Well, like him or not, one side, clearly, is willing to be allied with him for now. It’s plain as day in the comments. Btw as a general note, this is a much younger crowd than FOX draws.
You know what’s funny about Tim, late last year he put out a video, “You’re Memeing Ocasio-Cortez Toward The Presidency,” in which he says so much free media coverage worked in Trump’s favor and warned of how the same “no press is bad press” could hold true for AOC. The gentle listeners had to remind him the meme makers were the ones on Trump’s side.
So does Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin, who is now standing for election for UKIP. Reactionaries and nazis tend to claim to be democrats, because hiding that you’re a goddamn fascist by claiming to be a republican is counterproductive.
I now question however… are WE obsessed with AOC and with projecting everything we think about what one faction or the other is like onto a map of reaction to AOC?
Michelle Bachmann is the perfect counter-example. I don’t think Democrats talked about her far more than her status warranted because they were afraid of her - they did it because she was the perfect foil, and because they felt that the more Michelle Bachmann could be made the face of the Republican party, the better it was for Democrats.
I know a lot of conservatives. I don’t know a single one who is afraid of her. She’s a laughingstock - a lightweight bartender who backed into power on a fluke, and is now in the process of helping Democrats lose the next election. And if her plans to organize to primary out Democratic moderates and replace them with more socialists come to fruition, she will have helped to destroy the Democratic party.
Far from being afraid of her, if she keeps doing what she’s doing conservatives will start sending her campaign money. On the other hand, they should be careful what they wish for, because I think Democrats employed the same strategy with Donald Trump, and look what happened.
I was about to respond with this. And I’m hopeful that AOC has the capacity to learn (unlike Trump apparently). And, unlike Trump, she has plenty of time to learn. It’s very possible that she’ll hold that House seat for as long as she wishes. And I think she might be very politically naturally talented… if so, she’ll have a bright future in NY and possibly national politics.
AIUI, she busted her ass door-to-door to primary the incumbent. Not really a fluke if she worked hard for it (though, the incumbent being complacent did help).
"Kentucky Republican congressman Andy Barr invited Ocasio-Cortez to come meet coal miners in his state “who will tell you what the Green New Deal would mean for their families, their paychecks.”
(Oh, and when she gladly accepted, he put conditions on the invite, then took it back.)
"Uninviting Ocasio-Cortez is probably a smart move on Barr’s part in the long run. For one thing, there aren’t any active coal mines in Barr’s district. And James Comer, another Republican representative from Kentucky, told local news that he didn’t “see any upside” to having her come to Kentucky. “I think a lot of Republicans are making a mistake picking on her. I think we need to be very prepared when we debate her on issues that we’re having a hard time with.”
Yes, for those reasons she’s good ratings-bait, so conservative media is running her quite a bit.
I also think that, while conservative media is pushing the narrative that she is “dumb” and seizing on every gaffe, they realize that she’s smart, media-savvy and getting more polished in her job on a daily basis, and it terrifies them. Yeah go ahead and run with “AOC can’t count”, guys, it guarantees the dimwit rightwing base won’t see her strength until it’s too late.
It looks to me like Andy Barr is leveraging a situation to draw attention to Ocasio-Cortez coming to the defense of Ilhan Omar, who is widely unpopular in this country, by telling her she would have to apologize to another Republican who got in the fray.
Even Matt Gaetz wasn’t afraid to say he agreed with her on aspects of the Green New Deal while expounding on energy alternatives to it he would be in favor of.
This is why it is so premature to be thinking much beyond 2020 when we don’t know if Ocasio-Cortez will still be a representative. We don’t know if intra-party differences will pan out in favor of her, and you almost have to assume that to be in dread of her rising star.
She’s getting asked about AOC because you guys are so obsessed.
Do you not understand how this works? Fox news won’t shut up about her, so of course people are going to ask questions of Democratic leaders about her. This is not complicated.
