Submitted 2 weeks ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Read all the posts here. Most of them are correct in some way.
Right Wingers lost their minds over Jimmy Carter, a Christian, Naval academy graduate.
They need to stay mad, because being angry makes them feel powerful.
speaks common sense and calls out absurdity
Yes, the bar is that low.
Yeah, providing good ideas on how to reform current issues and showing how they could benefit the people is a dream it seems.
Every politician im seeing just says, “I’m going to stop immigrants from driving up crime!”
Or some crazy shit, and never provides any method/studies/statistics to show how or why, because the absurdity of the claims start to show.
Trump: “I’m going to cut your electricity costs by half!”
Yet never says how he’s planning on doing that, implements no policies aimed at reducing those costs, and suffers no loss of MAGA supporters when he instead drove up those costs starting a war with a country halfway around the world.
So AOC or whomever says, you didn’t do what you said, and people cheer it on I guess.
Great and all… But can the representatives show us their plan on How they mean to fix issues
She’s an attractive latina. This shouldn’t matter. The reason it does is because the right hates her for being liberal, but they hate even more that they could never have her. One thing to understand about the typical “alpha male” hyper^toxic^-masculine right wing narcissistic douche is they view themselves as hunters. They can’t or won’t acknowledge (or maybe they don’t understand) that they are in fact trophy hunters. When it comes to women, some of the biggest “trophies” are the strong, independent ones. Add in the latina flavor and top it with being liberal (that they would view as needing to be educated) and she’s one of the biggest trophies in their world. The fact that they have absolutely no chance with her pisses them off to no end. So she becomes the target of their ire. Then they try to trash her every chance they get. For this she has gotten a lot more air time and publicity than others.
When she first showed up, I remember one particular picture of her being all over right wing media. Not the most flattering picture, obviously. She was smiling especially broadly, showing lots of teeth, eyes wide open (“bugged out”). Sometimes associated with speculation that she might have Graves disease or some developmental disorder.
No question her appearance has made the media give her more time than they might, but she has a compelling story and she’s connected with millennial voters much better than her septuagenarian peers.
When she first blew up all I would hear about her is how dumb she was, how stupid she was, what a lightweight she was, but everything I ever heard her say made eminent sense and sounded frankly intelligent.
These comments were largely coming from the chudiverse and Fox News, but I realized it was working when a not-conservative-minded relative of mine made an offhand comment along the lines of “everyone knows she’s not very smart.” I responded very directly with a light challenge like “oh, could you point me to something she’s said that’s not very smart because everything I’ve ever heard her say is pretty fucking brilliant.”
I knew full well this person would immediately try and dig something up - but she must’ve come up empty because now she’s a fan. I actually think she learned a lesson about how that kind of shit can work on your without you even realizing it.
Any politician that actually speaks common sense is a big deal.
Plenty of politicians exist who have sensible policies and speak truth to power and yadda yadda yadda. Most of them lose. The ones that one mostly get back-benched by party leadership or primaried out of office in subsequent elections.
AOC (and Sanders and Mamdani and a few others) tend to be notable because they advance popular policies in a manner that cut through corporate media white noise, while surviving a deluge of character attacks and faux-scandals intent on derailing their mission.
It’s not merely that you have some rando saying shit. It’s that you can hear that person, you can be represented by that person, and you can organize around that person to elect other politicians with a similar set of values and beliefs.
common sense
Careful with that term these days.
The rightwingnuts tend to call their anti-progressiveness talking points “common sense”.
And by common sense, we mean actual things that might improve the lives of the majority, rather than the racist, sexist twaddle that might come out of a drunk trailer dweller, only spoken by a rich white (or in this case, mostly orange) man in a tie.
yes
For those here who remember AOC being a monitor company and not some politician, OP is talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is one of the representatives of the state of New York in the House of the Congress of the USA.
This was a huge cause of confusion years ago when the media started using “AOC” to refer to her. I was like, damn, their monitors used to be cheap crap, why are they so popular now?
It was nothing compared to the horrors of MTG
I can definitely see that.
It’s really annoying to me when people make posts in a general community without giving any kind of context (to non-US-Americans in this case) and this one had me tripping over mental monitors for a hot second.
Typing how useless this comment is on one of several AOC monitors I use daily
Typing how useless this comment is for the other 94% of the planet
The Advent Of Code shares the same abbreviation
She defeated the Chairman of the Democratic Conference by taking his seat in an upset victory. She did it by bringing out the populist left, which absolutely terrified establishment Dems, who would rather let the country burn than move an inch to the left.
Accurate enough.
As an outsider looking in, yeah, you Americans have lost the fucking script. Spineless, cowed and submissive. Perfect slaves for your future overlords of child rapists and war mongers.
Perfect slaves for your future overlords of child rapists and war mongers.
I hate that your edit is accurate.
Lol you better not be Canadian…
I think he is. Sorry.
Because shes a populist who seems to fight for the things she preaches so people have built their hopes around her.
I think it’s at least partially because everyone else sucks so bad. He’s not a great speaker but she gets a lot of coverage from left-wing influencers because there’s no one else to promote. She also positions herself just far enough on the left to get their support but she’s also close enough to the center to still get coverage in the mainstream media. So she’s the face of progressive movent and gets attacked by Fox a lot. So he’s everywhere even though she’s kind of bland in my opinion. Compared with European left at least.
she’s kind of bland in my opinion (compared with European left at least).
Compared to European politics, the USA doesn’t really have any “left”.
Most Democrats would be considered center-right in a lot of other countries.
Exactly. I would say Mamdani is “European kind of left” and he’s also really good at delivering his message. I totally get why he’s so popular. OAC is only OK but he really doesn’t have a lot of competition in Congress.
Hard-right even.
We’re I live, Portugal, the policies of the Democrats are closest to those of a local party called Iniciativa Liberal (Liberal Initiative) who are considered Far-Right ultra Neoliberal (and were started by people with A LOT of money rather than being a naturally growing movement).
In most of Europe the mainstream parties (whether they used to be center-left or center-right) nowadays are Neoliberal, but the version of that ideology of the US Democract Party is harder than even the old center-right mainstream in Europe (which is how even an EU under a majority of the EPP - which are the EU level group of such parties - is still a lot more pro-consumer than the Democrats, though things have been getting worse).
gets attacked by Fox a lot
A point about this is it’s a specific long-term strategy used by conservative media that worked on Hillary. It doesn’t matter what AOC says or does, they’ll give her negative coverage. They’ll spend years doing this so when she finally does make a run for president their viewers will already have AOC=BAD baked in.
that worked on Hillary
Hillary shot herself in the foot by holding repellent policies and abhorrent views even within her own party. She was pro-war well into the 2010s. She was Tough On Crime in the middle of BLM protest waves. She was chintzy and hyper-bureaucratic on public health care and education while she freely opened her wallet to mass surveillance and corporate bailouts. She demonstrated naked hostility to the LGBTQ community time and time again. She flaunted her wealth, constantly lied about her own historical record, surrounded herself with sycophants and scammers, and was the worst kind of sore loser.
That’s why Obama kicked the knees out from under her in 2008. And that’s why Donald Trump could casually outflank her on the left in 2016, by mouthing a few anti-war slogans, bullshitting about popular economic reforms, and hugging the Pride Flag. Hillary made the same stupid mistakes as Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004 and Harris in 2024. She desperately pandered to the Republican Establishment while expecting everyone to the left of John McCain to reflexively bend the knee.
I’m glad Hillary lost. I’m just sad she had to lose in the general, rather than scrubbing out in the primary a second time.
She’s not a great speaker but she gets a lot of coverage from left-wing influencers because there’s no one else to promote.
She’s fine. There are definitely better orators. But she stays on message, advances popular policies, and is generally well-received by her constituents. There are plenty of other aspiring AOCs that don’t perform half as well. And you won’t be able to name them because they don’t win elected office - much less survive multiple hostile intra-party primary bids and smear campaigns - or fundraise effectively or get promoted via social media so aggressively.
There are definitely other people to promote. We just watched Graham Platner’s star rise largely on his personal charisma and ability to build a crowd. We’ve seen Al Franken and Anthony Weiner and John Edwards all come and go along similar trajectories. AOC might demonstrate better staying power simply because she’s not a giant sex pest.
So she’s everywhere even though she’s kind of bland in my opinion (compared with European left at least).
Compared to Corbyn or Mélenchon or Reichinnek? I’d say she’s par for the course.
She’s fine.
Absolutely. She’s a capable politician and party member. I just don’t think she deserved to get the kind of attention she’s getting. For example many people talk about presidency and I think she’s not even close to this level. There’s simply no one else out there.
AOC is not the only one who speaks common sense and calls out absurdity; she’s one of the very short list that does it, no matter who’s watching. She appears not to be owned by AIPAC and other ventures. It’s also why they’ll keep her out at all costs.
She’s a big deal because fox news made her one. She’s the new target after Hillary stepped out of politics.
Young, female, Latina, everything MAGA hates.
Don’t forget smart and assertive
Chalking it up to racism etc. is typical superficial social media thinking that doesn’t give her credit for what she does. AOC is a lot more than a young Latina.
Don’t forget she was a bartender in college, which they hate.
Meanwhile boebert was very literally an escort, which is how she got into politics. Yet nobody cares
Pretty much. She’s currently in their crossfires.
Which honestly, is good. AoC is tough. Shes been doing this for a few years now, picking up the torch that Bernie Sanders lit three decades ago.
And behind her are hundreds of politicians who are empowered by people like her to rise up. AoC (and Bernie) walked so these new folks can run.
To answer your final question. Yes. American politics has gone so far off the rails that AOC speaking common sense is something that is no longer normal.
For example: “We should feed children too poor to buy school lunches!”
“Nooooo that’s SoCiAlIsM!”
Meanwhile bailing out a bank because their friend’s stock gamble didn’t pay off is just the American way
American politics: Socialism for the elite, capitalism for everyone else.
This is the BASIC bullshit that AOC and people like her call out and she’s labeled an extremist for it.
I hate it here.
Look up the “overton window”
There is a really excellent documentary called Knock Down the House. It followed four progressive women launching grassroots campaigns against powerful political figures.
If memory serves AOC is the only one of the four who won her race.
You see MAGA love to hate women. That is one of the reasons why they hate Nancy Pelosi so much.
It is the Howard Stern effect, where people who liked his show listened to about half of it, people who really had no opinion on Stern didn’t listen to any of his show. People who hated Howard Stern listened to every minute of his show. AOC is the same way.
MAGA’s hatred has made her a household name and it is awesome, because I love her. She is just excellent. She is what MAGAs wish Donald Trump was.
MAGA’s hatred has made her a household name
I first heard about her from my trump-loving cousin (who is virulently anti-immigrant while being the half-Thai son of an immigrant). He didn’t even know her actual name, just “AOC”, and was ranting about her wanting to ban airplanes or something.
It is incredible isn’t it?
I’m my experience (as an Australian on the outside) she’s one of the few that preaches policies that benefit people right wing parties are blatantly for billionaires (if not just straight up the party of a billionaire in Australia’s case) and the traditional/major “left wing” parties are more interested in maintaining the status quo with half measures and compromises. But a lot of actual lefty parties never get anything done because they let perfect get in the way of good.
From what I’ve seen her policies are things that would benefit most people, and are reasonable. That’s rare these days.
“In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.”
But being serious: AOC and politicians like her ARE us “doing it for ourselves.” For a very long time, the vast majority of politicians elected in the US have gotten there by getting the backing of wealthy capitalists. They don’t say “common sense things” because those things aren’t good for the people who helped them get elected. If they did say those things, those capitalists would not only stop funding them, but fund their opposition more. The result is a government comprised of politicians who very rationally don’t represent us. (That’s not to say some of them aren’t crazy on their own, but them being there is a rational outcome of self-interested actors.)
In order to get a politician who does and says things that are good for people, you need an absolutely massive grass roots effort to win an election against the might of rich donors. AOC was one of the notable times when we managed to do that. But this shows the limitations of that strategy within our current electoral system. For every AOC, Illhan Omar, or Mamdani, there are literally hundreds of more races which are still dominated by big money. It took not only a massive on the ground organizing effort locally, but also a lot of support from engaged people across the nation. And it’s way more costly for the average person to contribute to a campaign than it is for a billionaire. So even if a lot of us want this, it’s going to be really difficult to get a critical mass of wins to actually make an impact.
So that’s why they’re a big deal. They might be basic social democrats in some less corrupt countries, but here they are the few who are unbought. What they say is less relevant than the fact that they are able to say it at all.
How many other politicians are doing that? When a mechanic doesn’t try to scam you, you tell very person that will listen.
Republicans are in an echo chamber and fixated on like 3 incorrect things she’s said
They’re terrible, stupid people
Have you been watching any political discourse? Literally no one off the Epstein list has been arrested.
Most politicians at that level (maybe all levels) appear to be bought and paid for, are not genuine, and just say whatever the polls and their campaign managers tell them. She seems to be more genuine, competent, charismatic, and a threat to the status quo.
There’s no such thing as common sense.
It’s a very low bar, and yet she is one of the few politicians who can clear it.
It might not look like much, but the really impressive part about their journey is how they avoid being dragged into a political sport between the liberal/conservative/MAGA cesspool, and instead drag our attention towards the meaningful.
Its a dreamers game, and those who captures the imagination of the people are the winners.
At the same time, Washington politics is a money game, and Sanders wing have been able to keep up with them only with money from small donors.
Well at least thats my takaway from following us politics between 2015 to 2021.
yes. anyone who’s 35+ years of age should notice this.
while shitty things used to happen or fly under the radar, mass media used to act as cultural checks and balances to keep the insanity at arms length. but it’s all been monopolized–it’s all controlled by the crazy people. you have independent journalism but few americans read it, and most online magazines are read by out-of-touch, overeducated yuppies and aren’t nearly as biting as they used to be or should be.
but this bullshit should be obvious to anyone because the rest of culture needs to adjust to the insanity, to normalize it. how hard is it to differentiate between parody/satire and reality these days?
impossible IMO. when i watch most newer films i assume they’re parody because they’re so fucking stupid.
Lately she’s not been impressing me. When she first came on the scene, I was highly in favor of her. She’s slowly been worn down by Mama Bear Pelosi and that ilk.
It took her forever to find the right language for the genocide in Israel. She’s been slow or absent to speak up about what matters.
Nobody knew the threat of Hitler better than FDR. He wanted to start arming Britain and France the day the Nazis went into Poland, if not sooner. He had to wait for the right time.
Another example. Frederick Douglas was an escaped slave. He had suffered the horrors not just observed them. When the 1860 election came around, Douglas stepped away form the candidate who wanted instant Abolition and backed Abe Lincoln, who said he would keep slavery if it meant saving the Union.
Douglas decided it was smarter to back the winner and have the ear of a sitting President than it was to back someone he might have agreed with much more.
Politics is a game, learn the rules
Mamdani has set the standard. Read the room.
A while ago jacobin had some stats showing how often she would mention Medicare for all, and it decreases by a lot as time went on
The US Congress certainly has gone that far.
No, the problem is that the dumb fucks have hugely outsized representation in elections due to a corrupt, broken system.
She makes insecure people panic without screaming or playing into games.
Imo good leadership traits and reminds me a lot about Obama. She handles pressure smoothly, one can say even more pressure than Obama.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Like it or not, people need political leaders to follow.
Also, AOC has the advantage of representing a district in New York City, the media capital of the world. She probably wouldn’t be as well known if she was the Congressmember from Topeka
saltesc@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
These little town bluuues
Ain’t melting awaaay
I’m gonna be as bored as shit
In Topeeekaaa!
RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Who know who Joseph Crowley was?
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
The Shadow knows…
fartographer@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Me: Ozzy sang about him!
Satan: It’s okay, Aleister, the moron didn’t mean anything by it. Look what you’ve done to my boy!