What are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Flaws?

They gave Ocasio-Cortez a minute to speak because she is a better speaker than all of them. She’s an ally to their cause rather than a soldier, and isn’t afraid to push them; ten minutes and she’d be even more a national figure than now.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) August 13, 2020

phony Nixon has a point. AOC's ability to strike quickly to the heart of the matter in a way that connects with her audience is amazing. it's a bad idea to let her outshine the top of the ticket, whose speeches will be full of stale bromides and irrelevant personal narrative to prove their 'authenticity'.

good for party, bad for country

Good evening, ​bienvenidos​, and thank you to everyone here today endeavoring towards a better, more just future for our country and our world.

In fidelity and gratitude to a mass people's movement working to establish 21st century social, economic, and human rights, including guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages, and labor rights for all people in the United States; a movement striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny, and homophobia, and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past; a movement that realizes the unsustainable brutality of an economy that rewards explosive inequalities of wealth for the few at the expense of long-term stability for the many, and who organized an historic, grassroots campaign to reclaim our democracy.

In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care, and ​espíritu del pueblo​ and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America.

i'm kind of simultaneously disappointed and impressed that someone working on the green new deal didn't even mention sustainability or consumption or climate change or critical resource depletion in their definition of the mass people's movement. she's thinking about a lot of shit, though!

as I said elsewhere, I didn't doubt she'd make the most of her time. fuck the DNC

the way the media has covered the AOC thing so far seems to be lacking in explanation of why she was nominating Sanders. i guess it's an obvious thing to many readers, but i would guess that a substantial amount of people don't know that sanders officially received delegate votes tonight, that he had to be officially nominated, etc. instead, most of the accounts i've read so far have been vague about that.

i suppose that's just as well. the speech was meant to highlight the people's movement. sanders is a part of that movement, but he is not the source or sustainer of it(unlike the obama "movement" that fell apart after he stopped actively leading it). that's what her speech was about, to me at least.

lol, on the other hand, just after posting that i saw this twitter-generated summary of her statement, and it makes it very clear what the official purpose was:

https://i.imgur.com/Y918DlE.png

that's helpful, i wasn't clear why she was suddenly trending for doing that.

stuff like this didn't help

Editor's note and clarification (1/2):

This tweet should have included more detail on the nominating process.

We have deleted the tweet to prevent its further spread, but it can be seen here for the record. pic.twitter.com/txXo4CCMOt

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 19, 2020

jfc, at first glance that original tweet appears to be the work of a dolt, but on second look there's nothing false or untrue about it, it's just a clearly biased emphasis on technically true-but-misleading facts

yeah it's the old "every major media headline about bernie sanders during the 2016 and 2020 primaries" routine

sanders is a part of that movement, but he is not the source or sustainer of it

Exactly, that's why they should have let the most important figure for the future of that movement give a regular speech, not a procedural thing, and explain why that friends of that movement ought to be working to get Joe Biden elected president! It seems completely clear that's what Ocasio-Cortez believes and they should have let her say so. I don't get it.

needed more time to fit in Colin Powell

that's what she said

i am so sorry

there's a new hide tag fyi

o_O

lol rob

can i use the hide tag to hide myself entirely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3SjbBacv-w

lol

there should be a "regret post" button, not sure what it would do but I would use it

https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/MNcAAOSwe~1el721/s-l200.jpg

Exactly, that's why they should have let the most important figure for the future of that movement give a regular speech, not a procedural thing, and explain why that friends of that movement ought to be working to get Joe Biden elected president! It seems completely clear that's what Ocasio-Cortez believes and they should have let her say so. I don't get it.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, August 19, 2020 9:35 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is a good point. It also occurred to me that asking AOC to nominate the 2nd-place candidate only reinforces the idea that she's part of the party's ideological fringe rather than someone capable of speaking to a wide swath of young people and others who are alienated by the political establishment. It's a defensive reaction to the GOP view of AOC as a dangerous socialist who's taking over the party. The DNC is saying "Yes, she's a socialist, but don't worry, she's not actually influential."

there should be a "regret post" button, not sure what it would do but I would use it

in the meantime you can do what I do and FP yourself

jaymc otm

pathetic

It also occurred to me that asking AOC to nominate the 2nd-place candidate only reinforces the idea that she's part of the party's ideological fringe rather than someone capable of speaking to a wide swath of young people and others who are alienated by the political establishment.

ot

m

they probably also knew that if they gave her 10 minutes, she would be dominating the headlines the following day

I don't think she would be and I think they should have given her what John Kerry and Elizabeth Warren and etc. are getting. More specifically -- I don't think she would be dominating today's headlines because if she'd had a full speech, she would not have demanded that we burn down the Democratic Party, she would have made a powerful case that progressive priorities require electing Joe Biden, just like Sanders did, and she would not dominate headlines the next day any more than Sanders did, because she would not be providing the "Democratic party tearing itself in two!" narrative some people seem to want, because that does not serve her goals and she is an extremely smart, powerful, effective advocate for those goals.

quixotic/doomed or not I would still like to see AOC formally break from the Dems at some point, hopefully with friends in tow

I'm not sure how many in her district would support this move, as much as they appreciate her progressivism; but I'd need more data about her district.

feels like a quick way to doom herself to irrelevance tbrr

I suspect (but can't prove, obv) most of her constituents would take her over the party in a heartbeat xp

better to risk irrelevance than keep propping up these losers who don't even respect you imho

I suspect (but can't prove, obv) most of her constituents would take her over the party in a heartbeat xp

― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.),

Ha. This goes for just about every GOP and Dem.

itt simon once again reminds us that he prefers progressivism accomplish nothing rather than form any coalitions with the impure

Also, AOC has never dealt with a Democratic president, nor a Democratic president like Joe Biden. The fun's about to start.

“impure” is a funny way to describe mass murderers, cops, rapists, etc

"mass murderers, cops, rapists, etc" is a funny way to describe democrats. maybe I'd understand you better if you'd expanded on the etc. part.

Part of the tapestry of America iirc

She's still the youngest in Congress, right? I think she should hang onto her "future of the party" mantle until others to her right start trying to take it from her. I'd like to see a generation of Dem socialists come in behind her and wield some serious political power.

I'm kind of surprised she wasn't savvy enough to foresee that this was exactly how her role in the convention was going to be portrayed. or maybe she just felt stuck because this is all she was offered and she didn't want to give the impression she was dissing Bernie.

itt simon once again reminds us that he prefers progressivism accomplish nothing rather than form any coalitions with the impure

there's "coalition" and then there's letting them make a token out of you (or try to). hypothetically this new left formation could work with dems on certain issues.

as a dues paying member of the NDP (sigh) it would be pretty silly if I disavowed compromise altogether

It’s only a coalition if you get something out of it.

The States can't beat Duverger's law, sadly

xp to milo- bingo! but you have to drop some pennies in the slot before you get back a gumball.

One day Lucy’s gonna let you kick the ball.

she's voted with them on countless deeply flawed bills no doubt, what counts as a "penny"