based on her life experiences. she is a genuine person (or was - once you cross the line into the house of representatives it's like that one scene in field of dream where moonlight graham decides to cross the line one more time to save the little girl from choking, even though he knows what it means for his corporeality) and the rare person who also understands how political power works.

i meant, at the end, that she's the rare person who is both seemingly "genuine" and thinks of humans on empathetic levels divorced from "political power", while also understanding how political power very much affects all of us and puts all of our lives at stake

i will take my tweet about how AOC fucked up on something last week off the air, please, i love this show, thank you

I think my point was: an article stated that she, unlike others, has a theory of power. But as a leftist in the US, she has rather little power, and her enemies have more. Is her theory doing her, and the causes she represents, any good?

she has more power than just about any leftist in the united states. it's not getting her anywhere right now, but AOC not being able to figure out how to get power is not the problem

AOC being called a Leftist is laughable

Lots of jokes

she has more power than just about any leftist in the united states.

I'd say she's a Leftist, tabes. A leftist seeks to ameliorate social problems through more equitable policies that rebalance power toward the powerless. I think what you're looking for is a radical, someone who insists that solving social ills requires striking at the root cause of those problems.

this thread is not going to go well.

i have stopped drinking and i'm going to go draw now

(stopped a couple weeks ago, i mean. i'm invested in it enough that i don't want people to think i meant "stopped drinking [this morning]", and it sucks that that reading is entirely plausible with me)

This thread hasn’t been going well since it started, fwiw.

I feel partially responsible for the derailment because I posted an immediate reaction to a preceding comment without reading enough of the previous posts to get a sense of the discussion.

[...] she seems adept at forming a posse of like-minded legislators. she's good at sharing her political fame and recognition and using it to boost others.

From what I've read about her, the quote above seems apt. I also think Aimless was right about her approach to power. I guess I was trying to add that in her interaction with establishment Democrats, her motivations regarding power may have to do with the sense of having in the past been disenfranchised within her own supposed base. I don't know enough about her legislative record to say whether or not her social media positions have been in line with her voting record and whether she has ever been put to the test on voting for something that might cause her to lose votes or power within the House.