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.

 

[not william stenchever]

Has it even been a month since she took office? Has any freshman congresscritter ever fucked up so badly and so quickly that their nominal party goes "we have to get rid of this bitch."?

Honestly in their shoes I'd ask Hillary if I could borrow a few wet workers, string her up in Central Park and blame it on far right extremists. Minimize the amount of damage she can do in the run-up to 2020 and use her death as a talking point about why their enemies are the bad guy.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

That, and I found this...View attachment 661635

How the fuck do you even get a credit score that low? I know people with medical bankruptcies with better credit.

 

[Bongsnake McGee]

How the fuck do you even get a credit score that low? I know people with medical bankruptcies with better credit.

You default on bills, get a few evictions, and get a credit card you don't feel like paying off. And you have no other credit history.

 

[Fuck Y'all]

why poll in this thread don't have option "we should abolish Latinos instead"

 

[boulderblundermatt]

But they're native to the american continent, making them native americans.

yeah, but stupid people use terminology like that.

real people go by country.

what? do you call the british and scavs europeans?

 

[TowinKarz]

The problem here is they aren't really too different in their end game like what she put out. However, she lacks the political savvy to ease that shit in. The problem with millenials (and I'm unfortunately in this generation technically) is that they don't seem to grasp things can't be instant all the time. Change is best when slowly done. Too much, too fast will shock a system and hurt it. Just like the human body. Too quick exposure to cold will cause some serious issues.

She's too liable in this day and age of everything is archived. Can't stop the signal. Everything goes somewhere and the internet goes everywhere. I see her being pigeonholed into a shitty committee after the heat of this dies down. Probably will get a stern talking to/dressing down from higher ranking shot callers in the blue mafia to know her role and shut her mouth. If she is wise, she'll straighten up and fly right. If not, they'll get rid of her.

All of this is correct, but, the problem is, she will NEVER shut up, no matter how many talking-to sessions she gets, because she's convinced, in here heart of hearts that she is RIGHT. At the most, she'll ineffectually delete what she said or walk it back, but she will never ever ever run her ideas past anyone but spineless yes-men before releasing them into the wild. She is too dumb to learn from mistakes because she thinks she will be proven right in the end. She thinks the problem lies not with the poor content of her ideas, but "haters" in the public.

 

[Pumpkin Girl IRL]

Has she actually done anything yet or is she just being celebrated because a few righties have raised their eyebrows.

 

[boulderblundermatt]

i'm gonna admit, i'm impressed. it takes a lot to dream big like she does.

even if 100% of them are completely impossible. still, a person can dream and boy is she dreaming.

 

[TowinKarz]

Anyone can dream big, only a leader can temper those dreams into workable policy.

My dog chases rabbits when she dreams, based on how she thrashes about she's giving a good effort, but she has yet to catch an actual one in real life.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

i'm gonna admit, i'm impressed. it takes a lot to dream big like she does.

even if 100% of them are completely impossible. still, a person can dream and boy is she dreaming.

Does it really, though? It seems the same depth as "I wish for world peace".

 

[boulderblundermatt]

Does it really, though? It seems the same depth as "I wish for world peace".

she wants to make a rail system large enough to go global.

she put this on a document that would be read by people and seriously expects it to be taken.

that's a dreamer.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

she wants to make a rail system large enough to go global.

she put this on a document that would be read by people and seriously expects it to be taken.

that's a dreamer.

I didn't say it wasn't dreaming. I'm asking does that really take effort?

 

[Linako 2.0]

yeah, but stupid people use terminology like that.

real people go by country.

what? do you call the british and scavs europeans?

A lot of people do. because no one is going to name out every single europoor country like an autist.
Funny how pointing out that spics are by definition Native Americans (and have more native blood than most americans who claim heritage) can cause people's head spin. Maybe we should use proper terminology, like Injuns for Indians in the US and above and Indios for everything else like in the old days.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

A lot of people do. because no one is going to name out every single europoor country like an autist.
Funny how pointing out that spics are by definition Native Americans (and have more native blood than most americans who claim heritage) can cause people's head spin. Maybe we should use proper terminology, like Injuns for Indians in the US and above and Indios for everything else like in the old days.

I don't think what's throwing people off is pointing out Latinos have Native American blood but suggesting that someone of Incan descent has a claim to Cherokee land. AOC's entire argument is based off some nonsensical idea of Native Americans being some single monolithic culture.

 

[Dracula's Spirit Animal]

I don't think what's throwing people off is pointing out Latinos have Native American blood but suggesting that someone of Incan descent has a claim to Cherokee land. AOC's entire argument is based off some nonsensical idea of Native Americans being some single monolithic culture.

She essentially made a "They all look the same to me" statement. Considering the sensitivity of the snowflakes, it's surprising they don't consider her words LITERALLY VIOLENCE. Oh, right, that's for the OTHER party.

 

[JosephTX]

So the New York political establishment has decided that the best course of action for AOC is to simply invoke exterminatus on her district.

https://theintercept.com/2019/02/09/ocasio-cortez-district-redistricting-2020/

 

[Wargarbl]

Has anyone else noted that Cortez received essentially the same # of votes [16,898] as our very own John Flynt [16,598] did in their respective primaries? I found that kind of funny.

Anyway, Cortez represents an interesting problem for the DNC. Even if she isn't popular in her own district, she has a large national following among young progressive types. She could get a wave of grassroots fundraising, taking money out of the hands out of Dems in other areas and making her difficult to unseat via primary.

Also, regarding drawing her district out of existence, that has two things working against it: 1) Redistricting is done by an "independent" (I'm skeptical) committee of non-politicians, so it is harder to influence the gerrymandering directly and 2) if she remains a high profile name among unrealistic progressives, she may just unseat someone else in the re-drawn districts.

She could be a real headache for the DNC and moderate Dems, which is funny to watch but not good news for people hoping the party unfucks itself.

EDIT: just to be clear, I think she's aggressively stupid and unrealistic, and that most of her media attention is garnered from being a pair of tits that spews ready-made clickbait. But being a moron hasn't stopped plenty of others from multiple terms in Congress. Looking at you Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Michele Bachmann, and probably a laundry list of others I'm too lazy to type up.

 

[Sissy Galvez]

I sincerely hope they get rid of her district, the gnashing of teeth and despair from leftists will drive the woke crowd from politics for good.

 

[Kamov Ka-52]

.



Also, regarding drawing her district out of existence, that has two things working against it: 1) Redistricting is done by an "independent" (I'm skeptical) committee of non-politicians.

The legislature can tell the committee to fuck off and try again if they don't like what they see from it by voting their propsal down twice. The language of the NY constitutional amendment that governs the redestricting process could allow AOC to challenge the constitutionality of any overt attempt by the party to kill her district.

The legislature must approve the commission's plans by a simple up/down vote. The legislature must reject two separate sets of redistricting plans before it will be able to amend the commission's proposals. All districts will be required "to preserve minority rights, be equally populated, and consist of compact and contiguous territory." Further, state law will require that districts "not be drawn to discourage competition or to favor/disfavor candidates or parties."

Although that said, this language is vague enough that that any contest of over it would be difficult to prove. A challenge could make things potentially really ugly from an optics perspective though.

 

[TherapyMan]

The more I think of it, the more I think the rise of AOC can be directly traced back to the same factors that allowed Trump to gain power. Both are not politicians; they're celebrities. Politics in general seems to be shifting more from what I would describe as "team sports" (Democrat vs. Republican) to autistic fandoms for individuals. People generally don't give a shit about the platform of the Democratic or Republican parties as a whole. They've have become fatigued with partisanship and the notion of the "establishment"—they want someone who will throw a wrench into the works, whether it be a Trump or an AOC. Platforms really don't matter as long as they don't seriously piss off their fan base.

What they live and die on is media attention, positive or negative. AOC is a novelty, but then again so was Trump initially. Trump had the savvy and the know-how to keep putting himself out there, regardless of what the media said, or how he came across, and stayed relevant in the news. If AOC wants to survive, she is going to have to keep playing to the media that's propping her up, and not capitulate to whatever the Democratic Party wants. She's in the news BECAUSE she's a disruptive presence (also people want to fuck her), so she's gotta work that angle, and confidently, or she'll just become irrelevant and die. This means courting controversy, starting fights, and sometimes just saying shit that'll get you in the papers. She is a fool if she trades a little security with the Democrats (who want to fuck her over anyways) to keep her head low and out of the public eye.

For the record, I don't think she can pull that sort of image off. It worked for Trump because Trump was no stranger to being in the public eye, had decades experience in the art of bullshittery as a New York businessman, and had such an absurd level of self-confidence in himself that he could say even the most ridiculous, nonsensical shit and still come across with a firm conviction. AOC is a young, inexperienced woman, who inherently appears out of her depth and ignorant of the world around her.

What is good for her, however, is that conservative media outlets have taken a particular shine to reporting on her. She gets the ire and discussion of a lot of conservatives in a similar way to how liberals never shut up about Trump's every bowel movement. Even this thread is like 40 pages, which is way more discussion than is given to any other currently sitting member of Congress. In a similar way to how many conservatives enjoy Trump for pissing off the Libs, many liberals will inevitably enjoy AOC for pissing off the conservatives.