US "The Squad" Megathread - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib Derangement Syndrome

I honestly only know about American politics from what I read on the Internet but since we all love shitting on leftists I figured we'd get a kick out of this. Also it's trending on Twitter so you know it's important.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...irect=on&noredirect=on&utm_term=.960552c9ba53

NEW YORK — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old political novice running on a low budget and an unabashedly liberal platform, upset longtime U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley on Tuesday in the Democratic congressional primary in New York.

The surprise victory by the community organizer in a district that includes parts of the Bronx and Queens came after an energetic, grassroots campaign that mustered more than enough support in a low-turnout race that many had expected to be an easy win for Crowley, a member of the Democratic House leadership.

“The community is ready for a movement of economic and social justice. That is what we tried to deliver,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who has never held elected office and whose candidacy attracted only modest media attention.

She told The Associated Press after her victory that she didn’t have enough money to do polling in the race, but felt in her gut that her message had a chance to connect.

“I live in this community. I organized in this community. I felt the absence of the incumbent. I knew he didn’t have a strong presence,” she said.

Crowley has been in Congress since 1999 and hadn’t faced an opponent in a primary election since 2004, when Ocasio-Cortez was just a teenager. He was considered a candidate to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the majority.

“It’s not about me,” Crowley, 56, told his supporters at a campaign party following his loss. “It’s about America. I want nothing but the best for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. I want her to be victorious.”

He later played guitar with a band at the election night gathering, and dedicated the first song, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” to Ocasio-Cortez.

Crowley represents New York’s 14th Congressional District, where he is also the leader of the Queens Democratic party.

Ocasio-Cortez was outspent by an 18-1 margin during her race but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party’s far left, including MoveOn, as well as the actress Cynthia Nixon, who is running for governor. She defeated Crowley by 15 percentage points.

Born in the Bronx to a mother from Puerto Rico and a father who died in 2008, Ocasio-Cortez said she decided to challenge Crowley to push a more progressive stance on economic and other issues.

She attended Boston University, where she earned degrees in economics and international relations, and also spent time working in the office of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.

After graduating, she returned to the Bronx where she became a community organizer. In the 2016 presidential campaign she worked for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Among her issues is expanding the Medicare program to people of all ages and abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. She recently went to Tornillo, Texas, to protest against policies that have separated parents from their children at the southern U.S. border.

Ocasio-Cortez gained some internet attention for a campaign video called “The Courage to Change,” a two-minute spot for which she wrote the script and featured footage from her own home.

Crowley is chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the fourth-highest ranking position in Democratic leadership in that chamber of Congress.

His loss drew the attention of President Donald Trump.

“Wow! Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi’s place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he’s out! That is a big one that nobody saw happening. Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!” he tweeted.

The Republican candidate for the office, Anthony Pappas, is running unopposed and had no primary. Pappas teaches economics at St. John’s University.

She was a Bernie campaigner, is supported by BLM, and wants to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Also this was in a solid-blue Congressional District so you know she's a shoo-in for next Congress.

But hey, we did get to see Trump laugh at Crowley on Twitter.
 
I think you mean "Peaceful Protests" if you're referring to BLM.
AOC's TRUE and HONEST communications director here:
I think you mean ”fiery but mostly peaceful racial justice protests”. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to peacefully liberate a can of Stella from the capitalist oppressors at the corner shop.
 
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She hasn't done anything. Jimmy is just sperging out about the DSA breaking its own stated mission to always push for Medicare for All in order to cover for AOC cucking out.

Basically he's just calling them all hypocrites. It won't work on AOC because she's just following her script and the DSA isn't going to turn on their most powerful member.
 
She hasn't done anything. Jimmy is just sperging out about the DSA breaking its own stated mission to always push for Medicare for All in order to cover for AOC cucking out.

Basically he's just calling them all hypocrites. It won't work on AOC because she's just following her script and the DSA isn't going to turn on their most powerful member.
Did Dore simp hard for AOC at first? He's kind of acting like a spurned stalker towards her now.
 
I'd like to see this from a more accurate source than Jimmy Dore - at present I can't see anything on her Twitter or Insta saying that she's done that and Jimmy Dore's been trying to pick a fight with her for about a month now.
It was sarcasm.

Dore juxtaposed AOC's response to impeachment with her response to ForceTheVote.

A symbolic vote on medicare for all was not important enough for her to follow through with even though she campaigned on doing exactly that to get people on the record.

A symbolic (and bs) impeachment with no chance of conviction or removal was necessary and AOC demanded it happen.

Check the video, it's all there. She is exactly the kind of sellout her detractors claimed she was. AOC is only in it for the party, the money and the celebrity. She doesn't give a fuck about the progressive movement. It is disgusting and I say that as a conservative.
 
A symbolic vote on medicare for all was not important enough for her to follow through with even though she campaigned on doing exactly that to get people on the record.
What I've said and continue to say is that holding a vote when the Senate was still up in the air would just have turned moderates away in Georgia. I say this as someone with no love for the Squad - left wing sperging when you need to get centrists on your side is counterproductive.
 
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Did Dore simp hard for AOC at first? He's kind of acting like a spurned stalker towards her now.
Yes. Dore was the first... Interview? She did.

Dore is pissed because the COVID pandemic is revealing who the "real" progressives are. That shit is going legitimately sideways and people are losing ground due to government decisions but then the government turns around and tells people to fuck off. All the progressives kissed Nancy Pelosi's ring when they actually had leverage to do something.

I say Dore has a valid reason to be pissed. All the people who were going to "challenge the establishment" bailed on that promise.

It is the reason that I think left wing and right wing populists would work together if they would shut the media off for 10 minutes to think clearly.
 
It is the reason that I think left wing and right wing populists would work together if they would shut the media off for 10 minutes to think clearly.
This is something I, as a right wing populist, actually believe. I have a lot more in common with leftists (by which I mean actual leftists as opposed to champagne socialists) than I do with right wingers of the ”social liberalism and unrestricted free markets for everyone, long live the Almighty Dollar and if it fucks over your culture, tradition or small business too bad” school of thought. Society is made up of what David Clarke called ”the grand chorus of national harmony... villages, towns and cities” and I feel that I'd rather work with left-wing populists who believe that ”grand chorus” should have a say in things than with anyone who thinks it should be thrown away for the sake of a few megacorps' profits.
 
This is something I, as a right wing populist, actually believe. I have a lot more in common with leftists (by which I mean actual leftists as opposed to champagne socialists) than I do with right wingers of the ”social liberalism and unrestricted free markets for everyone, long live the Almighty Dollar and if it fucks over your culture, tradition or small business too bad” school of thought. Society is made up of what David Clarke called ”the grand chorus of national harmony... villages, towns and cities” and I feel that I'd rather work with left-wing populists who believe that ”grand chorus” should have a say in things than with anyone who thinks it should be thrown away for the sake of a few megacorps' profits.
Agreed. I've run into a few people on the left online I wish I'd be able to talk to sanely about this sort of stuff, but then the "right-winger" alarm goes off and its nothing but reeing about about how I support the worst of neoconservatism's and neoliberalism's excesses because I'm not on "their side" so to speak.
 
Because a lot of those normies voted for the "moderate and dignified" wing of the machine that encouraged rioting when it was to further their goals. As stupid as it may seem, I think a lot of people voted for Biden out of a delusional sense that it would bring back normalcy.
Anyone who voted for a pedo with dementia in the hopes of returning to normal is retarded.
 
Anyone who voted for a pedo with dementia in the hopes of returning to normal is retarded.
If I recall, I actually thought The Squad initially didn’t want to endorse Joe Biden because they though he was the establishment that ”New Age Democrats” wanted to get rid off.

Then again, they endorsed Bernie Sanders so this might not be saying much.
 
Agreed. I've run into a few people on the left online I wish I'd be able to talk to sanely about this sort of stuff, but then the "right-winger" alarm goes off and its nothing but reeing about about how I support the worst of neoconservatism's and neoliberalism's excesses because I'm not on "their side" so to speak.
I know. I think that the world isn't really divided into right and left but into people and elite, and I'll always be with the people. It's a shame that some of the more misguided people who claim to support the people spend more time attacking fellow populists than they do the elite.
If I recall, I actually thought The Squad initially didn’t want to endorse Joe Biden because they though he was the establishment that ”New Age Democrats” wanted to get rid off.

Then again, they endorsed Bernie Sanders so this might not be saying much.
The reason the Squad didn't support Biden was because he's a centrist and if there's one thing they can't be accused of, it's centrism.
 
Agreed. I've run into a few people on the left online I wish I'd be able to talk to sanely about this sort of stuff, but then the "right-winger" alarm goes off and its nothing but reeing about about how I support the worst of neoconservatism's and neoliberalism's excesses because I'm not on "their side" so to speak.
Part of the issue is people don't really trust or respect each other anymore. Hard to make deals without that type of foundation.
Anyone who voted for a pedo with dementia in the hopes of returning to normal is retarded.
Some people have to find out the hard way. Biden's going to fuck them over harder than ever before.
 
I know. I think that the world isn't really divided into right and left but into people and elite, and I'll always be with the people. It's a shame that some of the more misguided people who claim to support the people spend more time attacking fellow populists than they do the elite.
Agreed. Its very annoying, but it can't be helped when you say things like "I believe over-regulation helps big businesses take advantage of smaller ones" and when one's politics unfortunately preclude even the possibility that government intervention can either go wrong or be suborned by outside forces or worse, that slapping more regulation on top of things to solve that issue will actually work, it becomes difficult to even try communicating things. Granted, that probably isn't the best way to go about it, considering how many people believe you can just magically summon up a government program into existence that does everything as advertised, but whenever the issue comes down to small businesses like it always does, see above. They believe government programs and regulations cannot and will not be abused by guys with more lawyers and accountants than in the entire nation of Monaco.
 
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Granted, that probably isn't the best way to go about it, considering how many people believe you can just magically summon up a government program into existence that does everything as advertised
And that's basically one of the main issues I have with the Squad.

I've read the GND proposals and they can basically be summed up by ”any problem we face can be solved by more government or taxing the rich more”, which is actually pretty ironic because that frame of mind is a lot closer to Communist Chinese economic policies and they're one of the biggest contributors to climate change.
 
And that's basically one of the main issues I have with the Squad.

I've read the GND proposals and they can basically be summed up by ”any problem we face can be solved by more government or taxing the rich more”, which is actually pretty ironic because that frame of mind is a lot closer to Communist Chinese economic policies and they're one of the biggest contributors to climate change.
You'll find that sentiment a lot with lefties that don't think beyond wanting more gibs. Someone in my online group was opining recently about how Republicans were evil and stupid and how all our problems could be solved by taxing the rich more, even wanting to bring back estate taxes. I know there's no point in arguing with him because he literally refuses to listen to anything that isn't leftist dogma and I'm tired of wasting energy even trying, but I find it humorous that he thinks that:
  • the tax code isn't written by and for predominantly wealthy people, since it's only the wealthy that can afford to lobby the government
  • wealthy people can't just hire leagues of lawyers and accountants to find and abuse every single loophole available to hide their wealth from the government
  • they don't just offshore huge chunks of their wealth so that it's untouchable in the first place
  • because of all of these factors, raising taxes on the "rich" only realistically hurts the low-upper and upper-middle classes who can't afford to figure out how to avoid the government taking their money away from them
I'm no fan of the Uniparty in general, I don't think either "side" really has the people's interests at heart and haven't for quite some time. But lefties are really deluding themselves if they believe that Democrats (the Squad included) aren't the party of megacorps and Wall Street first and foremost. Maybe they're fine with subsisting on modern-day bread and circuses, but I'd like a little more out of my life, thanks.
 
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