What are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Flaws?

lots of ambiguity

safe to say everyone has limited info,including aoc.

Intercept Podcast Special: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Play • 40 min
Today we’re presenting a podcast special from our Intercept colleagues in DC. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joins Intercept reporters Ryan Grim and Briahna Joy Gray for an in-depth conversation about her fresh approach to politics, her thoughts on 2020, and her insurgent congressional campaign. As a new member of the House Financial Services Committee, she’s already shaping the conversation with her call to raise the top marginal tax rate to 70%. And former North Carolina congressman Brad Miller, a progressive Democrat who served for years on the committee, joins the conversation to talk about the challenges Ocasio-Cortez will face there.

I guess we can think of leftist reasons to pretend that’s relevant to right wingers trying to kill both her and her establishment Dem colleagues. I understand the recreational aspect of that, I honestly do.

They start talking about the committee structure and how you have to sign up and pledge to raise funds for the party in order to get on "good" committees at around 19:55. AOC:

"Very early after I won my primary, there was a lot of outreach from incumbent Democrats and the one question everyone kept asking was what committee do you want to be on? And I literally had just gotten elected and I was like Idk what committees are there?...

I spent one day in DC and I met with some folks, and it wasn't until the very end of the day that I was told, you know, if you want a good committee, you've got to raise funds. And I remember saying, well, because at that time I had raised funds for other progressive candidates... we had raised over $50 or $100k for other progressive, non corporate funded campaigns, so I was like, 'I am raising funds' and they were like, 'No, to the D-trip (DCCC).'

So I remember leaving it, like, 'I'm going to get put on some terrible committee,' and so...election time comes and we're just getting our assignments this week, January of the new term, but we've basically spent the last 3 months since the election lobbying--and this is a very opaque process--no one hands you a sheet of paper and says, 'This is how you get on a committee.' So a lot of freshmen are just babes in the woods, and you talk to a lot of people. But one of the interesting developments on Financial Services is, we were asking to be put on an Exclusive Committee, and for a freshman that doesn't normally happen. And then we started feeling much more reception to this request than we had anticipated, and were like, what's going on? And I had sat down with Chairwoman Waters, and it seems like we're in this very interesting moment where, after the financial crisis, all these activists and advocates really started zeroing in on the FSC, and because its members were getting so much more scrutiny than they had in the past, it no longer became the same kind of fund-raising committee because those members were getting targeted a lot, and so as a result a lot of the incumbent members on it had left to go to other money committees, and so it opened up this huge window. And so this year the FSC has actually been staffed with a lot of progressives on it."

There have been articles written about progressives doing similar things locally and running for, like, dog catcher and using whatever levers of power there to impact beyond the scope of the mission (dog shit impacts waste management, for example). The worst example pf this is the rando loon who wrote himself in for pennsylvania tax collector or whatever

So no, she didn't "get good committee assignments" because they loved her so much and wanted her to do this work. She got dumped onto FSC when no one else wanted it, and then the squad started actually doing the work and that has upset ppl (donors).

many xposts: "I thought that was debunked and it was Boebert giving a tour of the Colorado capitol some months ago."

youre conflating two different things. there was a photo going around with the claim that she gave these people a tour before the insurrection; that photo was actually of the capitol in Colorado from last year. However, she did give a tour to people before the insurrection; her mother was one of them. Other Reps. have said vaguely that one of the members did this but they didn't name names, for whatever reason.

I'm not sure how you square "I asked to be on an Exclusive Committee and was put on one when spots opened up beyond the arcane, undocumented process normally used to staff them" with "She got dumped onto FSC when no one else wanted it". Like, from her own words it seems that she wanted to be on the committee and that Waters was actively soliciting her and other progressives at the time the assignments happened.

I'm not sure how picking at that not-very-clear process is in opposition to the idea that the establishment Dems don't love pressure from their own left, and that very highly visible reps AOC and Cori Bush are speaking out about not being adequately protected by their own party?!

Maybe they haven't directly called out the party specifically because I seem to remember a lot of drama when AOC said last year that Pelosi might need replacing and I'm sure some lessons were learned from that. But when progressive reps take to other media platforms and tell their stories in a way that might seem non-traditional and outside of existing reporting structures, it's not a coincidence??

It isn't, specifically. It just doesn't seem like an accurate representation of how she got on the committee in the first place and, to me, warps the interpretation of her description of the problems she subsequently had with leadership. You're casting it as doomed from the beginning and it doesn't read that way to me, and because it doesn't read that way to me I have more hope that the pressure she's putting on leadership isn't entirely unwanted (it certainly shouldn't have been surprising) and that there's conflict built by definition into the job description for committee leadership that the pressure she's applying is highlighting, above and beyond "the Democratic leadership just doesn't like her and is hobbling her at the behest of their donors".

I think there is understandable and expected tension between how the committees function and how we want them to function, and while I would cheerfully chuck every sitting Republican into a deep river at this point, they are coworkers in this workplace who hold no accountability to their coworkers; until voters get rid of them, leadership in the House and Senate have to figure out the best way coexist with them, particularly since they don't have the numbers to outright block them out of participating in the legislative process.

I'm not trying to say there's not conflict or that AOC's description of it is overblown. I'm saying there are still more similarities than differences between the wings/factions of the Democratic Party and I don't expect them to wholesale offer their most popular members as sacrificial lambs to bloodthirsty Republicans, which informs how I interpret overtures/interactions between Democratic and Republican leadership. I don't have all the details and I don't think AOC is making up anything in her description of what has been happening; I can only take her words at face-value and incorporate them with my understanding of the way Washington politics works.

I mean, I hope there's hope too! And I have no insights into how she or Pressley or Tlaib got on FSC--except that it was unexpected, and AOC implies that she had no ability or interest in promising to make large donations/fundraise for the DCCC in return. (I consolidated some of that interview, she goes into slightly more detail about how the DCCC had been unsupportive in progressive races.) I'm thrilled that Pressley and Tlaib ended up on that committee too and they've all been amazing. If Waters *was* stuck, at that time, with high-ranking FSC members abandoning ship because they couldn't be as corrupt as they had gotten accustomed to being, she was probably happy to get rid of them! And get progressive women of color in their places! Imo that's a net gain all around.

Specifically I was reacting to Don saying that "she got good committee assignments" as proof that there wasn't significant tension between her and the party and that it was "deranged" to think there was hostility there. Dem leadership is not adequately protecting its progressive members and that is terrifying if that's the best they can hope for.

What’s the thing about Dem leadership not protecting its progressive members come from? I mean beyond the broader security issues that put all the Dem reps at risk on 1/6

excellent posts djp

It is terrifying, yes. It's also an artifact of the Democratic politician's assumption that the loonies are all talk, no action, and that the country is inexorably marching towards their point of view so there's no need to push/sell people on their viewpoints as they are just Common Sense. It's their hubristic complacency that hamstrung the latter part of Obama's presidency, warped AMA into a form that hurts as many people as it helps, and creates gigantic blind spots in how their agenda is being interpreted and what people in this country are thinking at any given time.

I will say that I don't expect the DCCC of the past few years to wholeheartedly embraces a fully progressive agenda so I understand why they would have candidate priorities different from AOC and I understand why she wouldn't want to fundraise for them. I think that's understandable and good tension and it would be odd to me if it didn't exist. I still don't think that means the Democratic establishment is intentionally with full malice attempting to endanger and harm its progressive members, particularly since AOC, Tlaib, and Pressley all retained seats on the FSC after its size was contracted. None of this is to say that the Democratic leadership has done a great job of integrating and supporting the progressive members that have joined them in Congress but it isn't in any of their interests to set them up to fail and, if there's one thing we can depend on national politicians to do, it's act in their own self-interest.

I'm concerned that the difference between full malice or complacency won't matter if something happens. Various republicans have been refusing to go through metal detectors for a month now. I hope Cori Bush's resolution to investigate/remove reps from the House for voting against certifying the election goes somewhere, although Idk what its chances are.

I share that concern but I also think it's easier to get someone to take you seriously if they haven't been paying as much attention to you as they should have been paying than when they actively hate you and want you to fail.

I also think the insurrection shook some of the complacency off of the Democratic Party as a whole, who are absolutely making moves and staunchly supporting positions they would have tepidly offered up as fodder for bipartisan compromise two months ago.

looks like a bunch of right-wingers are accusing her of making the whole thing up because she wasn't in the main capitol building at the time

kind of summarizes conservatism as a whole, just because *they* make up shit that's so easily debunked, it must mean the other side would as well

Friendly reminder to keep generously tipping your bartenders, servers, delivery, venue, and hospitality workers. ☺️🌹 https://t.co/gjxRaNEtfe

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 13, 2021

(And no this is not intended for magic the gathering players, you’re cool w/ me)

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 13, 2021

i'm not sure what this reference is, but you have to appreciate a politician shouting out M:TG

Marjorie Taylor Greene

It's just a reference to Manu Raju shortening Marjorie Taylor Greene's name to MTG.

she really does have the best fadeaway jumper in the game

Nice

you're cool w/ us too

— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) May 13, 2021

Greene's arms too short too box with god

to*

i wonder who's going to win in the cool-off between fucking AOC and MTG

“Talking to her. She says screaming. You know what screaming is? Screaming is what people do when rockets are fired at them like Hamas terrorists are firing into Israel,” Greene told reporters.

MTG is the beating heart of...something

it's like she speaks with the obvious intent to get quoted somewhere after, but has no idea what makes a statement quotable

And now it’s revealed that this person showed up to members of Congress’ doors with folks from the mob who infiltrated the Capitol, beat Capitol Police, and strung up nooses in front of the House.

If the shoe were on the other foot, the GOP would be calling for my expulsion. https://t.co/ccN01sjbBk

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 14, 2021

New: A since-deleted video from 2019 shows MTG harassing @AOC's office through a locked door. Calling her "crazy eyes" and telling her through the office's mailbox slot to "get rid of your diaper" while telling the office to open the door and come out. https://t.co/QgcJucs4o8 pic.twitter.com/ccTufF90Z9

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) May 14, 2021

this stupid menace needs to go

if any democrat - let alone AOC - did anything remotely close to this, it would be all over fox and the #1 they talked about for MONTHS until she was forced to resign

Shit, half the Dems would be calling for her to resign.

like Hamas terrorists are firing into Israel

Ah I see the update finally finished downloading, was briefly concerned when she was still screaming about antifa terrorists

like Hamas terrorists are firing into Israel

the cruelty of people like MTG escapes out of their pores. you can see it especially when they get flustered irl and come up with a counterattack on the fly - it's completely unrelated to what was being discussed, and also it manages to be despicable and wrong in a completely different way

a close bigot in my life used to do that. the issue would be stuff like "stay on the trail" and he would immediately flip to "but YOU probably had an ABORTION!"

but imagine being like that, and then being rewarded for it by your own constituents, and there's no one left in the party to tell you "no". she's a fucking mess

the people of GA district 14 can go fuck off too

i kind of want to go there and troll her constituents as she trolls the rest of the country on their behalf

maybe i should go yell things at them through their front doors

yeah she's like a right-wing blog comment from 2003 made into a human, screaming "Chappaquiddick" at you when you voice the opinion that maybe torture is bad

I guess I am slightly curious if those three idiots realized how much their three little pigs routine looked like an amateur horror movie

the cruelty of people like MTG escapes out of their pores. you can see it especially when they get flustered irl and come up with a counterattack on the fly - it's completely unrelated to what was being discussed, and also it manages to be despicable and wrong in a completely different way

maybe they've been doing this forever but I've noticed this a ton since the Trump era, you can't talk to them about anything without them flipping to the one topic they actually want to discuss. "the destruction of our environment? if you ask me the real issue facing the American people is the destruction of emails, but you never want to talk about that, I wonder why"

lmao but they have been doing this for a while for sure. It may have taken on a more cult-like vibe since 2016 though

And if the target does the smart thing by refusing to engage when they ambush out of nowhere, they screech about how they "refuse to debate".

also I mentioned this in the Politics thread but she talks exactly like On Cinema Tim: "Alexandra Okay-sio Cortez. I'm an American citizen. I pay your salary through the taxes you collect from me through the IRS. Because I'm a taypaying citizen of the United States. I'm a woman, and I'm a female...business owner. And I'm proud to be an American woman. And I do not support your socialist policies and I do not support your murderous abortion...policies"

These are as bad as policies can get and it's so horrible that they're still making these kinds of policies