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AOC and The First Rule of Politics
This Politico profile of the increasingly omnipresent (and often imitated) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is (deliciously) causing consternation in Democratic circles. One excerpt:
House Democrats were also unhappy when she made a play for a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Lawmakers suspected Ocasio-Cortez was behind a massive online campaign pressing Pelosi to appoint her to the panel, though her office said she was not.
Critics inside the caucus felt she didn’t deserve it, given her lack of professional experience on tax issues and her status as a freshman.
“It totally pissed off everyone,” said one senior House Democratic lawmaker of the campaign. “You don’t get picked for committees by who your grass-roots [supporters] are.”
Read the whole thing, as they say, but clearly, the freshman Congresswoman has not learned to first rule of Democratic politics (ok, maybe just politics in general):
Play this while you read it…
She’s playing a different game and she’s good at it. She may be blindingly ignorant and innumerate but which Democrats aren’t? She is the kind of politician that caused the kinds of economies and political systems that led her supporters and their families to leave their countries of origin. Sort of like California liberals showing up in Austin. In both cases they know enough to leave but not enough to learn.
This is what one gets when one courts a “new breed.” Most of the time, the new breed has little respect for the old breed. It’ll be interesting going forward to see if the establishment Democrats can reign in Ocasio-Cortez. She may be a twit, but I see this as a moderately good thing for those of us on the other side.
@Hoyacon- I fear that I Walton as well as young YouTube’s Zach Hing are more correct in terms of her prospects (God help us). As Hung noted she is relatable, as well as imo, being attractive and charismatic. I worry that she will soon be in a position to do some harm.
One thing she does that Obama also did that is effective is to describe your opponent’s ideas as immoral. Too few Republican politicos ever seem to do this.
One thing seems true of populism, no matter its flavor – it always rubs the old guard the wrong way.
That’s because too many Republican politicos agree that their own ideas are immoral.
(Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) addressing how he will act in response to Republican President Donald Trump.)
AOC has achieved a lot for a first-term rep. She got a committee created to address her Green New Deal that has enough scope to fully implement Venezuelan-style socialism. I am wondering if she will create and lead a new caucus of reps. Given that Democratic voters act like fanboys these days, she is too much for Pelosi to control. She already has convinced the fact checkers that her feelings are more important than facts and she can get all the airtime she wants. Experts say her Twitter team is one of the best. We’ll know in 3 weeks how much power she can accumulate.
She needs to learn a little bit about time-in-grade. Then, with any luck, term limits will be imposed before she gets too dug in, and she’ll be gone before she does any real damage.
We have had an endless team of idiots become politicians; at this point, it seems to be a prerequisite for the job.
Is there no way to run explicit campaigns against AOC and her ilk referencing Dunning-Kruger? (Alluding to the fact that we barely escaped with our freedom and economic well-being after 8 years of Dunning-Kruger in the Oval Office, etc.)
Parallel to this, an explicit campaign against the media referencing the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect?