Summary
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressed Trump’s election win, urging Democrats to move past infighting and post-election rancor to focus on preparing for potential impacts of his presidency, such as tariffs, mass deportations, and censorship.
She criticized some Democrats for blaming the loss on “identity politics,” despite Trump’s campaign centering on white racial grievance and calls for white men to turn out. Ocasio-Cortez pointed to moderate voices like Reps. Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton, who argued that supporting trans rights hurt Democrats, as misguided.
She encouraged people to engage in direct communication and join physical communities to combat despair and build resilience.
She’s talking about “moderates” who are trying to blame it on defense of LGBTQ…
Because surely what the Dem party needs to do is move further to the fucking right and abandon the Dem voter base.
Despite the fact that Trump ran a campaign steeped in white racial grievance and the fact that MAGA influencers were literally calling for white men — specifically — to get out to the polls, some commentators have resorted to tired takes about Kamala Harris losing because the party leaned too much into “identity politics.”
The Democratic ticket didn’t actually lean into identity politics, but some in the party have settled on that line of thought as well — such as Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who suggested that Democrats’ support for trans people’s rights helped spell their doom this cycle.
We can’t keep electing “moderates” just because the wealthy, corporations, and foreign governments like Israel keep giving them hundreds of millions of dollars
Shit, if anything that should be a reason we don’t vote for them.
This a class war going on, and the only side fighting it is the wealthy.
Unfortunately where I’m from (the self centered shithead part of NY) moving to the right is EXACTLY what they want… I’ve had no shortage of people tell me they only voted for Kamala because she dropped the progressive stuff and was taking on Republicans in her cabinet. Of course the propagandists have done a wonderful job this cycle associating progressives with antisemitism so that did wonders for us too…
I think we just need to accept that America is a far right country and we’re the miniscule minority that wants change… I was already depressed about the result but then hearing just how many selfish bootlickers are out there made it even worse.
So your idea is to keep ignoring the third of the country who never votes because “both parties are the same”…
And you think a better strategy would be to continue to drag the Dem.party right, even tho when we try that the result is always depressing Dem turnout, Republican turnout staying the same, and Republicans winning the majority of the time?
I just don’t see how that’s a logically sound plan that has any chance of stopping fascism.
I just don’t see how that’s a logically sound plan that has any chance of stopping fascism
I don’t see any way of stopping fascism in America. By some definitions we’ve been living in fascist America for a long time we just haven’t had an authoritarian leader yet. The state uses the violence of the police force to crush leftist protest. The media enforces all belief in corporate interests depending on the media product you’re consuming. Some still toss a bone on occasion by pointing out wealth disparity but always denigrate policies aimed at correcting it.
I don’t want the Democrats to move right yet again, but if that’s what people want then we aren’t the majority. I want a party that isn’t Democrats. We’re not moving them from within, that hasn’t worked at all.
abandon the Dem voter base.
I’m Ok with that at this point. The Dem voting base is just liberal Republicans at this point. It’s time for something else.
The Dem voting base is just liberal Republicans at this point.
No it’s not.
They’re a very small but vocal amount of Dem voters.
But they’re not the problem, they voted R against Obama and Obama still flipped red states in 08.
Not only are they not the voting base, the party literally doesn’t need them.
The problem is those people run the freaking DNC, and are the ones that keep dragging the party right.
The problem is party leadership and the solution is changing party leadership.
Not doubling down on party leadership to further piss off the Dem voter base.
I’m liberal and voted blue. I think we have gone off the deep end for trans. 100% for non hate, but I would like girls to be able to play sports without allowing former boys.
If that was a large issue you’d have a point. But it’s almost never happening. There are just very very few examples of boys transitioning to girls while being on puberty blockers long enough to compete as a girl and then dominating.
It’s a made up problem.
But the right won’t just stop at “girls sports” they’re going after adults who have never played a sport in their lives.
But even tho the trans population in it’s entirety is still a small amount of people, that doesn’t mean it’s ok to abandon them.
Start abandoning subgroups and the larger group won’t be strong enough to protect you when the fascists come for one of the subgroups you belong to.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…
Obviously defending the innocent from fascism should be reason enough, but you’re literally saying it’s not enough, so I have to appeal to the selfish need for self preservation most humans have.
Empathy sadly needs to be learned, so not everyone has it.
I do think a lot of liberals are spending far too much time trying to score cheap political points…That criticism actually extends to one of Ocasio-Cortez’s top allies in the Senate — Bernie Sanders — as well.
America is silly. Because of our first-past-the-post electoral system, we are a de facto two party state. As a result, Americans have come to believe that there are only two political or ideological possibilities: liberalism and conservativism. Therefore, everyone is either a liberal or a conservative, and everyone who isn’t a conservative must necessarily be a liberal, and vice versa.
I am not a conservative, but I am also not a liberal. I don’t agree with either ideology. Yes, generally, I might agree more with the liberals than the conservatives, but that doesn’t make me a liberal. It doesn’t even necessarily make me a liberal ally. Stop calling us liberals. We are not liberals, stop trying to make us part of your group. Stop with the, “hey, we’re all liberals, guys,” no, we’re not.
Bernie Sanders is not a liberal. If he were a liberal, he would be a part of the liberal, Democrat party. He is not, he’s an independent. He often joins with the liberals, because, again, the liberals are nearer to him than the only other party, the conservative Republicans, but he nonetheless remains an independent. Stop calling us liberals.
Martin Luther King Jr identified this roadblock some 60 years ago: The White Moderate.
Particularly salient point, 53% of white women just voted for Trump.
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
[ I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured. ]
Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.
I just wanted to highlight this statement. He’s absolutely right.
53% of white women just voted for Trump.
Well, I’m not distinguishing between myself and the liberals based on skin color, but ideology. Liberalism is not an ideology that is exclusive to people with light skin. There are plenty of liberals who have darker skin. There are also many people who are left of liberals who have lighter skin, myself included.
American political lexicon is stunted (probably deliberately). I volunteered my time and donated my money for Bernie’s campaign, and prefer to go by “progressive” since it hits the main points and has an actual caucus in Congress.
The conservatives I know call me a liberal (if they’re feeling nice), but they also know it’s not accurate, they’re just trying to sow chaos on the left.
I don’t really like progressive because some of the major figures of the progressive era a hundred years ago are people I’d like to keep a large distance from.
You’re talking about La Folette and Wheeler? I don’t remember anything they advocated for being too bad, but I haven’t looked at their proposed policies in a long time. Wouldn’t that be natural of a truly progressive movement, though? What was “progressive” one hundred years ago should hopefully be status quo, and what’s progressive now could scantly be imagined back then.
Next cycle she better be in the fucking primary.
Relax
There will be another cycle.
There will be “elections.”
You know like the kind they do in Russia.
While I do think she has gone against the grain of the broken system and would be a great choice, thinking another woman and especially a woman is color will win over the racist misogynistic US populace, I think you’ll be disappointed.
But who knows what will come of an actual fair primary if we even have elections in the future.
Obama won, with record turnout and vote count. Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, despite her severe unlikeability and controversial history.
While it is important to recognize the role that white supremacy and misogyny have, it has demonstrably not been a hard ceiling.
What if the US populace is not misogynistic. Perhaps Clinton and Harris were just bad candidates.
It’s always “it’s not all women, just not this woman” when it comes to presidential misogyny.
I think the best bet for getting a woman in the white house is to have a major TV show where a popular actress plays the president, and then have that actress run for president afterwards. Americans are so unimaginative that they probably need the visual example, and then some are probably stupid enough to think they’re voting for the incumbent.
Clinton still won the popular, and Harris had the background of inflation. I think if AOC had similar circumstances, she probably would have lost, too. Even though I would looooove to see her as President.
Now, maybe, if she runs after 4 years of donvict fucking all kinds of things up…hard to say. She’d probably be running against “JD” “Vance” who is a white guy, so…
I don’t think gender or color is as big a barrier than who the person is. IMO Harris was a better choice than Clinton, still a piss poor choice, not even close to someone I would choose to vote for. If I had a choice that is. Pick a woman of any color that has the fight in her and the policies and fortitude to follow through on an actual populist agenda; I think she would succeed.
I think we’ve had enough of the “we hope we might be able to give you the change that you mandated but we’re not really gonna try and if you point that out FUCK YOU!” candidate the dems always push on us.
She doesn’t need to win over the racists. If there’s anything we can learn from the last few election cycles is that you win elections by convincing your existing base to go out and vote, and to do that you need to give them something to believe in and something to vote for.
I think AOC would absolutely kill that.
I certainly can’t prove this and it may be me being optimistic but I don’t buy the “it’s just misogyny” claim. Clinton and Harris represent the two furthest right candidates that have ever run for president on the Dem side and I think their spectacular failures owe more to that than anything else.
Okay, this notion is just incorrect. Harris, during her time as senator, was one of the most left leaning senators out of all Democrats. Her votes almost completely aligned with Bernie Sanders.
Was misogyny THE reason Harris loss, probably not; but it definitely played a meaningful role. During the campaign race, there were a lot of information being pushed to American citizens. It was up to us to process the information and choose what to believe and what to throw away. Post-election, we are learning that people were judging Harris based on false premises. Americans were willing to believe a lot of bullshit about Harris, whereas Trump got the opposite treatment: Americans willingfully ignored terrible truths about Trump. I think misogyny played a role in defining this difference in how we treated information regarding each candidates.
That’s the whole point of the primary. To find out. We had no primary for Harris.
While I do think she has gone against the grain of the broken system and would be a great choice, thinking another woman and especially a woman is color will win over the racist misogynistic US populace, I think you’ll be disappointed.
Been calling this for the past week. The “Harris lost because she’s a woman of color” narrative was an excuse for blocking an AOC run.
Harris lost because moving to the right doesn’t peel off Republican votes, but it sure as fuck alienates the base.
All trump voters can choke on a fat syphilitic dick and die slowly.
“You go high, we go low”
There’s a reason why the right manages to spread its message, it’s because they know the left won’t do shit about it.
Going low doesn’t accomplish shit - the problem is that previous the strategy wasn’t “they go low, we go high” - previously the strategy was “we fail to deliver any change that impacts everyday Americans”.
Going low doesn’t accomplish shit
Ahh. A statement in direct contradiction of the evidence.
Most recent data demonstrates that going low gets you the Whitehouse, the Senate, and the House. And going low for long enough gets you the judiciary as well.
I’m not saying there aren’t other ways to succeed: but going low is clearly an extremely viable strategy. It would seem to me that when you are losing as completely as Democrats have been for 30 years, you aren’t in a position to leave options that are shown to work on the table.
