# Conservative media \*is\* obsessed with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 13, 2019, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513 "2019-04-13T21:44:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/21 "2019-04-14T00:13:14Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Im willing to entertain this as a possibility. However, I’d like it if you (or someone) could clarify what exactly it is in AOC that the right is scared of? I’ve always had the impression that the right wing media constantly covers AOC because they desperately want her to be the face of the Democratic Party and not just that of the progressive extreme. They’re afraid of things like this, which I mentioned earlier in the thread: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cVuVSk_IUAc/maxresdefault.jpg "WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez asked if Trump 'improperly' avoided paying taxes. Cohen said yes") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVuVSk_IUAc) ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/22 "2019-04-14T02:36:48Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > …shes pretty. A lot of 60 year old white men want to fuck her. Psychological projection much? > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > But also her parents are puerto rican, so shes an immigrant as well as a minority. How is she an immigrant? She was born in the Bronx, and so was her father. Even if she were born in Puerto Rico, she would be a naturally born U.S. citizen, which is the actual status of her mother. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/23 "2019-04-14T04:14:10Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > They’re obsessed because she fits their caricature notion of a liberal: Millennial, a woman, minority, young, supports socialism, etc. […] > > They regard her the same way liberals would regard a Republican politician who was a white man, KKK Klansman, rich, called for women to be barefoot and in the kitchen, identified as fundamentalist evangelical, and got a lot of money from the Koch Brothers. It would be hard to find a more succinct summary of the current massive imbalance in the levels of rationality and just plain common sense between liberals and conservatives these days. Namely, conservatives are getting freaked out about a politician being merely _a young female nonwhite liberal of very mild socialistic tendencies_, to the same level that liberals would get freaked out about a politician being _an actual white-supremacist hate group member who openly advocates oppressive gender discrimination and supports a rabidly intolerant and anti-science religious agenda_. Thanks, **Velocity** , for making the point so clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/24 "2019-04-14T04:16:12Z")
[quote=“bobot, post:21, topic:832513”] They’re afraid of things like this, which I mentioned earlier in the thread: [/QUOTE] You are appealing to her strength as an orator with your examples? I don’t know what went into her preparation. Do you think there was ever much fear on the left of Trey Gowdy? Several years ago hundreds of clips of Trey Gowdy started making the rounds of him taking this, that, and the other person to task. I’m sure many who relished these philippics felt Gowdy was a man who _should_ be feared, as they salivated at the thought of him someday being US Attorney General or even higher. I never got much sense from the other side that fear was playing out, whether the reaction was to fire back or give his theatrics an eyeroll. I think you think she _should_ be feared. There might be a small fraction of AOC’s capabilities and points raised that they honestly find formidable. I’m just not seeing it on the whole, for the time being. In fairness, an item that was discussed a lot by the right wing earlier this year slipped my mind and it’s possible this reporting could be motivated by… some sort of emotion. [Ocasio-Cortez, chief of staff illegally moved $885G in campaign contributions 'off the books,' FEC complaint alleges | Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortezs-millionaire-chief-of-staff-violated-fec-rules-to-hide-885g-fec-complaint-alleges) ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/25 "2019-04-14T04:24:56Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > It would be hard to find a more succinct summary of the current massive imbalance in the levels of rationality and just plain common sense between liberals and conservatives these days. Namely, conservatives are getting freaked out about a politician being merely _a young female nonwhite liberal of very mild socialistic tendencies_, to the same level that liberals would get freaked out about a politician being _an actual white-supremacist hate group member who openly advocates oppressive gender discrimination and supports a rabidly intolerant and anti-science religious agenda_. > > Thanks, **Velocity** , for making the point so clearly. Well said. If velocity’s view of the GOP is even remotely valid, they are so much more pathetic than I thought. And my thoughts about them…weren’t great. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/26 "2019-04-14T04:53:05Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > My point is, she fits the preconceived notion the same way such a GOP politician would fit a liberal preconceived notion. If you asked a conservative to draw up a preconceived notion of a Democratic villain, it would probably look something like AOC. THAT’S the GOP “villain”? And Republicans wonder why people call them batshit crazy. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/27 "2019-04-14T05:11:59Z")
> [@Covfefe](#): > > They use her to paint the party, especially the future of the party as out of ideas except for her loony ones, and there are also culture war issues she is not shy about entering that make for great ratings. And there is undeniably some truth that highlighting her is focusing on a locus where rifts and tension within the party can be found, which their media will then accentuate. Right. To win any national election both parties need the support of middle of the road voters who are not highly idealistic about causes, either on the left or the right. If the right can say, “Here is what you get if you vote for Democrats: you get socialism, no airplane travel, and bans on cows. Instead of listening to you who have busted your hump, paid taxes and put up with regulations for the last 30 years, the Dems listen to a bubblehead millennial whose only qualification was that she is pretty and was a bartender last year.” Now, whether any or none of that is true, the narrative is what is important, and that narrative sells very poorly to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania voters. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/28 "2019-04-14T12:54:16Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > How is she an immigrant? She was born in the Bronx, and so was her father. Even if she were born in Puerto Rico, she would be a naturally born U.S. citizen, which is the actual status of her mother. We are talking about people stupid enough to vote for Donald J Trump. Of course she’s an immigrant. She’s from an island somewhere that is full of brown people. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/29 "2019-04-14T13:11:23Z")
It’s not an obsession. It’s a strategy. You hook on to somebody who looks like a rising star and you commence a firehouse of nonsense, both to paint that person as the personification of the other side while pasting on so much shit that it damages ēs\* viability as the “perfect” candidate. They did it very successfully with Hillary Clinton. As soon as she appeared on the national stage on 1992, the bullshit started and it continued nonstop for a quarter century. So a highly competent person with less than average ethical problems was burdened with the unshakeable identity of being a problematic figure with a history of scandal, no matter that that scandal was manufactured bullshit. That’s exactly what’s happening now to Ocasio Cortes. If it doesn’t cripple her early in her career and she survives to make it to the big leagues, she’ll bear the burden of being a “divisive” and “controversial” Andrew “problematic” candidate and even people on the left will say “how could you possibly nominate our weakest candidate?” At the same time she will become a symbol of all that is bad about the left. \*I’m experimenting with non-gendered pronouns. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/30 "2019-04-14T13:11:33Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I would guess because she might be a very highly skilled communicator, especially at such a young age and with so little experience. If she’s as skilled as I think she might be, then after 10 or 20 years of experience, she could be as formidable a liberal communicator as Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. Politicians as skilled as that become president, as a rule, barring extremely damaging scandals. Not to mention her prowess with social media. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/31 "2019-04-14T16:30:17Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It’s not an obsession. It’s a strategy. You hook on to somebody who looks like a rising star and you commence a firehouse of nonsense, both to paint that person as the personification of the other side while pasting on so much shit that it damages ēs\* viability as the “perfect” candidate. > > They did it very successfully with Hillary Clinton. As soon as she appeared on the national stage on 1992, the bullshit started and it continued nonstop for a quarter century. So a highly competent person with less than average ethical problems was burdened with the unshakeable identity of being a problematic figure with a history of scandal, no matter that that scandal was manufactured bullshit. > > That’s exactly what’s happening now to Ocasio Cortes. If it doesn’t cripple her early in her career and she survives to make it to the big leagues, she’ll bear the burden of being a “divisive” and “controversial” Andrew “problematic” candidate and even people on the left will say “how could you possibly nominate our weakest candidate?” > > At the same time she will become a symbol of all that is bad about the left. > > \*I’m experimenting with non-gendered pronouns. Good point, I didn’t think of this. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/32 "2019-04-14T17:03:28Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > …But also her parents are puerto rican, so shes an immigrant as well as a minority… How the HELL does being born to parents who were born on U.S soil and are U.S. citizens FROM BIRTH make her an immigrant? Or make her parents immigrants? People born in Puerto Rico are natural-born citizens just as much as someone born in Texas or Alaska. Surely you know better than this. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/33 "2019-04-14T17:12:00Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > How the HELL does being born to parents who were born on U.S soil and are U.S. citizens FROM BIRTH make her an immigrant? Or make her parents immigrants? > > People born in Puerto Rico are natural-born citizens just as much as someone born in Texas or Alaska. Surely you know better than this. He’s talking about how it will look to those who watch Fox News. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/34 "2019-04-14T17:29:50Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > He’s talking about how it will look to those who watch Fox News. I’m not getting that from the way he phrased it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/35 "2019-04-15T03:04:20Z")
> [@Covfefe](#): > > A lot of you are overthinking this. They aren’t scared of her. They mostly really do, rightly or wrongly, think she is and will go down in history as a laughingstock. That doesn’t make sense. If she really is already a laughingstock, then they’d be wasting their time talking about her, not going after someone they actually find threatening. Sure, you might make the occasional joke about them, but you aren’t going to constantly bring them up. You mention Sarah Palin. The reason why the left mocked her so much was specifically that we were afraid people wouldn’t see her a laughingstock. She was a genuine threat, running as the VP candidate. It’s also why we’re constantly mocking Trump. We’re scared of having such a buffoon in charge. We want to push the narrative that he is ill equipped to do the job. None of this means we don’t believe what we’re saying. We definitely believe that both are too stupid to run our country, and worthy of mockery. But, make no mistake. We were indeed threatened by Palin, and we are still threatened by Trump. You don’t waste your time attacking people you aren’t threatened by. That said, I do think AOC is a bit of a stand in, and it’s not her specifically that they are afraid of. They are afraid for what she stands for. They’re afraid since her ideas are actually popular, and worried they may actually be implemented. Thus they label her a laughingstock. It’s exactly the strategy used in labeling people PC police or SJWs. It’s what they have done to feminists. The strategy is to take these things they are legitimately afraid of and make them seem ridiculous and mockworthy. That’s why there’s the dichotomy of mocking the “SJWs” as well as saying that they’re “taking over.” ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/36 "2019-04-15T03:05:11Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > How the HELL does being born to parents who were born on U.S soil and are U.S. citizens FROM BIRTH make her an immigrant? Or make her parents immigrants? > > People born in Puerto Rico are natural-born citizens just as much as someone born in Texas or Alaska. Surely you know better than this. She’s brown, so she’s obviously an immigrant. C’mon, we’re not talking in facts here. Given that one poster has compared her to a bible-thumping racist with a ton of money and a distinct lack of melanin, reality is not the issue. She’s a fever dream of the right. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/37 "2019-04-15T11:31:36Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > My point is, she fits the preconceived notion the same way such a GOP politician would fit a liberal preconceived notion. If you asked a conservative to draw up a preconceived notion of a Democratic villain, it would probably look something like AOC. Conservatives have strange “villains” ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/38 "2019-04-15T11:33:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It’s not an obsession. It’s a strategy. You hook on to somebody who looks like a rising star and you commence a firehouse of nonsense, both to paint that person as the personification of the other side while pasting on so much shit that it damages ēs\* viability as the “perfect” candidate. > > They did it very successfully with Hillary Clinton. As soon as she appeared on the national stage on 1992, the bullshit started and it continued nonstop for a quarter century. So a highly competent person with less than average ethical problems was burdened with the unshakeable identity of being a problematic figure with a history of scandal, no matter that that scandal was manufactured bullshit. > > That’s exactly what’s happening now to Ocasio Cortes. If it doesn’t cripple her early in her career and she survives to make it to the big leagues, she’ll bear the burden of being a “divisive” and “controversial” Andrew “problematic” candidate and even people on the left will say “how could you possibly nominate our weakest candidate?” > > At the same time she will become a symbol of all that is bad about the left. > > \*I’m experimenting with non-gendered pronouns. Excellent analysis. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/39 "2019-04-15T12:18:34Z")
The world is coming to an end in twelve years, so they are publicizing her now while they’ve got the chance. Or else she’s young and pretty, far left, says outrageously stupid things and embarrasses the establishment liberals. What’s not to like? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/40 "2019-04-15T12:32:22Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > But I think another big thing (which you mention with her being young) is that a lot of conservatives know deep down inside that she will still be here in 20 years and they will not. The median age of a fox news viewer is almost 70, while AOC is 29. Deep down inside conservatives know in 20 years many of them will be dead and AOC won’t even be 50 yet. She represents the fox news generation sliding into irrelevancy while the next generation take over and change America into something they don’t like (a multicultural, multiracial, feminist nation with center left politics). This isn’t exactly on topic, but why do people keep repeating this weird idea that conservatism will age away? They’ve been saying it for decades and it hasn’t happened yet. People get more conservative as they age, and as Fox news demonstrates, you can turn a mildly conservative person into a drooling reactionary. I was hearing this “conservatives will age away” stuff thirty years ago, and in 2016 Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513.md?page=3)