# Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (her brilliant retort to Yoho) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 24, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220 "2020-07-24T14:56:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/21 "2020-07-24T16:00:51Z")
> [@CardboardBoxx](#): > > Not going to watch a 9 minute video. Please summarise. [Here’s a transcript.](https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-floor-speech-about-yoho-remarks-july-23) ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/22 "2020-07-24T16:13:30Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > [Here’s a transcript.](https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-floor-speech-about-yoho-remarks-july-23) Thanks – that was a terrific 3-minute read. Say what you will about AOC’s policies, she knows how to cut to the bone. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/23 "2020-07-24T16:14:21Z")
I don’t agree with some of AOC’s policy positions, but she has earned my respect. Just as Hillary did when she was First Lady and the crap she got for having an opinion about policy and not being a housewife. Male privilege needs to go and women in power challenging it are the best way to push it out. Women pointing out asshole behavior are not being negative; they are being positive. (On preview, thanks, **ZipperJJ** , I was going to post that. Any thing worth saying is worth writing down.) ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/24 "2020-07-24T16:18:18Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > Thanks – that was a terrific 3-minute read. I imagine it reads well. As someone for whom public speaking is a significant part of my job, it “listens” incredibly well. The ability to do so is really pretty uncommon. I’m reminded of how people used to criticize Obama for sounding intelligent and being able to present information in a reasonable accessible manner. Folk called him elitist (if not “uppity”)! Never understood that criticism. Never understood why it was bad to have intelligent sounding elected officials. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/25 "2020-07-24T16:21:58Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Never understood why it was bad to have intelligent sounding elected officials. Because they wouldn’t be Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/26 "2020-07-24T17:08:18Z")
AOC is just a social media attention whore who wants national spotlight attention while doing little to no actual representation for the district that elected her. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/27 "2020-07-24T17:12:22Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Because they wouldn’t be Republicans. Though I disagreed with their positions, Goldwater or Dole were able to put complex thoughts together into understandable positions. I’m sure there are currently some sensible, well spoken Republicans. I am extremely liberal on most issues, but I imagine that on just about every issue, there is SOME reasonably persuasive and supportable conservative position that could be expressed. It is just such a damned shame that you so rarely hear such expressions - from EITHER side. I always thought Reagan a bullshitter, offering little other than empty - if not disingenuous - platitudes. I readily admit that I have little more use for empty liberal blather, than I do for Fox. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/28 "2020-07-24T17:13:56Z")
> [@pool](#): > > AOC is just a social media attention whore who wants national spotlight attention while doing little to no actual representation for the district that elected her . Well, the good people in her district are free to elect someone else if they don’t like what she’s doing. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/29 "2020-07-24T17:16:34Z")
> [@pool](#): > > AOC is just a social media attention whore who wants national spotlight attention while doing little to no actual representation for the district that elected her. Dude, AOC spends more time in the chamber, grilling CEO execs, and debating policy than just about any other member of congress. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/30 "2020-07-24T17:17:12Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I respect women, I have a wife and two daughters. I’ve never understood people making this ridiculous argument. The mere existence of women in your household implies absolutely nothing about how you treat women, except I suppose that since they exist you haven’t actually murdered them. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/31 "2020-07-24T17:17:21Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > > [@pool](#): > > > > AOC is just a social media attention whore who wants national spotlight attention while doing little to no actual representation for the district that elected her . > > Well, the good people in her district are free to elect someone else if they don’t like what she’s doing. And the ones that liked her representation so far just recently voted to keep her. > **[Ocasio-Cortez breezes to reelection as progressives, including Jamaal Bowman,...](https://www.nydailynews.com/2020/06/24/ocasio-cortez-breezes-to-reelection-as-progressives-including-jamaal-bowman-dominate-ny-congressional-primaries/)** > > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading the way. The left-leaning congresswoman breezed to victory in her first primary as an incumbent on Tuesday, setting the tone for an election night dominated by p… ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/32 "2020-07-24T17:23:01Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Dude, AOC spends more time in the chamber, grilling CEO execs, and debating policy than just about any other member of congress. This is in nutshell why there is a lot of propaganda against her, we should never forget that one reason for government to be there is to be powerful enough to cut down to size corporations when they become too powerful **and** abusive. Many conservatives in power just want to be rubber stamps for corporations. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/33 "2020-07-24T17:25:34Z")
> [@pool](#): > > AOC is just a social media attention whore who wants national spotlight attention while doing little to no actual representation for the district that elected her. Are you in here district? Because pretty much everyone I have seen who complains about her not representing her constituents don’t even live in New York. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/34 "2020-07-24T17:38:16Z")
> [@pool](#): > > AOC is just a social media attention whore who wants national spotlight attention while doing little to no actual representation for the district that elected her. And your evidence for this is… that you keep hearing about her? That must be because she’s an “attention whore”? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/35 "2020-07-24T17:38:45Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > And she is being awful thin skinned, that’s not a sign of a successful politician, and you know who else is awful ‘thin skinned’? I watched her speech and I didn’t think she was being thin-skinned at all. The real thin (orange) skin would have been incoherent after 30 seconds. Brilliant speech, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/36 "2020-07-24T17:44:32Z")
> [@pool](#): > > AOC is just a social media attention whore who wants national spotlight attention while doing little to no actual representation for the district that elected her. Yep, there’s that firehose of nonsense in action. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/37 "2020-07-24T17:55:10Z")
Eh, it was a nice speech, but it isn’t anything that isn’t in the lived experience of pretty much every woman on the planet. You either already knew this or you haven’t been paying attention, and won’t suddenly start now. Complete preaching to the choir. If anything in this speech makes you sit up and change your behavior, you REALLY haven’t been paying attention for…the 50+ years I’ve been alive. Necessary to call him out. Not really necessary to pat AOC on the back for stating the obvious and doing what really is her duty as a woman and a feminist and a Representative - to speak up. That she wasn’t going to bother is more of an indictment against her than her speaking up when hearing the half assed non-apology. Then again, perhaps she knew she was going to be dismissed as a whiny bitch - because when you aren’t a fucking bitch for standing up for what you believe in you are a whiny bitch for doing so - on the plus side, its almost like women are multidimensional. (And Dennis Rader had a wife and kids while he was torturing and murdering women - I REALLY don’t get that as some sort of pass) ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/38 "2020-07-24T18:40:12Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Eh, it was a nice speech, but it isn’t anything that isn’t in the lived experience of pretty much every woman on the planet. You either already knew this or you haven’t been paying attention, and won’t suddenly start now. Complete preaching to the choir. If anything in this speech makes you sit up and change your behavior, you REALLY haven’t been paying attention for…the 50+ years I’ve been alive. Necessary to call him out. Not really necessary to pat AOC on the back for stating the obvious and doing what really is her duty as a woman and a feminist and a Representative - to speak up. That she wasn’t going to bother is more of an indictment against her than her speaking up when hearing the half assed non-apology. Then again, perhaps she knew she was going to be dismissed as a whiny bitch - because when you aren’t a fucking bitch for standing up for what you believe in you are a whiny bitch for doing so - on the plus side, its almost like women are multidimensional. What’s important here isn’t that she’s saying anything new – it’s that she’s saying it more candidly and more forcefully than has ever been expressed in the House. (At least as far as I’m aware – if someone else has done so I’d love to read that transcript, too.) Now the Congressional Record can forever reflect “the lived experience of pretty much every woman on the planet” as well as Yoho’s repugnant behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/39 "2020-07-24T18:47:17Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Plenty of room in this story for bad behavior. He used the words ‘fucking bitch’, but not directly to her, he was just heard by someone else who is being rude by repeating the words not meant to be heard. He didn’t say it directly to her, but he absolutely meant it to be heard. He’s a coward and they only one who was being rude here. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/40 "2020-07-24T18:50:14Z")
To what end? Really, I’m too tired. And it isn’t the first. Katie Hill did it in her farewell speech as recently as October. Right now, Google is full of AOC, but this is not the first time, not the second time and it won’t be the last time…and I’m tired. More importantly, I’m tired of having men pat themselves on the back for congratulating AOC on a good speech (it was a good speech) like patting yourself on the back really addresses the women in their lives getting called a fucking bitch when they won’t smile for a stranger, or when they insist that someone assigned to their team at work does their job. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220.md?page=3)