5942

Do you have an example of any junior House member ever doing this? The only real power (besides their vote) a junior House member has is their megaphone. She seems to be wielding it pretty effectively.

This… doesn’t mean anything. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her suggest nationalizing industries or mobilizing an economic central planning committee or re-purposing labor resources to meet national quotas. She’s a straight social democrat, which is just codespeak for “progressive,” particularly progressives who emphasize policy that apes Northern European social insurance programs.

5943

I think some of us are taking the media hype a little seriously. AOC is a first-term congresswoman. She’s not going to be leading any committees in the Democratic Party, who love seniority much more than Republicans do.

5944

Yeah, “socialist” as a complete descriptive is about as valuable a term of use now as it was in, say, 1848.

5945

For my part, I just like having someone I more or less identify with politically who isn’t some weirdo (Kucinich was such a loon, f’rex) and is unapologetic about her ideas.

Yeah, she’s not going to be President tomorrow or anything, but we could use a hell of a lot more like her at every level of government IMO. And that’s worth getting excited about.

5946

She describes herself a Democratic socialist, a member of the DSA. Since I live in the US, and she uses that word. I’m going to use that word. If someone wants to say well the US socialists are not like these other socialists in these others countries, fine, go for it. I’m not in those other countries. I am using words she uses to describe herself.

5947

If you listen, they will tell you what they are afraid of.

5948

US Democratic Socialists are explicitly saying they are like the democratic socialists in other countries. In fact their main argument comes to ‘Scandinavian nations are doing things well in these areas, the US should try and model themselves more like that’

5949

Right, I don’t think there’s a problem with that, and re-reading your comment, I think I misunderstood your intent, which seems now to just be that the future of the Democratic party isn’t certain, therefore AOC’s role in that future is also uncertain. I apologize for the digression.

5950

Hey, she got elected. Let’s just see what she actually does. That’s all that’s gonna matter.

5951

You see the if part of my statement. I’m not the one actually making that argument.

I am going to call her a socialist, and feel fine about that because that’s the word she uses. If some other context bothers someone else about me using that word, then go ahead and make that argument. I am not making that argument. I am comfortable using the words she uses. I am not sure why anyone else would be bothered by it. She’s part of the DSA, and they literally call themselves a socialist organization… literally.

5952

Sure, and I have no problem using the term either. What I am clarifying is the framing of the term itself, because people are certainly using it to be inaccurate*.

‘She’s a Maoist socialist, omg!!!1!’

Just making sure people understand that when she said Democratic Socialist that it is a term that has been in use, has a clear meaning, and real world examples to point to.

And then I point to them.

Because her use of the term has a reason and meaning, one I feel is important to bring out.

*And let me be clear I am categorically not accusing you of doing his.

5953

I think that would be a communist.

5954

That’s not what I said at all. I said she was a straight up socialist, and what makes her that more than anything else is she describes herself as a socialist. If someone thinks that makes her communist, well that’s more on them than me.

5955

Seems apropos…

5956

What’s weird is that the attacks are so poorly conceived. What makes me doubt that there’s any strategy is how dumb they are.

5957

It doesn’t matter. Over the course of the next X years, it will all pile up and ensure that voters just aren’t very sure about her should she ever run for President.

Tear down early, tear down often.

5958

The important thing for Fox is that they emphasize that the Democrat[ic] party is brown, female and insofar as possible, Muslim. That’s the only message they need to get across to their audience; the specifics of the attacks don’t matter.

“Fight the future” isn’t just for the X-Files anymore.

5959

Don’t forget gay and anti-Christian (though I guess by now for that audience Muslim works).

5960

This is possible, but what it means is that fox doesn’t actually care much about the actual political outcome, and is instead just exploiting its audience.

Which is totally believable, don’t get me wrong.

5961

Exactly. Hillary and Pelosi are old. Here’s a villain they can milk for a long, long time.