What are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Flaws?

the suburbs are extremely worried about rising crime...in the city. People in the city are...less worried.

― dan selzer, Friday, November 11, 2022 10:42 AM (one minute ago)

yeah honestly my takeaway from Maloney is that NY suburbanites are uniquely gullible or brainwashed compared to their counterparts elsewhere in the US, which I know is an all-time classic "bad take" but I'm not sure what else to think. Or at any rate I'm at a loss to imagine (good) policy options for getting people to realize they're paranoid / being played

That Balko piece was excellent, Alfred, thanks. The NY vs. OK point is particularly compelling

crime as a national election issue is so dumb anyway, i can see in local mayoral/city council elections but wtf is one person in the house of representatives going to do about crime in some suburb of cleveland

As time goes on I become increasingly pro-crime

Suburban Minneapolis was frit about urban crime; exurban Minneapolis even more so.

There was some great article a few years back about how the people who lived closest to the city without actually living in or experiencing the city, are the ones who are the most scared of the city. Like they hear the stories and feel like the fear is close by. While those of us in the city go about our business.

crime as a national election issue is so dumb anyway

same thing goes for gas prices/inflation. lots of conservative campaign issues were just straight up appeals to ignorance and fear unconnected to any kind of platform or policies

i listened to The Daily's analysis of the election results so far and it was dumb as hell. Barbaro kept pushing a line that the house and senate races had become "regionalized" which worked against republicans since abortion and "democracy issues" (he meant Stop The Steal) and it's like...... these are regional elections, Michael. They are state races. Sentiment about the sitting president obviously has a part to play but god sorry I think I just hate him, he could say the most logical thing in the world and I'd still disagree with it.

does Barbaro still interject "----HMM!!----" all the time? i used to listen to the daily on my way to work and would note the timestamps of all the times he did it, and then i'd get home, extract the audio at the appropriate points, and added them to a Barabaro HMM!!! playlist which was sorted from shortest to longest clips

He doesn’t but he still does the urgent whispering thing

I posted extensively in the November US politics thread about how useless, corrupt, disinterested, the NY state and local country Dem apparatus is. AOC is 100% right to discount those careerist game players.

*county

release the barbaro HMM cut, km

AOC is so fucking awesome, she actually helps the Dems by being one of their few truly inspiring figures with any national profile, by talking past the media and directly to the voters, sticking to her beliefs, and not by sucking up to some careerist politician like (checks name) Maloney.

let alone the DCCC chair who just his own district

just *lost* his own district

Give him some credit, he actually lost Mondaire Jones's district.

I live right on the border (was in Jones's before the redistrict, now in Bowman's) and every single YouTube video was about "liberal Sean Patrick Maloney" and his love of Pelosi's agenda for months before they hit on the crime thing, so they smelled blood in the water a long time ago. I didn't start seeing anti-Lawler ads until last week. Obviously AOC OTM about everything.

god, the non-stop fearmongering ads about him supporting bail reform... must've seen them 20-30 times in the two months on Hulu. and again, bail reform is NOT a bad thing

Just want to register that AOC is hosting a military recruitment event at a Bronx high school tomorrow. Such conviction and integrity.

https://elmtreeschool.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2927340&type=d&pREC_ID=2418215

The event is for high school students, families, and anyone interested in learning about the different resources and opportunities available to students through our district office, such as the app challenge, art competition, internship program, and service academy nominations.

We will be joined by representatives from various service academies, the U.S. Department of Education, and more

Sounds very nefarious

I assume the app challenge is some learn to code shit, possibly more offensive than sending a constituent's kid to Annapolis

milo have you considered not using computers

Sounds very nefarious

predatory recruitment of kids to be grunts isn’t the same as promoting the existence of schools that churn out officers isn’t the same unless you’re against the armed forces’ existence at all in principle, which I don’t think AOC is?

Recruitment is recruitment, it’s beyond despicable

ttitt, if AOC duplicated your politics she would not be a member of Congress and she'd be exactly as powerful a force in society as you are. which I'm sure you'll agree is a very minimal force.

my position is that if these positions of power must exist and be filled by someone, I'd prefer people like AOC, who at least attempt to move government policy in directions more helpful than those being boosted by the preponderance of members of Congress.

Go ahead and despise her for whatever she does you find despicable, but government exists and wields real power and anyone who on average modifies the uses of that power in a direction I find good doesn't have to achieve the final goals of anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, anti-fascism, socialism or self-regulating anarchy to earn some measure of my approval. yup, if that means I'm a melt, I'm a melt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfsTk5i7mPw

I’m sorry man, but every time I see you post in a politics thread I remember every time Alan Keyes ran for office and lol

Not sure that AOC isn't 'exactly as power a force in society' as table at this point. Democratic Party entryism has been a wet fart.

I love how merely calling attention to brazen hypocrisy gets me a lecture from Mr Practical.

I don't think this would qualify as brazen hypocrisy unless AOC has publicly identified as a pacifist.

And I don't mind being labelled as a pragmatist. This doesn't preclude my having ideals or working for them, but just recognizes what's possible within a given situation or circumstances and accepts interim goals rather than absolutism.

Pretty sure this is just constituent services. People who want to go to those service academies need their congressperson's approval.

huh, never knew that! details here, if anyone else was also curious.

^ exactly, thank you

Just coming here to say that:

If you want to apply to a service academy, you need a letter from your district rep. I don’t like that 16 year olds want to be 1st Lieutenants in the Navy either, but if what you want is AOC’s office to say “no kids from NY’s 14th can apply to West Point” you should say that. https://t.co/qaQwTYuidq

— isi baehr-breen (its pronounced ‘izzy’) (@isaiah_bb) March 20, 2023

This seems to be conflated with those assemblies where military dudes give a half hour presentation and try to get you to enlist as a grunt

I'd be surprised if there weren't military recruiters in attendance to answer kids' questions with misleading half-truths and outright lies.

but if what you want is AOC’s office to say “no kids from NY’s 14th can apply to West Point” you should say that.

Wild guess but I think table is fine with that line.

i mean these aren't kids who have never thought of the military and are suddenly like 'sounds good', these are people already wanting to attend these places and needing the appropriate recommendations.

i'm a pacifist myself but good luck getting re-elected if you tell your constituency what they can and can't do.

I think the lesson is that politicians are bad and shouldn't be trusted

how do the pragmatic realist types reconcile their hope for reform with the reality that support for the military is apparently non-negotiable for everyone in this position?

Just wondering what percentage of the left wants the military to disappear entirely

I mean right now, not under perfect conditions

US liberals like to brush off foreign policy and military stuff like it's not their department and has nothing to do with them it's very weird

I don't know why the US left would want to keep the military around unless it's to a) keep doing imperialism or b) turn them into the new red army and I know which one of those is more likely

maybe some think they can avoid all this by just focusing on domestic policy but someone has to do the coup when a socialist president is elected

reconcile their hope for reform with the reality that support for the military is apparently non-negotiable for everyone in this position?

"Support for the military" is not incompatible with supporting reform of the military or reduction of the military's influence on foreign policy or redirection of money currently flowing to the military to other social needs. If you look around the progressive caucus I'm pretty sure you can locate some reps who believe in all those things and work for them. I'm not a student of AOC's position papers or voting record, but I'd say there's a good chance she would agree with reforming the budget away from our current levels of expenditure. But I won't swear to it.

I don't know why the US left would want to keep the military around unless it's to a) keep doing imperialism or b) turn them into the new red army and I know which one of those is more likely

I just wish there were more than two alternatives to every situation. It would open up a whole world of possibility that is denied to us.

what else would you have an army for

ask some ukrainians