It's worse than that. You don't need to be a socialist, social democrat, or even a bog standard liberal to think that genocide and mass murder are bad and should not be supported politically or economically. I try to avoid the subject in casual conversation because I get too upset, but when I talk about Gaza I typically start by saying "Being opposed to mass murder should not be a controversial stance, but here we are."
There is a common centrist trope where everything is about "winning" and all their energy is put into bashing the left because they don't win and cause the Democrats to lose with (by their definition) unpopular policies. AOC is a case study in how wrongheaded that entire mode of thinking is. What does "winning" even mean and "victory" even look like? Are we talking about winning an election? What does it matter when supposed leftist politicians get into office and just end up doing 90% of the same things everyone else does? What sort of victory is that?
i'm personally guilty of huffing AOC copium for the entirety of her time in congress, and her vote on the iron dome amendment forced me to step back and question what her goals and intentions are. your layout of her positions up until this point is making me realize how the writing has been on the wall. i fear the instability of revolution and yet the idea of reform becomes increasingly less tenable every day our supposed allies demonstrate how feckless they truly are on such a black and white issue
I can promise you the fear of the instability of revolution is less terrible than the near certainty of current tachno-financialized capitalist dystopia in the near future.
Grassroots supporters projected a great many hopes onto AOC, while failing to recognize how she responded to the climate in Congress that she entered. I ran for Congress in the same cycle that she did before facing Pelosi (her most prolific antagonist and a critical node of corruption co-opting the Democratic Party) in the 2020 general election. Even while Pelosi was kneeling on her political neck, AOC complied, ignoring the primary challengers of candidates aligned with her stated ideology and squandering the star power that could have enabled a sea change in the Democratic Party.
The fact that AOC is resorting to Clinton-style triangulation on genocide shows how warped she’s become after 6 years of working alongside Democratic Party leadership. She has made the most grotesque political calculation imaginable, betting that Palestinian lives matter so little that she can safely compromise on their extermination and climb to higher office. There is just no coming back from this as a human being. I hope she feels proud to stand in the same moral company as Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and the rest of the Democratic Party’s assorted creatures.
The sad fact is that the system does its sifting well. No one is actually allowed to rise to significant power without being cleared in advance - without being branded 'manageable'.
The Good Cop routine of AOC and Bernie is sadly as much a part of maintaining the charade as the Bad Cop routine of Biden, or Harris, or Trump. The simulacrum of progressivism keeps many hopeful and quiet. "Hey, someone is fighting for the right thing. Ok they're not achieving much, but they're trying. There is hope."
There isn't. None of them want anything good, if they did they would not have been allowed to be there.
I really do understand progressives who want to believe AOC is still fighting for them. But as you point out, if AOC cannot even hold the line on not funding a genocide, then she is useless. She is simply a careerist at this point, not serious about advancing any movement or real change.
Further, what has AOC actually achieved by selling out out her professed values in the name of gaining political capital? In the 2024 elections, AOC dutifully endorsed and *actively campaigned for* both Genocide Joe, and once his senility was finally acknowledged, Holocaust Harris. In return for her loyalty, she was not rewarded — she was snubbed! Not given even her desired role on the house Oversight Committee, which went to 75 year old Connolly instead (who proceeded to die in office months later). Over and over AOC sells out DSA and the progressives that fought for her, while delivering no real power or concessions in exchange.
AOC is an awful detriment to progressive movements in the US because she is the face of the left in congress, but she toes the party line every single time she is told to. Far from “bringing the ruckus” as she once promised, she is now the token progressive of the democratic establishment. We should rightly criticize her and better yet, render her incoherent politics irrelevant.
Well said and articulated across the board Scarlet! It's been utterly mind-boggling seeing the shameless AOC defenders try and run cover for this vote. If she believes what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is genocide, then there's no excuse for voting 'No' on this amendment -- even if it comes from the likes of MTG. AOC is effectively controlled liberal Zionist opposition with careerist ambitions at this rate -- which is a shame considering the real potential she had after winning her initial election. Despite the bar being in hell, AOC has struggled to clear even the most basic of hurdles that demonstrates her lack of actual commitment to bringing the Zionist project of Israel to an end. I think a lot of us wanted to believe AOC could be that true difference maker for the progressive left in congress but as you've pointed out before, we need to learn from the failures of Bernie Sanders and not treat people as individual messiahs. What matters are the independent movements consisting of everyday working people that not only help get politicians into power but arguably more importantly, holds them accountable once they've assumed office. The reactions we've seen from AOC defenders signals just how many people remain stuck in the idea that electoralism is the true end goal and not a temporary tool that only represents a fraction of the work. As you rightfully pointed out: "Eventually you get the power, but by then you’ve traded so much of your decency away that you are unrecognizable." This is what happens when you lend any credence to the legitimacy of a genocidal death-cult ideology that has become historically unpopular amongst her own base of support. It's like she's signing her own deal with the devil that doesn't guarantee her higher ambitions and risks destroying whatever remaining semblance of credibility she has left. The slow and steady capitulation to this depraved and belligerent establishment -- rather than remaining unapologetic in her convictions -- is a tale as old as time and reminds us that these figureheads won't save us. Our "shared commitment to universal human values that we refuse to compromise on" is what should guide us in every meaningful step we take and every foundational brick we lay. Movements don't stem from individual figureheads or messiahs, but from the droves of everyday working people who collectively decide that a better world is possible. AOC isn't coming to save us (as you expertly conveyed throughout this piece), "there’s just us, and we must dedicate ourselves fully to saving each other, bit by bit, until we are all finally free."
"...for a lot of people the election of AOC represented a sea change in our politics, and a desperate hope for a future that wasn’t the world slowly getting worse without end."
I remember the moment well. But it became clear by her second term she had decided to go along to get along. The only Democrat I can remember who was steadfast about standing up to leadership was Tulsi Gabbard. She refused to bend the knee to the neocons who have taken over Dem foreign policy (go back and look at how pilloried she was over Syria - and she turned out to be right), and as a result she was driven out of the party on a wave of slander about being a "Russian asset".
Democrat leadership simply will not tolerate dissent (David Hogg another case), despite the fact that the status quo lost to an orange baboon. Again.
The Democratic Party has been transformed into a bribery distribution scheme. The major corporate/banks provide the major funding, plus AIPAC. It’s is straight forward corruption. You can’t be a clean legislator in this environment. You’ll be neutralized then pushed out. This has happened before. It is a capitalist pattern. So much money ends up going to the elites that corruption becomes inevitable. Capitalism and democracy together create a corrupt apartheid state. This dysfunction is beyond reform.
I remember when, I think it was Pink News, went up to different Democrats and asked about the genocide in 2023. Yk what they all did? Immediately walk away or refuse to comment on it. AOC however, told them to go away. Repeatedly. It wasn't even a mob. Just an old lady. Begging her to be against genocide. And she told her to go away and leave her alone. The minute I saw them (just a group of middle aged to elderly women) repeatedly go up to Democrats and almost every single one waved them off, is how I knew that they were evil. That's when I knew. They were speaking politely and just asking nicely. And nothing. They just waved them off.
It's worse than that. You don't need to be a socialist, social democrat, or even a bog standard liberal to think that genocide and mass murder are bad and should not be supported politically or economically. I try to avoid the subject in casual conversation because I get too upset, but when I talk about Gaza I typically start by saying "Being opposed to mass murder should not be a controversial stance, but here we are."
There is a common centrist trope where everything is about "winning" and all their energy is put into bashing the left because they don't win and cause the Democrats to lose with (by their definition) unpopular policies. AOC is a case study in how wrongheaded that entire mode of thinking is. What does "winning" even mean and "victory" even look like? Are we talking about winning an election? What does it matter when supposed leftist politicians get into office and just end up doing 90% of the same things everyone else does? What sort of victory is that?
A+ comment.
i'm personally guilty of huffing AOC copium for the entirety of her time in congress, and her vote on the iron dome amendment forced me to step back and question what her goals and intentions are. your layout of her positions up until this point is making me realize how the writing has been on the wall. i fear the instability of revolution and yet the idea of reform becomes increasingly less tenable every day our supposed allies demonstrate how feckless they truly are on such a black and white issue
I can promise you the fear of the instability of revolution is less terrible than the near certainty of current tachno-financialized capitalist dystopia in the near future.
Grassroots supporters projected a great many hopes onto AOC, while failing to recognize how she responded to the climate in Congress that she entered. I ran for Congress in the same cycle that she did before facing Pelosi (her most prolific antagonist and a critical node of corruption co-opting the Democratic Party) in the 2020 general election. Even while Pelosi was kneeling on her political neck, AOC complied, ignoring the primary challengers of candidates aligned with her stated ideology and squandering the star power that could have enabled a sea change in the Democratic Party.
The character assassination orchestrated in 2020 to insulate Pelosi forced me to leave politics behind, but I continue to observe its bipartisan corruption. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/democrats-vs-democracy
The fact that AOC is resorting to Clinton-style triangulation on genocide shows how warped she’s become after 6 years of working alongside Democratic Party leadership. She has made the most grotesque political calculation imaginable, betting that Palestinian lives matter so little that she can safely compromise on their extermination and climb to higher office. There is just no coming back from this as a human being. I hope she feels proud to stand in the same moral company as Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and the rest of the Democratic Party’s assorted creatures.
My understanding is that AOC's background is much more affluent than the "bartender" story suggests.
She is indeed middle class 😇
The sad fact is that the system does its sifting well. No one is actually allowed to rise to significant power without being cleared in advance - without being branded 'manageable'.
The Good Cop routine of AOC and Bernie is sadly as much a part of maintaining the charade as the Bad Cop routine of Biden, or Harris, or Trump. The simulacrum of progressivism keeps many hopeful and quiet. "Hey, someone is fighting for the right thing. Ok they're not achieving much, but they're trying. There is hope."
There isn't. None of them want anything good, if they did they would not have been allowed to be there.
I really do understand progressives who want to believe AOC is still fighting for them. But as you point out, if AOC cannot even hold the line on not funding a genocide, then she is useless. She is simply a careerist at this point, not serious about advancing any movement or real change.
Further, what has AOC actually achieved by selling out out her professed values in the name of gaining political capital? In the 2024 elections, AOC dutifully endorsed and *actively campaigned for* both Genocide Joe, and once his senility was finally acknowledged, Holocaust Harris. In return for her loyalty, she was not rewarded — she was snubbed! Not given even her desired role on the house Oversight Committee, which went to 75 year old Connolly instead (who proceeded to die in office months later). Over and over AOC sells out DSA and the progressives that fought for her, while delivering no real power or concessions in exchange.
AOC is an awful detriment to progressive movements in the US because she is the face of the left in congress, but she toes the party line every single time she is told to. Far from “bringing the ruckus” as she once promised, she is now the token progressive of the democratic establishment. We should rightly criticize her and better yet, render her incoherent politics irrelevant.
She should have voted in solidarity with her fellow squad members. Check her campaign funding for insight into her vote…
Well said and articulated across the board Scarlet! It's been utterly mind-boggling seeing the shameless AOC defenders try and run cover for this vote. If she believes what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is genocide, then there's no excuse for voting 'No' on this amendment -- even if it comes from the likes of MTG. AOC is effectively controlled liberal Zionist opposition with careerist ambitions at this rate -- which is a shame considering the real potential she had after winning her initial election. Despite the bar being in hell, AOC has struggled to clear even the most basic of hurdles that demonstrates her lack of actual commitment to bringing the Zionist project of Israel to an end. I think a lot of us wanted to believe AOC could be that true difference maker for the progressive left in congress but as you've pointed out before, we need to learn from the failures of Bernie Sanders and not treat people as individual messiahs. What matters are the independent movements consisting of everyday working people that not only help get politicians into power but arguably more importantly, holds them accountable once they've assumed office. The reactions we've seen from AOC defenders signals just how many people remain stuck in the idea that electoralism is the true end goal and not a temporary tool that only represents a fraction of the work. As you rightfully pointed out: "Eventually you get the power, but by then you’ve traded so much of your decency away that you are unrecognizable." This is what happens when you lend any credence to the legitimacy of a genocidal death-cult ideology that has become historically unpopular amongst her own base of support. It's like she's signing her own deal with the devil that doesn't guarantee her higher ambitions and risks destroying whatever remaining semblance of credibility she has left. The slow and steady capitulation to this depraved and belligerent establishment -- rather than remaining unapologetic in her convictions -- is a tale as old as time and reminds us that these figureheads won't save us. Our "shared commitment to universal human values that we refuse to compromise on" is what should guide us in every meaningful step we take and every foundational brick we lay. Movements don't stem from individual figureheads or messiahs, but from the droves of everyday working people who collectively decide that a better world is possible. AOC isn't coming to save us (as you expertly conveyed throughout this piece), "there’s just us, and we must dedicate ourselves fully to saving each other, bit by bit, until we are all finally free."
"...for a lot of people the election of AOC represented a sea change in our politics, and a desperate hope for a future that wasn’t the world slowly getting worse without end."
I remember the moment well. But it became clear by her second term she had decided to go along to get along. The only Democrat I can remember who was steadfast about standing up to leadership was Tulsi Gabbard. She refused to bend the knee to the neocons who have taken over Dem foreign policy (go back and look at how pilloried she was over Syria - and she turned out to be right), and as a result she was driven out of the party on a wave of slander about being a "Russian asset".
Democrat leadership simply will not tolerate dissent (David Hogg another case), despite the fact that the status quo lost to an orange baboon. Again.
Absolutely agree and I sad to say. And I appreciate you well though out and documented article so much
The Democratic Party has been transformed into a bribery distribution scheme. The major corporate/banks provide the major funding, plus AIPAC. It’s is straight forward corruption. You can’t be a clean legislator in this environment. You’ll be neutralized then pushed out. This has happened before. It is a capitalist pattern. So much money ends up going to the elites that corruption becomes inevitable. Capitalism and democracy together create a corrupt apartheid state. This dysfunction is beyond reform.
I remember when, I think it was Pink News, went up to different Democrats and asked about the genocide in 2023. Yk what they all did? Immediately walk away or refuse to comment on it. AOC however, told them to go away. Repeatedly. It wasn't even a mob. Just an old lady. Begging her to be against genocide. And she told her to go away and leave her alone. The minute I saw them (just a group of middle aged to elderly women) repeatedly go up to Democrats and almost every single one waved them off, is how I knew that they were evil. That's when I knew. They were speaking politely and just asking nicely. And nothing. They just waved them off.
She's not the one
Thank you for this well written well thought out analysis of this topic. 😊
💯