The only reason she’s a “rising Democratic superstar” is that she’s getting so much media coverage. The conservative media is creating their own boogiewoman.
Let’s see, Bernie Sanders is a self identified socialist and has been in office for decades. Until the last presidential election, I doubt that FOX et. al. had said 10 words about him.
But conservative media has spent decades vilifying Hillary and Nancy Pelosi. Now they move on to Ocasio-Cortez. There has to be some common factor. But I just can’t put my finger on it (without consent, of course).
I might get people screeching at me for noticing this, but poking at Soros is a coded way to poke at the Jews, the Eternal Boogeymen of, well, extremists of all stripes, if you go through history, but in our cultural context usually the far right.
Soros is an international globalist, Jewish and got rich in finance. What’s not to hate for right wingers?
Well the GOP is scared shitless of Pelosi, they hate and fear her. She is a bogeyman to them. She was too damn effective.
Hillary, they saw would be running for President, and went to work early. Of course the GOp hated Bill, so…
AOC is about the most liberal/radical Dem in Congress and does shoot her mouth off on occasion, not thinking thru what she is saying. Makes her a easy target.
And of course, look at the GOP incoming freshmen vs the Dem- the GOP doesn’t like powerful women.
Pssst, see post #7. 
Unlike Sanders, they’re all Democrats?
I agree that she hasn’t achieved that level of stardom yet, but she’s clearly a rising star within the party. There are more people who know who AOC is in 2018 than there were people who knew Bernie Sanders in early 2015. She’s already done the late night TV thing.
This is a good post, especially with re: Pelosi. Wanna know who keeps the right wing up at night? Look at who’s getting memed and talked about on Breitbart.
She’s not clearly a rising star, she’s just getting a lot of coverage atm. I would think we should wait til she actually does anything before we calculate her trajectory, but that’s just crazy cautious me.
Two things, she’s a rising star, so they want to get ahead of her. They also want to give her power within the Democrstic Party because she’s so flawed. They want Dem primary voters to back her because she’s beatable. They want her to be the face of the Democratic Party because of her flaws. Their path to win is fear and having deeply flawed out of mainstream candidates representing Dems is their ideal. What they don’t want is a relatively boring, moderate being the face of the Dems.
I partially agree with this. She’s a good face to stick on the party because she’s a little extreme and makes some mistakes. But please tell me that “They want Dem primary voters to back her because she’s beatable.” doesn’t refer to a Presidential run. I guess it has too because in her House district she’s not remotely beatable. You realize she’s not legally eligible to run for President in 2020 and would only be old enough by less than a month before the 2024 election?
Eta: also we don’t know if she’s a rising star or a one hit wonder yet.
I’d have said that the Democrats don’t want a relatively boring moderate being the face of the Dems, too.
If we believe what posters say, a lot of Democrats on this board are just convinced that a conventional boring white guy is the answer to their electoral woes. :rolleyes:
As for AOC, I think a big part of it is that she’s so young and so pretty. She is physically super-attractive for a politician. And the GOP, the party of young blondes with guns, have to know that female sex appeal sells. And here comes Alexandria, making even the right-wing media Barbies look like troll dolls by comparison. AOC is cute enough and fashionable enough to have already become a giant crush object for a wide array potential voters, particularly straight male voters. That is something the conservatives know they have to constantly inoculate against, by repeatedly insisting she’s stupid.
AOC is also the beneficiary of timing. She had her seat locked up early, and due to New York’s weird primary schedule, a week when she became the big media story. So she got in people’s heads. She’s a meme now. And that makes her a target.
Not many do. Other than Steve Bannon, can you name a single right-winger with IQ likely to be a match for Obama’s?
Christ, I recall Dave Berg having someone make that joke in Mad Magazine in maybe the 60s.
Now that you mention it, that resonates. That may be where I first heard that line!
I’d have my doubts about Steve Bannon. The rap on him is that he’s read just enough of the classics to have pulled out a few good quotes, which these days anyone can do with a bit of Googling.
Women and minorities. Clinton, Obama, Pelosi…and Maxine Waters seems to draw particular ire amongst conservatives I know, presumably for having the temerity to be a black female Democrat in Congress.
As for Ocasio-Cortez, she gets a lot of media coverage just by virtue of being a pretty young woman with strong views, but amongst a certain left-wing population she has become the avatar of the Young Progressive wing of the Democrats in a post-Sanders political world (and I know Bernie is still around and active but he’s Old Guard Progressive and may be a spent force after 2016), along with the Parkland students. And that’s another reason the conservative media are demonizing her; she’s seen as a threat to everything they hold dear.
I’ve seen it attributed to John Maynard Keynes as well, although Galbraith seems more likely.
Are you arguing that she’s perceived as a tipping point? Because demographic trends have been pretty clear for a while, now. The GOP has to pull out all the stops on voter suppression and gerrymandering to maintain its position. But that’s not something that can last forever. As the country gets more diverse, the power of entrenched white males will crumble.