I don’t. She is one of the most junior members of Congress, and yet she also is one of the only ones outside of the party leaders with an independent voice which the people will hear. She has, in effect, her own Bully Pulpit to raise awareness of the things which get swept under the rug. If her vote really counted, I think she’d vote yes, but by doing this, she raises awareness of the shortcomings of ICE (such as their almost complete lack of accountability and abuses of the law), and gets questions about it. As best I can tell, she has zero in common with the Tea Party, as I’ve seen her show not only a willingness to work towards solutions, but an eagerness.
I do think she gets far too much attention (mostly because she’s from NY), but I think it’s best if she makes the most of this early explosion of media attention. I would even suspect she let Pelosi know that she would vote as she did prior to the vote, and wouldn’t be surprised if Pelosi ok’d it as a way to bring pressure without any significant risk - maybe even enthusiastically.
Timex
2066
She also gets attention because she does stuff like this, where she is literally the only Democrat in the entire house to break ranks.
rowe33
2067
We definitely need some more white guys telling this woman how she should be acting. Or maybe consider that she won her district against a longterm incumbent and the possibility that she actually might be good at this.
CraigM
2068
This would not surprise me. Much how in the senate we often hear about the majority leader their working with different members to ok a no vote, but ensure passing.
It comes to this, so you think she would have voted no if her vote made a difference in the final outcome. I suspect the answer is she would have voted yes.
Timex
2069
This statement suggests that the job is to get elected rather than governance.
Nesrie
2070
Well you must be Trump’s biggest fan then. This is what he’s doing.
rowe33
2071
She’s been in office like what, a couple weeks? And the entire time the government has d been shut down. She’s already managed to make it onto at least one high profile committee. Give her a chance.
She really does seem to have very poor political instincts so far, so maybe a bunch of us can give her the guidance she really needs to build some political capital.
rowe33
2073
I find it interesting that you think Trump actually possesses a conscience! I’ve seen zero evidence that it exists.
Two! Oversight and also Financial Services. Both are very good gets, as they say.
Nesrie
2075
Well I don’t think he’s a sociopath. I think he’s a selfish bastard and an attention whore.
She’s going to have a hard time getting people to back her playbook if she can’t even fall inline herself on something simple like show unity when it matters. They don’t all have to vote together all the time but this is a shutdown, and whether it’s defunding ICE or building a damn wall, now is not that time.
Timex
2076
Also, just out of curiosity, is everyone really cool with this kind of statement?
Nesrie
2078
I’m not cool with drive-by shaming and sniping. But since you asked… It’s fair to say that she’s been getting that, for reals. Do we need to talk about shoes again or her coat or maybe what color of lipstick she might be using next week. That’s totally mixed in with her criticism… he didn’t just make that up right now.
rowe33
2079
All we’ve seen lately about AOC from Timex is about how we should be wary of her, how she’s going to be corrupted, how she doesn’t know how to do this politics things. How am I drive-by shaming/sniping? It’s bullshit. If I wanted to hear about how AOC should be acting then I could turn on Fox News. They talk about her all the time. They’re fucking scared to death of a woman with power that isn’t submitting to her man, like a good woman should.
She’s been in Congress for like two fucking weeks.
Sorry to call you out directly, I’m just so fucking sick of all the negativity we get from the President, his fucking family, his fucking henchmen, the whole fucking administration. And now we’ve got this bright light that’s emerged from all this shittery, that looks like she can help effect some real positive change. And people are already shitting on her after two weeks.
Nesrie
2081
Not you, him. If he wanted to know what you meant by that, I assumed he would ask, but he asked the rest of us instead.
I think she is behaving fine. I am not a fan of that vote, whether it’s playing to her cheerleaders or something else.
You gotta realize that Trump digging in like he is is keyed to optics and his base. If that’s what she’s doing, it’s not great.
Timex
2082
No, i was asking about that very specific statement that rowe made.
About whether you guys thought that particular thing was ok.
And i guess it was.
rowe33
2083
Looks, here’s a white guy right now telling a woman what to do. Literally on Fox News right now.
rowe33
2084
Ah, got it, sorry. I’m just feeling a bit frustrated at all the bullshit happening in the world this week.
