The Childish Take From AOC
Maureen Dowd writes about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in The New York Times that "A.O.C. should consider the possibility that people who disagree with her do not disagree with her color":
Pelosi told me, after the A.O.C. Squad voted against the House's version of the border bill and trashed the moderates -- the very people who provided the Democrats the majority -- that the Squad was four people with four votes. She was talking about a legislative reality. If it was a knock, it was for abandoning the party.That did not merit A.O.C.'s outrageous accusation that Pelosi was targeting "newly elected women of color." She slimed the speaker, who has spent her life fighting for the downtrodden and who was instrumental in getting the first African-American president elected and passing his agenda against all odds, as a sexist and a racist.
Of course, the reality, per Dowd:
Congress is not a place where you achieve radical progress -- certainly not in divided government. It's a place where you work at it and work at it and don't get everything you want.The progressives act as though anyone who dares disagree with them is bad. Not wrong, but bad, guilty of some human failing, some impurity that is a moral evil that justifies their venom.
This black and white view -- no grays -- is a hallmark of children's thinking and conversation.
not feeling one bit sorry for Pelosi - she has been doing this kind of garbage against Republicans for years.
Now that her own tactics are being used against her is sort of fitting.
And, I do hope the Democrats continue with their "in-fighting" as it will mean another 4 years of Trump - 4 wonderful years of Trump! yea!
charles at July 14, 2019 6:00 AM
The Democrat in-fighting is a sign of frustration and should not be reflexively taken as a sign of the party's imminent dissolution
The Republicans did the same thing when they controlled only one house of Congress and were frustrated at not being able to advance their agenda. Cooperation within the party was thrown out in favor of blame-storming. Members turned on their party leadership and the party almost cracked up. Remember all those articles predicting the imminent dissolution of the Republican Party? Remember John Boehner hung in effigy?
Yet, the Republicans survived to win a presidential election and control over the upper house of Congress - sufficient to advance at least a part of their agenda and control judicial nominations.
The outcome of the 2020 election is far from certain. A Democrat victory could heal the divisions and cracks currently rending the party.
Let's not read more into this than there is.
And, yes, AOC is a petulant child.
Conan the Grammarian at July 14, 2019 6:30 AM
The progressives act as though anyone who dares disagree with them is bad. Not wrong, but bad, guilty of some human failing, some impurity that is a moral evil that justifies their venom.
This black and white view -- no grays -- is a hallmark of children's thinking and conversation.
In psychoanalytic theory it's called splitting and is a symptom of narcissistic personality disorder.
Most often narcissists do this as an attempt to stabilize their sense of self positivity in order to preserve their self-esteem, by perceiving themselves as purely upright or admirable and others who do not conform to their will or values as purely wicked or contemptible. (from Wikipedia)
Ken R at July 14, 2019 9:13 AM
Lefties, even AOC, know perfectly well that disagreements with them are about policy. Their cries of racism are lies, made to smear and distract, and any so-called news medium that reacts as if they might be honest is itself lying to us.
Candidates, and fake-news media, will continue to repeat this childish trick until it stops working. The time to give them any benefit of doubt is past.
jdgalt at July 14, 2019 9:28 AM
This black-white dualism can also be described as Manicheanism. The problem is that then you deny that anyone else has different values than you or might have a point. So if I say that some policy or law might have unintended consequences or cost too much, my valid point cannot even be considered because suddenly I am evil. This is why a leftist in good standing who made a stupid joke on Facebook 10 yrs ago is suddenly cast into the outer darkness. Such thinking led to The Terror during the French Revolution.
cc at July 14, 2019 10:14 AM
Cortez doesn't strike me as an especially rational or ethical person. She's been very quick to throw around accusations like this when opposed. Everyone's a racist a/o misogynist and she's always the victim. It's classic SJW behavior, but Dowd probably doesn't have enough exposure to recognize that.
The funny thing is that it's her sex and ethnicity that have protected her, and her childish way of speaking probably helps as well. She's the perfect manic pixie dream girl for white Progs and Libs like Dowd. But I think they're starting to recognize that what they saw as 'passionate' and naive is actually dogmatic and vindictive.
Honestly, if Cortez were a 30 year old white guy displaying her behavior, they'd have turned on him long ago.
mormon at July 14, 2019 11:02 AM
Cortez doesn't strike me as an especially rational or ethical person. She's been very quick to throw around accusations like this when opposed. Everyone's a racist a/o misogynist and she's always the victim. It's classic SJW behavior, but Dowd probably doesn't have enough exposure to recognize that.
The funny thing is that it's her sex and ethnicity that have protected her, and her childish way of speaking probably helps as well. She's the perfect manic pixie dream girl for white Progs and Libs like Dowd. But I think they're starting to recognize that what they saw as 'passionate' and naive is actually dogmatic and vindictive.
Honestly, if Cortez were a 30 year old white guy displaying her behavior, they'd have turned on him long ago.
mormon at July 14, 2019 11:03 AM
I've little respect for Dowd and little pity for Pelosi. AOC is just acting as Pelosi has for decades. What is good for the goose and all that.
Note Dowd has never cared about Pelosi doing this as long as it was against people Dowd didn't like.
Ben at July 14, 2019 1:57 PM
Her public speech patterns always struck me as those of a little girl admonishing her dolls - pedantic, but without a core of maturity or wisdom behind it.
Conan the Grammarian at July 14, 2019 3:54 PM
You'll notice that AOC's voice and expressions take on that wide eyed little girl quality when she's on television, but it's not there when she's caught in candid situations. In real life she looks her age and comes off as rather tense.
Kara at July 14, 2019 4:26 PM
The difference between Pelosi and AOC is that AOC will probably have read the legislation before voting on it.
Even if she doesn't understand it.
Few understand what a law does to ordinary people.
Radwaste at July 14, 2019 4:44 PM
AOC is unfortunately crazy like a fox. Unethical, definitely. But she knows how to play the camera, tweets and press. The SJW eat it up.
If Peolosi and Biden are being called racist. Who can't be? In that way she and other radicals just set themseves up as the arbiters of who is/isn't racist. And since the Obamas, even when directly asked, wouldn't say Biden wasn't a racist, The other Dems know no one is safe, unless they shift to radical.
Joe j at July 14, 2019 6:12 PM
I engaged in a political discussion on Facebook the other day, with a friend (someone I can have reasonable discussions with about such things), concerning AOC. His contention is that Republicans worry way too much about her, because she's a political neophyte and she has little pull within the party. I started to disagree with the second point, as it sure looks like AOC's contingent is having a lot of success at pulling all of the Democrat presidential candidates to the left.
However, it got me thinking. Since the 1970s, the usual pattern for Democrat candidates has been:
* In the primaries, run to the left.
* In the general election, run to the center.
* Once elected, govern to the left.
Maybe what we're seeing is just a more pronounced form of the usual. AOC may be escalating it, but I don't know if she's really driving it. More likely, she saw a bus that was going in the direction she wanted to go, so she hopped on.
Cousin Dave at July 15, 2019 6:54 AM
I'd say it is more that she got lucky, CD. AOC herself isn't significant. She just happened to be heading this way when the crowd was going that way as well. She didn't make the trend but is still a spokesman for it.
Even though she on her own isn't significant the fact that the crowd is heading that way is. The democrats have long been a party primarily driven by emotions and feelings. They are still stuck in the argument Arty was making about how demographics mean they are guaranteed to win no matter what. That was supposed to happen with Hillary. Remember the polling and how much of a shock her loss was. You would think major politicians would be rational and realize all that demographic stuff was junk, but that isn't how things work in real life. The Bidens and Warrens are just as emotionally driven as their voting base. Perhaps even more so. Hence such an extreme run to the left. Even when the general election starts I expect them to keep running left. After all the demographics say they can't lose.
Ben at July 15, 2019 7:45 AM
She is a political neophyte, who has some pull in her party. Not much but way more than a neophyte should have.
Joe j at July 15, 2019 10:11 AM
Pelosi must be LOL'ing at the noobs today:
Omar & Co. Demand Impeachment
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at July 15, 2019 2:55 PM
To the party, she represents that demographic shift Artie's always going on (and on and on and on) about. The Democrat leadership is older and scared to death that its old white people aren't connecting with younger and ethnically diverse voters. AOC represents those younger and ethnically diverse voters - to the party leadership at least.
AOC's in favor of the Green New Deal and so, in order to connect with the younger voters they think she represents, all of the party's candidates for president reflexively say they're for it.
Conan the Grammarian at July 16, 2019 10:21 AM
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