I am giving her a chance. I follow her on Twitter and I’ve not been impressed so far.
This is the type of garbage from AOC’s Twitter account that I don’t like.
…It’s not about Republicans or Democrats, he said, but about working people coming together…
AOC, was quoting James Thompson, who is running a hopeless race in Mike Pompeo’s former district.
Look, all this bipartisanship stuff might sound nice, but how about campaigning FOR Democrats. Tell us why the DEMOCRATIC party is a better choice in November.
I hope Speaker Pelosi has a nice broom closet next to the toilets for AOC’s office once the Democrats take back the House in November.
When a post like this is immediately followed by another attack on her, you make it very hard to give any credence to the notion that you are “giving her a chance” unless you left off “to say or do something I can disparage.”
Appeals to bipartisanship are entirely normal for candidates in general elections. This is a bullshit criticism. AOC isn’t perfect, but this tweet is not reasonably criticizable, IMO.
I also follow Donald Trump on Twitter. I will give him the slightest bit of credit, he does often tweet about the importance of voting more Republicans into office.
If AOC won because she thinks Joe Crowley ignored her district, then why is AOC now campaigning for hopeless cause candidates in Kansas and Missouri?
Oh come on – trying to win long shot candidacies is a good thing, even when it doesn’t work out. That’s a weak criticism. If the stars align, like they did for Jones in Alabama, Democrats can even win deep-red voting districts. Trying to do so is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Stating how you want the progressive caucus to reorganize itself once you get there is acting the part. That’s the sort of thing that you float to your new potential allies once you are there, listen to the behind the scenes real politik reasons why it has not been done before, and maybe convince some who have been there that it was their idea and that you think it is brilliant and how can you help? Seriously. Spend a little time listening and asking questions to learn from the likes of Keith Ellison, Jan Schakowsky, Raúl Grijalva, Mark Pocan, and even newer voices in the chamber that have risen fast like Pramila Jayapal, first.
All I can say is that I was one of those established members of the progressive caucus I’d find myself wanting to slap her down. Oh I’d control it and try to mentor her but some people don’t take to being mentored. I believe she is smart. I think she is personable. She has a great story and checks off some important boxes that will attract interest. All these things are great and can be leveraged. But hubris can take down even the talented.
At the moment, AOC is trying to persuade people to fight a problem that doesn’t exist in their minds. But the crisis of capitalism is inevitable, and when we’re confronted with that reality, she will soar into the political stratosphere.
As someone who grew up on the KS/MO border, I am trying to figure out how to respond to this remark within board rules.
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Because it’s the job. This is what the Justice Democrats were formed to do. They are trying to back each other up. They probably won’t all win, but some will.
Your animosity against AOC is baffling. Especially since the examples you come up with are so picayune.
She gives lip service to bipartisanship (or rather asks for Republican voters to vote intelligently) and you call that “garbage”?? 
Let me go on record: I want Democratic candidates to reach out to Republican voters of the working class. I want Democratic candidates to give lip-service to bipartisanship. Why? Voters smart enough to know that the GOP won’t cooperate are already committed to one side or the other. But many poorly informed voters are sick of partisan politics and want to hear economic solutions, or even appeals for bipartisanship. This is the way to get elected, and that must be the first priority. (This doesn’t seem like rocket science to me.)
I predict that AOC will serve as an intelligent and hard-working Congresswoman. She’ll push for a progressive agenda but be loyal to the Democratic Party.
(Is there a synopsis, here or in the Pit, of dalej42’s disgust for this woman? I truly find it baffling.)
More importantly she’s trying to fix what Democrats from the end of the Clinton era and her own campaign broke. The Democratic establishment for a good 10-15 years began focusing on the map, trying to protect their blue wall and writing off large swaths of the country because they assumed they were going to lose those votes anyway. Particularly problematic is that they mainly played the game every 4 years, preparing for the presidential races and under-preparing for mid-terms and local elections, which is where the Republicans have been amassing their strength over the past 20 years. Republicans have absolutely dominated the Democrats in two ways: the state and local elections, and the mid-terms. They have rolled the Democrats over and prison f*cked them.
Bernie Sanders gets it, and this is why he shocked Hillary Clinton with his surprising strength during the primaries, also revealed the Democratic party’s glaring vulnerabilities. I normally agree with Dalej42 on a wide range of matters, so I mean no disrespect, but I’m also baffled by the apparent hostility toward AOC. The fact is that the Democrats have to reinvent themselves to a degree, but just as importantly, they have to start competing again. The Democrats waved the white flag of surrender in America’s heartland because they assumed they couldn’t compete with Jesus politics, and they ended up agreeing with their Republican counterparts that “liberal” or “progressive” is a dirty word. Bernie and AOC are basically saying, “No, it’s not a dirty word, and here’s what we liberals can offer you guys if you just listen for a moment.” That message is long overdue.
Sigh. Clinton’s retrospective bigger map related mistake was that she DIDN’T just stick to the map and concentrate on the so-called Blue Wall, that instead of being sure that the PA, WI, and MI bricks were securely in place she extended the map to spending time in AZ, etc. … (And I am all for investing in eventually being able to flip that state, and TX, but not at the cost of bricks in the wall.)
Obama '08 definitely spread the map and competed in states that were relatively long shot and 2012 was not too much different.
The problem with a national campaign though is that one has finite resources and the other side may have as much or more. Spend in one place (money and or time) and you do not spend somewhere else.
Mid-term and local/state party strength needs to be built from the bottom up. More power to those who are taking the battle into the belly of the beast. And fight for the nominations for sure! No question you can’t win if you don’t play. Fight hard for the most local races and up rom there. Win local pockets and build support with every corner soapbox.
But when it comes to allocating finite resources it is not so wise to nationally shift from the races that are competitive to those that are extreme long shots. Leadership is not the reason for midterm underperformance. It has more been that Democratic voters who come out for the general have not CARED enough to come out when there isn’t a presidential candidate on the ballot, and that includes those who typically poll progressiveward.
I am completely copacetic with AOC, Sanders, and others supporting those with similar political agendas. OF COURSE that is what they are supposed to do. What we ALSO need to see is them wholeheartedly trying to excite the turnout in competitive districts come November across the whole country, even as of course they focus on races that have the most progressive candidates as the nominee.
For me at least, I like what she brings to the table is not her Sanders credentials. It’s that she brings energy and enthusiasm to the democratic party. She is also not afraid to run on a left wing platform. Too often Democrats have a tendency to poll test and focus group every message and water it down so as not to offend anybody. We need more D’s like AOC to put their views out there and defend them.
She obviously has the right scared. Otherwise they would not be spending so much time trying to take her down. I would love to see more D’s willing to defend their vision.
Every post has a negative comment about her, ffs.
Yes, in a presidential campaign. The Democrats have sometimes focused more on presidential campaigns and what they suppose is their own coastal turf. Which is weird.
But in Congressional campaigns, you can’t just abandon over half the country (and acre by acre, it’s been *well *over half the country) to the other guys, unless you really are afraid of winning. There is no good reason for the alleged party of the people to just give up on rural America. Those farmlands feed y’all, after all. You’ll just look stupid.
I completely agree and have playing that horn for a while now.
And those districts and even more local races need to be played locally. That “working people coming together” bit is on target but you win (hopefully) by a candidate who tailors the working people coming together for the locale.
So case in point, and I’ve posted on this one recently, Richard Ojeda in West VA. This is rural and coal working people … who freakin’ love Trump. And a Democrat who “supports a public option to buy into Medicare and a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants” is actually currently leading in the polls … by being a strong advocate for working people coming together. The right person in the right race has a chance but they don’t show up there due to national leadership.
And yes in national races some honest empathy for and recognition of the very real problems rural Americans are grappling with could help. They have political power disproportionate to their numbers yet they really are screwed. Sure, the party they vote in is part of who is screwing them, even as they promise them all sorts of impossible things. But still. Screwed.
Emphasis added. Nothing to be baffled about. She’s a Bernie Bro.
There’s nothing wrong with being a Bernie Bro in 2018, when you’re trying to influence the Democratic party going forward. The Democratic party needs to stop being afraid of its own shadow. What I had a problem with was trying to delegitimize the candidate who legitimately defeated Bernie Sanders in 2016.
No, I don’t think she has the right scared at all; I think they’re underestimating her the same way the Left underestimated Donald Trump and some of the Tea Party. Keep underestimating her and see what happens.
Will this crisis of capitalism be revealed in more capitalist societies like Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, Estonia, Taiwan, Luxembourg, Canada, UK, Sweden, and Denmark?
If capitalism is on the verge of crisis, why is democratic socialism in the US popular where there is not much capitalism going on like the Bronx, Vermont, Oregon and apparently Kansas? I think the problem here is the boredom of entitled children of the middle class like Ocasio-Cortez. Their daddies and mommies took care of them until they were fully adult, and now they are looking to the state to step in.