# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/61 "2019-04-15T19:59:19Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t know much of anything about her background aside from this post, but don’t Puerto Rican parents make her a natural-born American citizen? How is she an “immigrant”? Ask your party’s leader whether Puerto Rico is America. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/62 "2019-04-15T20:12:10Z")
> [@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. This. Really, long-term, it’s all about needing to find replacement boogeymen now that BHO and HRC are off the scene. AOC fits this perfectly - hell, she’s already got an abbreviation! And if you can damage her long-term viability as a candidate, so much the better. ---
**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, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/63 "2019-04-15T20:21:06Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t know much of anything about her background aside from this post, but don’t Puerto Rican parents make her a natural-born American citizen? How is she an “immigrant”? This is another case of liberals telling each other what Republicans think. See also “the only reason you don’t support her half[del]-baked[/del]-globally-warmed ideas is that she is brown/a woman/a progressive”. Which is also one of the reasons why the 0-57 vote was significant - apparently Democratic Senators are just as scared as the GOP. The Dems can talk all they want about her bold ideas and her stirring vision for the future and etc., etc. Talk’s cheap. Which is what made McConnell calling for the vote a smart piece of strategy. Is the GND just talk, or are y’all serious? Serious enough to commit to it, even as a framework? Apparently not, which is why asking the Dems to commit triggered the usual screams of “no fair asking us to put trillions of the taxpayer’s dollars where AOC’s mouth is!” > [@Velocity](#): > > The GOP is really playing with fire here. They are trumpeting AOC’s proposals in order to expose them to sunshine so that they can be debunked (or so goes their thinking), but in fact, what’s likely happening is that they are making her ideas more and more mainstream by giving it more publicity. If AOC’s ideas of “don’t worry about paying for anything” and running the world economy on sunshine and breezes become mainstream, we are doomed anyway. Hold them up to public scrutiny, force the Dems to do more than talk and see if they are serious. If AGW is as imminent and serious as AOC claims to think, then both sides had better do more than talk. If the Dems really think this is the greatest crisis of our time, then they can start acting like it. If it is just another piece of jockeying for political position, then maybe they don’t think it is as serious as they claim. As I have said, we aren’t going to do anything much about global warming. One side doesn’t think it’s serious, and the other side doesn’t act like it’s serious. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/64 "2019-04-15T21:00:50Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > Ask your party’s leader whether Puerto Rico is America. AFAIK, “my party’s leader” isn’t the one that said AOC is an “immigrant”. Wesley Clark did, so I prefer to direct my question to him. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/65 "2019-04-15T21:10:52Z")
In the eyes of Republicans, she’s an immigrant. Wesley Clark was answering the question of why Republicans are obsessed with her, so he framed the problem from their point of view. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/66 "2019-04-15T21:13:09Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Maybe. We’ll see. If she’s a young and highly skilled liberal politician, then they should be afraid of her. I think she might well be, but we won’t know for sure without more time. She is a _young and highly skilled liberal politician,_ but altho she is\* smart\*, she hasnt learned \*wisdom \*yet, and hasnt realized that when she talks off the cuff and of course not fact checked, she will get things very wrong and they will parade that all over the media. She needs to learn to not be like Trump and speak in public only when well prepared to do so. Learn from Pelosi, not Trump. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2019, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/67 "2019-04-15T21:17:54Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Last winter we explored the question “[Why is conservative media obsessed with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=865958)?”. For the naysayers in that now-closed thread, we now have proof that the folks at Fox are obsessed with her: [Study: Fox News is obsessed with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez](https://apnews.com/cfbdab50d2be4ba9bc9bcf499dbb85fe): > > > [@](#): > > > > A study found that the New York City Democrat was mentioned 3,181 times on Fox News Channel and its sister Fox Business Network during the six-week period of Feb. 25 to April 7, or just under 76 times a day. Not a day went by when she wasn’t spoken about on Fox. > > > > The liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, which did the research, called it an obsession and said the first term representative has become the network’s latest bogeyman, “someone for hosts and guests to demonize, knock down and refer to whenever grievances need to be aired against the Democratic Party.” > > The notion that it’s all about ratings doesn’t hold water for me, tho it’s not surprising they’d lie about their motivations here: they lie about everything. Does anyone have a quote to the study? According to the AP News story quoted here, the study doesn’t compare to how often AOC is mentioned in other news outlets. Do they count how often Fox mentions other politicians? What’s the basis for saying 76 times per day is obsessive? Is that half as much as CNN or twice as much? Does Fox mention three other politicians more than that or thirty? A number out of context is useless. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/68 "2019-04-15T21:22:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In the eyes of Republicans, she’s an immigrant. Wesley Clark was answering the question of why Republicans are obsessed with her, so he framed the problem from their point of view. Which Republicans? Has President Trump called her an “immigrant”? Have other party leaders? Is there some random guy on Twitter with a dozen followers that said it? I’m a Republican, and I’ve never seen AOC as an “immigrant”, as one data point. What data points do you (or **WC** ) have to add to it to support your assertion? ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/69 "2019-04-15T22:17:35Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Which Republicans? Has President Trump called her an “immigrant”? Have other party leaders? Is there some random guy on Twitter with a dozen followers that said it? > > I’m a Republican, and I’ve never seen AOC as an “immigrant”, as one data point. What data points do you (or **WC** ) have to add to it to support your assertion? I have never seen it either. Those who ridicule her like to peg her as this self-absorbed millennial who might as well have gotten her university degree from a crackerjack box, who then worked as waitstaff and was bartending for awhile, and then got into public office while pretending to be poorer and less privileged than she really was. Maybe a psychic knows that’s what they’re thinking; ISTM making the mistake of labeling her an immigrant would detract from how privileged she is. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/70 "2019-04-15T22:36:43Z")
Well, there are some people who think Puerto Ricans are foreigners, like this guy: [Man berates woman for wearing a Puerto Rico flag shirt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIebeRlTtQ) The guy is harassing a woman for wearing a PR flag shirt and says she ~“shouldn’t be wearing that shirt in the US.” ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/71 "2019-04-15T22:44:17Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Well, there are some people who think Puerto Ricans are foreigners, like this guy: > > [Man berates woman for wearing a Puerto Rico flag shirt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIebeRlTtQ) > > The guy is harassing a woman for wearing a PR flag shirt and says she ~“shouldn’t be wearing that shirt in the US.” OK, thanks for sharing the source. It sounds like it’s more in-line with “some random guy on Twitter with a dozen followers” than “[my] party’s leader”, agreed? On a side note: are you familiar with the phrase “nutpicking”? Can you see how it might apply here? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/72 "2019-04-15T23:57:51Z")
[Are the folks at CBS News nuts?](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-sotomayor-prefers-sonia-from-the-bronx-29-01-2013/) > [@](#): > > Sonia Sotomayor … is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants… ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/73 "2019-04-16T00:31:41Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > No need to overthink this. > > Right-wingers focus heavily on Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar because they want them to be perceived as the new face of the Democratic Party. The more their far-out and/or bigoted statements can be emphasized, the more fear can be generated among voters. And as long as there’s serious promotion of the Green New Deal, Supreme Court stacking, slavery reparations etc., they’ve got plenty of fuel. > > Democrats (and Dopers) have often used this strategy to paint Republicans as extreme and dangerous (and frankly, there’ve been considerably more semi-loonies on that side of the aisle in recent years). I can recall countless threads here on dopes like Michele Bachmann (“See - _that’s_ what They are really like!”). > > It’s a bonus now that Republicans can point to splits between the Democratic old guard and radicals, just as Democrats have gleefully exploited the divide between Trumpites and big business-as-usual GOPers. Well, I read through (ok, I skimmed through) most of this thread, and this seems to be the most spot on. I think they are wanting to make her the new face of the Democratic party, not because they fear her, but because that will rile up the masses and get them to vote. Frankly, I can’t see how anyone could be afraid of her. She is…well, not a nut, but she is definitely a fringe politician. She isn’t really a liberal, as someone up thread stated, she is a progressive, and even there she isn’t exactly main stream. She is young, inexperienced, fiery, and very progressive, and she is like a bull in a china shop with her actions. Sure, 'dopers love her…but as we’ve kind of seen, time and again, 'dopers (US 'dopers especially) aren’t exactly in touch with the country as a whole. We are pretty fringe ourselves. I mean, when I’m considered some sort of mainstream conservative, you know you are skewing pretty far from the herd (among conservatives I’m often described as a liberal). I think you are also right to highlight the fact that there IS a war on for the heart and soul of the Democratic party, between actual liberals and the establishment and the progressive wing. Republicans are gleeful about it, and adding fuel to the fire by highlighting AOC as a main player only buffs her creds and intensifies the fight, as Dems have to think ‘well, if the Republicans are “obsessed” and “scared” of her, must be something to this…’. They are playing both their own voter base AND throwing fuel on the fire between liberals/establishment and progressives. It’s a two-fer for them! ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/74 "2019-04-16T00:38:52Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > OK, thanks for sharing the source. It sounds like it’s more in-line with “some random guy on Twitter with a dozen followers” than “[my] party’s leader”, agreed? > > On a side note: are you familiar with the phrase “nutpicking”? Can you see how it might apply here? > **[Urban Dictionary: nutpicking](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nutpicking)** > > The practice of sifting through the comments of blogs, email threads, discussion groups and other user generated content in an attempt find choice quotes proving that the advocates for or against a particular political opinion are unreasonable,... > [@](#): > > The practice of sifting through the comments of blogs, email threads, discussion groups and other user generated content in an attempt find choice quotes proving that the advocates for or against a particular political opinion are unreasonable, uninformed extremists. Is that guy an extreme outlier? Do you think Donald Trump knew Puerto Rico was an American territory before the campaign and someone explained it to him? Trump doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp on geography, as well as just about any other subject. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/75 "2019-04-16T00:51:03Z")
If [the left-wing HuffPo](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1NeKHKwBfDsJ:https://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-powers-hannley/health-care-for-all-ameri_2_b_1197185.html+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) [can slip up](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-nuyorican-poets-cafe_b_1553596) [on “Puerto Rican immigrants”](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-could-be-the-gop-waterloo-in-2018-and-2020_b_5a1c9b05e4b07bcab2c69948)… ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/76 "2019-04-16T00:54:22Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > AFAIK, “my party’s leader” isn’t the one that said AOC is an “immigrant”. Wesley Clark did, so I prefer to direct my question to him. You should ask Trump, your party’s leader. What do you think he’d say if you did? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/77 "2019-04-16T01:09:34Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > You should ask Trump, your party’s leader. What do you think he’d say if you did? Blather blather, _incomprehensible_ blather blather blather, _incomprehensible_ _WTF??_ blather blather Democrats are bad blather blather blather… Who knows what he’d say. Hell, who knows if what he said is actually what he knows or believes? The dude lies constantly, tries to shape reality to his own view of the world, and basically talks to the audience he has so that he makes them think that the vague horseshit he’s spewing connects with them and supports whatever they are saying or believe. I looked it up on Google, and the media (well, some of them) seem to THINK he doesn’t know if Puerto Rico is in the US. But I read the tweets and basically they were as above…blather blather _incomprehensible_. You could read them any of a number of ways to say any of a number of things depending on what you wanted them to say or what you think they are saying or what you expect that horses ass to say. But they don’t actually say much of anything. It’s like all of his bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/78 "2019-04-16T08:28:03Z")
Anyone bringing up the 0-57 vote as a knock on the Green New Deal either hasn’t spent 5 seconds trying to figure out why that result happened or is being deeply dishonest. Here’s a hint: AOC asked senate dems to abstain. ---
**Author:** ![SOJA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/79 "2019-04-16T11:51:50Z")
Fox didn’t give a dog’s fart when she won her election and still didn’t until around February when she began making headlines. She was vocal before, but they didn’t bother with her much. Fox attacks anyone who may be a problem to their bottom dollar. Fox couldn’t give two shits about Republican voters, just as long as they tune in so their advertisers keep paying them to be on their shows. When a Dem is POTUS, Fox’s goal is easy as pie. When an Rep is in office, they focus on the Dems as a whole. Fox is so screwed these days they kowtowed to Bernie by filling his town hall with his supporters. > [@enipla](#): > > 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. Ah, yes, the same dopes who think Puerto Ricans aren’t bonafide US citizens at birth, but they are! ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513/80 "2019-04-16T16:29:47Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Anyone bringing up the 0-57 vote as a knock on the Green New Deal either hasn’t spent 5 seconds trying to figure out why that result happened or is being deeply dishonest. Here’s a hint: AOC asked senate dems to abstain. Oh ok. So it’s a knock on supposed independent Democratic adults in the senate. Either they take orders from a neophyte or they are too cowardly to vote against this nonsense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-media-is-obsessed-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/832513.md?page=5)