What are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Flaws?

good interview: https://www.offmessage.net/p/aoc-oversight-senate-democrats

The Pelosification is nearly complete https://t.co/oAkvyHTJoK

— cabral (@doctor_cabral) July 9, 2024

Yes, she abandoned the DSA goal of making Kamala the nominee

🙄

(sorry, that's a reaction to the tweet, not to AOC)

She’s just playing the long game until running for Senate

She's being trained up to bomb other countries.

Girlboss. Gatekeep. Gaslight.

The watusi. The twist.

a lot of the "it has to be Biden" people are leaning hard into the angle that it's Justice Democrats types and their supporters that are trying to change candidates, which just leads into the narrative that they're out of step with the party as a whole. it makes strategic sense to have them take the middle of the road on this one -- any call to swap out candidates needs to come from the center of the party

Leftists like to trumpet every AOC heresy as proof that electoral politics is corrupting and useless.

how dare people take strategic stances in... politics?

people are so gross about her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE5BWFRETdk

I'm sure insane Twitter people are doing their thing but it's not unreasonable to express disappointment at one of the ostensibly most left-wing Congresspeople going to bat for Genocide Joe who shouldn't even be running for President.

As far as a strategic stance, maintaining influence in the party, etc. - she doesn't seem to have much influence to start with. Toeing the line on this isn't going to make the unperson wing of the party any more supportive - as it didn't over the last six years - but it does cost her influence with the left of the country such as it is. The loudest official voices calling for Biden to step down are establishment lib media and centrists, if the Bidenistas are going to blame the Squad they're going to do it regardless of what any individual leftish person says, the exact same trap of trying to tailor messages to avoid criticisms from the right.

Hard for me to understand why people go into politics. If you criticize your own party you’re excommunicated forever. To get ahead you have to debase yourself by saying things like “criticism of Biden is ageist.” Doesn’t seem like a good time

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 9, 2024

I don't know why you're dragging me into this. Ocasio-Cortez is great for her district and a valuable voice in hearings. I don't think she should switch over to the Senate, or run for president, though. She's much more influential where she is.

people are so gross about her

― budo jeru

As far as a strategic stance, maintaining influence in the party, etc. - she doesn't seem to have much influence to start with.

In the context of the House of Representatives influence comes in a lot of different forms. The most important one is seniority, but that can't be acquired through strategy, only by longevity. For someone like AOC with only a few terms of seniority influence comes with membership -- in the Democratic caucus as a whole, the progressive caucus, her state delegation and any other personal alliances she can maintain.

Because her influence is group-based and/or interpersonal, she constantly has to mesh her own position within the context of those networks of relationships according to her best judgment. She could just say fuck it I'll go it alone, but she apparently has different goals than just standing outside the system and speaking her truth. I agree with her on that. She could stand outside the system without going to all the trouble of getting elected into it.

OTM

it's strange to see Jamaal Bowman falling in line with the Biden endorsement too, like what does he even have to lose

He thought replacing Biden was a bad idea all along

oh sorry maybe I was wrong

Thought democracy was on the line, why are we positioning and playing the long game?

^ ^ ^

Careerism and ego will always win out.

They won't need to cancel elections if the Dems just throw them

honestly not getting my panties in a bunch over this--what she says wouldn't make a difference to Biden, he probably thinks she's his home health aide if he even knows who she is

Its not about making a difference to Biden is it now.

is it now?

what is it about?

I mean if its just an election then it doesn't matter.

But I thought this was about having an election beyond this year

Maybe she genuinely thinks the risks of replacing Biden are too high. I disagree but it’s not an unreasonable position. But this is all fanfic, who cares about what one congressman thinks. Also Comrade Alphabet it’s weird for someone not an American to pay attention to an American backbencher? It would be like if I obsessed over some Labour MP from Burrow-In-Furness.

We're going to have elections beyond this year.

Especially since the Democrats are so easy to beat. No need to bring out the tanks.

Also Comrade Alphabet it’s weird for someone not an American to pay attention to an American backbencher? It would be like if I obsessed over some Labour MP from Burrow-In-Furness.

― Bad Bairns (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 10 July 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Well there's a thread for her, with a lot of posts.

She's being asked about what she thinks

it's about as weird as an American using the term "backbencher" imo

“it’s weird for someone not from country x to care about politics and politicians in country x” is possibly one of the dumbest things i read pretty consistently on ILX.

like, do most USAmericans care about Jacob Rees-Mogg and the assorted yapping swastikas of the British right? no, but i do because i care about my comrades in the UK being subjected to such shite

The problem with AOC is that there is a disconnect between how she represents herself and how she is represented in the media vs her actual record, which tends to hew to party lines much more. There are obvious reasons for this— the corruption of the Democratic party, the Overton window being moved to the right every year since my birth in the mid-80s, etc. I don’t necessarily blame her for taking the positions she does, but what I resent is the disconnect that I see

Yeah personally I like being interested in all kinds of stuff

xp

As in, rank hypocrisy is still rank.

In the UK we have (not saying they are like our equivalent AOC because they so far have taken a principled stance against genocide) Aspana Begum and Zara Sultana, both might not have a long term future in the PLP. If they just melted to the will of the evil party hierarchy then there would be no point to them. You wouldn't see them turning up at the equivalent of the fucking Met Gala either! This idea of politicking a slow route to (whatever minute incremental goals) within a centre-right party is just garbage imo.

For the record, her public statement on Biden was

“I spoke with the President extensively this weekend. He has made abundantly clear that he is in this race … he is not leaving this race. He is the nominee. I am making sure that I support him & that I am focused on making sure that we win in November.”

When AOC says "Joe Biden is the nominee" she's not gaslighting anyone. He ran in the primaries and won most of the delegates. Where there were state caucuses instead of primaries he accrued most of the delegates, too. He has enough delegates to win on the first ballot in a breeze.

Biden's the nominee unless he decides to withdraw his name, and so far he's adamant that he won't do that. Her statement is publicly acknowledging these facts and giving him her support within that context. As long as the reality remains a contest between Biden and Trump, which is where it is stubbornly stuck rn, her position is objectively correct.

What she is doing or saying behind the scenes is hidden from us.

Also Comrade Alphabet it’s weird for someone not an American to pay attention to an American backbencher? It would be like if I obsessed over some Labour MP from Burrow-In-Furness.

I don't really care about what AOC said in this instance, agree it's not worth getting angry about, but c'mon man the US is still a major world power with vast influence over the West, we all still have to pay attention to your politics because they influence all our lives.

She is one of the most famous politicians in the U.S., but her fame greatly exceeds her political influence. Because she is widely understood to represent the "far left" within Congress, it is easy for her views to be dismissed by those with more power as being outside the political mainstream (even if they aren't). And if you're someone who wants to get Biden to drop out, you don't want that position to become thought of as a far left or otherwise extreme position, which could happen if she (or Sanders) vocally supported it. If Biden is going to be persuaded, it's going to be by moderate party loyalists.

AOC is one of the most high profile and well known left leaning politicians in the world. My parents couldn’t name more than a handful of US politicians I’m sure but they both shared that select committee (?) video of her talking about marginal tax rates a while ago and how they work. It’s an absolutely inane argument to compare her to a random backbencher, because her profile is far more well known than politicians in actual governments in various countries. You can blame the Netflix show but it’s what it is.

Netflix show?

Tipping The House? I've never watched it but my first brand recognition of her came from seeing her face over this on netflix.

no it's Knock Down The House ...lol