I’m just going to say that AOC is the acting leader of the Democratic Party until someone proves otherwise. At least insofar as she is responding to the moment with leadership.
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I’ve worked on two presidential campaigns, two senate races & in a senate office. Politicians are human & even the best make mistakes. Liking what one is doing doesn’t mean they are perfect.
I've been active in DSA politics long enough to know that AOC, despite betraying the people who elected her and turning her back on Democratic socialism, probably is the only significant Democrat with a national profile who appears to give a shit about the whole fascism thing.
The definite turning point was when she sided with capitalists to end the railway workers strike plans and force them to accept a bad deal. Which in DSA politics is the equivalent of Nancy pelosi sucking off trump.
I've worked on a U.S. congressional campaign, and I fought directly with DCCC over absolute nonsense. At this point in my life, I'm convinced they're idiots, and we need a new party, headed by AOC, preferably.
how about we call it the Reclamation Party… taking it back for the people? 💜
all of the talking points can be Re words… Redistribute wealth, Reaffirm equal rights, Reinvigorate infrastructure, Renew our energy, Reappoint and expand the courts, Reimagine immigration, etc…
no they’re not, especially at the presidential level. it is impossible for a genuine person to even campaign for president - everything is PACs, lobbyist promises, lies and propaganda just to get into a position that relies intrinsically on exploitation: there’s no humanity left underneath all that
Fuck that bullshit. I HATE Trump. He is everything I was raised to despise... liar coward cheat thief rapist racist insurrectionist traitor nazi. Perfect? He's a perfect piece of shit. I can't STAND mealy mouthed pukes who whitewash sanewash and soft peddle every fucking
hate filled nasty thing he's done all his life. Human? He's a fucking insect. A parasite. A disease. And these MAGGOTS are ...exactly what ARE they doing? Same old shit.
And Musk?? The nazi boy from South Africa? The PRETEND genius? Oh hell no. He's always been a nazi, he just got bored hiding it. Just like Trump. There is NO misunderstanding the nazi salute, especially TWO of them. Stuff all the "he didn;'t mean it that way" and "he's just exuberant" shit.
He’s not saying she’s perfect. He’s saying she’s brave. She’s speaking up. She’s actively openly fighting based on her ethics. Not seeing much of that elsewhere. The Dems need generational change, and right now. She’s LEADING
Where was that bravery and leadership while her party was founding a genocide though?
Like there is making mistakes and then there is betraying all the values you established you had over the years.
AOC only ever shows "bravery" when it can't hurt her standing in the Democratic party
I am so fucking sick and tired of this spiel. Stop blowing up smoke those people's asses when they have proven time and time again that their "bravery" starts and ends at tweets.
AOC is the main reason I quit the DSA.
While she kowtowed to pelosi and the dem elite they were pushing her as a shining example of what the DSA embodied and kept pushing her down our throats.
id get heckled like crazy at meetings if i so much as voiced a misgiving about her.
AOC is the definition of being a political show pony and it really ticks me off how many people ignore the fact that she is a giant hypocrite and coward who *will* do anything to benefit her own career.
I think this highlights why progressives don't have a strong communication game actually. We are nuanced and consider many perspectives and most people just want to hear a simple and clear message even when the world is far from either of those. It is what I love and hate about our movement.
Dingdingding! This is the winning take. I’ve been telling people this since Kamala’s campaign began. We are also doing far too much “meeting in the middle” with fascists imo. Whatever happened to “we don’t negotiate with terrorists”? AOC is being loud about refusing to be friendly to them. Good.
If she's good enough and can rally enough of the base, she will inflict a strong blow. The party is in shambles as well as the Republic. In circumstances like these, what is passé or has been entrenched for years is suddenly pushed to the side.
This old centrist hopes that AOC continues to learn how things work in Congress and becomes a leader. It's a steeper learning curve than many of her supporters admit.
Centrist is a matter of perspective. I'm in Alabama, so I'm to the left of most of my fellow white people. I'm old, have followed politics for 60+ years, so I regard some lefties as naifs. They know their goals, but not the means of achieving those goals.
This is very well said! Especially because it’s unfortunately true. People don’t want to admit that there is a give and take that has to happen in politics. It’s not all or nothing. And so many suffer from “purity blinders”.
Not to sound nasty, but when i look at USA's political landscape from the outside, you guys don't *have* an actual left wing. Even your "leftists" are mostly left-leaning centrists by European standards (aside from fringe elements which go full tankie or full anarchy).
Oh, I know.
I suppose it's another effect of having enslaved the ancestors of our Black population. There are white voters who will not vote for anyone whose policy is to improve the lives of Black people. They are willing to harm their fellow whites if they can avoid helping Black people.
Yeah, I think the laziness was reflected but its seeming intolerance.
It wasn't a well thought out JDL post (probably written by a holiday staffer sans streetsmarts), but I think she could have made the same point w/o throwing JDL under the bus.
imagining that they left "a holiday staffer" with the social media account on inauguration day with the ceasefire major news is the most implausibly generous explanation I've seen yet - and it amounts to calling them a bunch of absolute morons.
and continually voting in local elections is the only way to fight this. not that youve said it, but ithers seem to think we need to give up on democrats, but with our voting system the way it is, we need to reshape the democrats to reshape the country. third party isn't the way.
The old guard leaders laughing while they welcomed tfcriminal back into uncontrollable power have no idea how angry millions of Dem voters are for what we see as a betrayal. They slink away with full pockets and no worries since they kissed the ring. It's time they get their share of #FAFO
I've seen some pundits talk about how she can't win nationally, and maybe they're right. But she's the only one putting in the work, and that's a huge advantage in accruing real power.
AOC can win her district and remain in the House until she dies. She will become a committee chairwoman. Alternatively, she could run for the US Senate for NY. Good leaders in Congress can accomplish a lot!
She could get more traction if we abandoned a stifling duopoly and allowed more voices.
She could definitely coalesce the progs and, perhaps, that faction could get a plurality if it wasn't weighted down by assoc w/Ds. W/instant runoff (RCV), she might prevail.
I don't think there is even a remote chance AOC could win the presidency as a D.
• there's no way that tired party would select her;
• if she was the nominee, she'd get trounced in the General.
Duopolies are stifling. I respect her voice -- millions would vote for her.
She could do more if we convinced the left and liberals to give up their purity tests. We’re never going to move things away from the extreme right without a bit of compromise first.
We might be closer than we think. 84 votes in her attempt to get Ranking on the Oversight Committee was significant, historically.
We need to start setting an agenda for 30, 40 years out like the GOP did with Roe and SCOTUS. The progressives should just put it all out there. M4A as a mantra.
AOC convinced her base to vote for the Felon by turning them against Biden and Harris then she tried to walk it back but the damage was done. That’s the problem with her. She runs her mouth and doesn’t consider long term consequences.
The acting leader should get herself a decent committee seat, but that was not the case just a few weeks ago. Thrilled to hear what makes you think she has any power after being publicly put into the smallest chair at the kids table and having her wine replaced with a sippy cup.
"It seems that [Elon] made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge." https://x.com/ADL/status/1881474892022919403
I'm not understanding subtle today. Do you know what the Brooklyn Bridge reference is to? Anyone pretendin Muzk wasn't shooting a Nazi salute iz trying to sell a load BS.
AOC and other progressive leadership is what America needs. Establishment politicians will soon die off so a new age can begin. Its the waiting it out part that sucks.
Yes! The old guys are posting carefully worded platitudes that mean nothing, if they’re even posting at all. She’s got more balls than the rest of them combined!
Like sure she still has some of the parties issues a bit (possibly will change out of those in the future but still), BUT TBF AT LEAST SHE ACTUALLY HAS A SPINE TO FIGHT BACK COMPARED TO THE TWINS: “OH, WE’RE VERY BUDDY BUDDY WITH FASCISTS CAUSE WERE FROM THE SAME GENERATION” OF BIDEN AND KAMALA!!!!!
How does someone not know they are doing something like that, it's not like a tattoo they got in a language they can't read. I would think, people would know what it means.
I know what it means. It means we (and by we I mean the people who voted for him) fugged up.
she's speaking out and saying what a large amount of the population is also saying, without fear. that's more of a leader than anyone in the democratic party has been for decades.
standing up and saying the words with feeling is far more than most people do right now, so yes. if it attracted even three more people to her base of people who will support her, then it was helpful.
Until November, I called myself a democrat. I’m now Independent.There appear to be more despicable republicans than reputable ones, & there are too many wimpy, chicken-sh.t democrats that can’t find their voices & have totally dropped the ball on all of us. Go AOC, you’re one of a kind these days…
Sadly just as the GOP has capitulated to #Trump it seems the Democrats have capitulated to Nancy Pelosi, #Democrats need a new leader and a new purpose #USA
AOC is still a shitlib, just one of the few in power willing to acknowledge that her life is also on the line. I'm glad at least *one* of these cleans is even pretending to take this seriously, but it is entirely too late to expect any useful resistance within the power structure.
I keep getting their ads on TikTok and they’ve done that there too, I’m guessing since they’ve been very unpopular very ignoring/excusing pretty blatant Antisemitism for a while.
Just a guess: because the incoming administration is their best shot at dealing with the Palestinian "problem" once and for all? A "Final Solution" if you will.
I don’t agree with her positions, but I salute for her engagement towards her followers and beyond. Addressing politically complicated questions and positions heads on is a refreshing change.
NVM, just saw ADL’s full tweet. Gross. How does a group dedicated to stopping antisemitism call what looks a whole like 2 nazi salutes back to back “an awkward gesture”?
I tend towards centrism. However I agree that AOC is (atm at least) showing leadership. So let's posit an AOC candidacy in 2028. By no means a rookie at that point. How would she do?
Strengths and pitfalls?
Or maybe it's because the candidates in the presidential races either won the popular vote but lost due to the shitty electoral system, or because they were already making concessions and not pushing for meaningful changes at the failures of the previous administration.
Look I think she sucks but this is good because the ADL has been instrumental in spreading the "antizionism is antisemitism" BS and anything that undermines their perceived authority on antisemitism is also undermining that narrative.
if anyone like me saw aoc’s post and went over to twitter to look at the comments, fair warning it’s a deluge of apologists, false equivalencies, and internalized racism and xenophobia. protect your peace.
Why? They charge a small fee, but they have operating costs. They make it convenient, but the only other option I know of would be sending a paper check directly to her campaign treasurer.
I’m old school. not willing to pay 4% “fee” and not really know if my donation is getting to candidate. I send a check. I write a note. I get a note back. It’s nice. The middlemen in our economy are eating us alive.
I’m just going to say that the US Democratic Party is unlikely to survive without a major internal purge.
Two ex-Presidents will have to be ostracized (and agree to it publicly).
There's been just too much avoidable catastrophic failure and shame, on a global scale.🤯🤦♂️💔
And when they say, "Oh it wasn't a Nazi Salute it was a Roman Salute!" you say, "Oh you mean Mussolini not Hitler salute! Thanks for the clarification!"
I don’t agree with everything she says, and I don’t think the Democrats are the way out of this mess but she should totally run in the 2029 primaries. If only to get her ideas out to the greater American public.
She is one of the very few who was clear headed after the Biden debate performance. One of the few who’s been taking this all very seriously the entire time. She has my support going forward.
I was not a fan of AOC until very recently and now I realize that she is not scared of anyone - and for that I raise my glass. Go forth with your bad self. Fuck em up with whatever you’ve got.
I've been a huge fan of hers for years. Talking truth to power has always been her strength, even in the face of immense opposition. Which is why fox news went out of their way to try and discredit her. It worked on a lot of people sadly, but, she was always a badass.
She’s beyond pissed. Like the rest of us. She’s the most real legislator we’ve had in awhile, but she’s still got a lot of work to do. I hope she can hold out through the fascist nightmare. Trump will come for her, I hope she has a safe place to go until we can reinstall good leadership again.
Opposition Leader doesn’t have to be the titled, institutional senior politician. She’s the clearest, most principled voice in opposition, so she’s leading.
She's the only one in the party with some actual balls. The "I'm not going to a rapist's inauguration" needed to be said far and wide ... but alas, feckless democrats.
The rest are a bunch of spineless boomers that are more concerned with their stock portfolios than they are about what kind of planet they will leave behind for future generations.
Taxing unrealized capital gains for example. She is just farther left of me in fiscal policy. But I can sacrifice in that area to avoid the whole authoritarian fascism thing.
While I’ve got nothing but Canadian love for Queen AOC, she said what she said *on the Nazi’s platform*. Continued presence on that site provides that Nazi with ad dollars given to him by companies who pay to use his platform to sell their…whatever. It is time to #BoycottTwitter & #EatTheRich.
The ADL lost their credibility for defending the Gaza genocide, and before that when they were founded to help a pedophile get off from doing prison time. Nice to see AOC getting on the right page with this one. A little late, but...
They all Democrats are spineless liars. All of them are complicit. No more no less. Democracy is dead and we are brainwashed and indoctrinated and we all better shut up and pay taxes. Our lot in life. Death will be a gift.
AOC called out the ADL for becoming the zionist good housekeeping seal of approval. So now the DNC undead are going to accuse her of antisemitism--because they only know how to do the same braindead, bought-out shit over, and over, and over...
I've been saying for years that we need to push the progressive party to replace the democratic party. Their time is up, they have failed us and this nation with their inaction. Aoc can be the party leader and the younger members of congress can join her. No more of these old bastards
Leadership is not about who is in power. Leadership is who are people willing to follow. @AOC has proven she’s in the trenches and pulling with everyone. I’d happily vote for her for president. If we are ever allowed a vote again.
We'll have votes, they just won't mean anything because Musk will rig them again. If you want an actual election we're probably going to need to adjust Musk's claims if you catch my drift.
Is there even the slightest chance that “the worlds richest, most smartest man in all of human history” didn’t know exactly what he was doing and how it would be received? Every dumbass thing this dumbass does is treated as 4D chess, except when he does blatant naziism, then it’s just an oopsie
We need to all get out there and either find primary challengers to support or become them ourselves if we can't. None of these "friends on the other side of the aisle" centrist fossils should be allowed to remain at the DNC.
AOC and the Justice Dems can't steer the whole ship on their own.
Comments
all of the talking points can be Re words… Redistribute wealth, Reaffirm equal rights, Reinvigorate infrastructure, Renew our energy, Reappoint and expand the courts, Reimagine immigration, etc…
@aoc.bsky.social
time to think outside the box and try something different, right?
Like there is making mistakes and then there is betraying all the values you established you had over the years.
AOC only ever shows "bravery" when it can't hurt her standing in the Democratic party
While she kowtowed to pelosi and the dem elite they were pushing her as a shining example of what the DSA embodied and kept pushing her down our throats.
id get heckled like crazy at meetings if i so much as voiced a misgiving about her.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/20/ruben-gallego-democrats-trump-00001925
- freedom of speech
- the government shouldn't have control over what someone does with their body
Those values are self-evident.
Gridlock is the name of this fiasco of a democracy.
I is one 2, and have been constantly lambasted for "bothsidesism" and much worse.
May I b yr friend?
Centrist is a matter of perspective. I'm in Alabama, so I'm to the left of most of my fellow white people. I'm old, have followed politics for 60+ years, so I regard some lefties as naifs. They know their goals, but not the means of achieving those goals.
Nice to meet you as well. I feel folks in the middle are the ones with the power.
I suppose it's another effect of having enslaved the ancestors of our Black population. There are white voters who will not vote for anyone whose policy is to improve the lives of Black people. They are willing to harm their fellow whites if they can avoid helping Black people.
AOC doesn't care about Mask performing a Nazi salute. It was a pretense to attack a Jewish organization.
It wasn't a well thought out JDL post (probably written by a holiday staffer sans streetsmarts), but I think she could have made the same point w/o throwing JDL under the bus.
She could definitely coalesce the progs and, perhaps, that faction could get a plurality if it wasn't weighted down by assoc w/Ds. W/instant runoff (RCV), she might prevail.
I don't think there is even a remote chance AOC could win the presidency as a D.
• there's no way that tired party would select her;
• if she was the nominee, she'd get trounced in the General.
Duopolies are stifling. I respect her voice -- millions would vote for her.
Purity tests are insufferable and drive us apart. I'd prefer we celebrate what we have in common.
We need to start setting an agenda for 30, 40 years out like the GOP did with Roe and SCOTUS. The progressives should just put it all out there. M4A as a mantra.
Thank you.
M4A has to be for us what “Build the wall” was for Maga.
Centrists will turn. They always do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57pGarTBJrU
If that’s your leader then you’re really fucked.
I've got this bridge in Brooklyn I could sell ya cheap...
Gotta ask how long the ADL believes that NeoNazis in the MEGA movement are going to allow Trump to support Israel?
I know what it means. It means we (and by we I mean the people who voted for him) fugged up.
https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarsteve.bsky.social/post/3lg7ivnv5622k
Almost a half million Americans lost their lives in WW2 to beat the Nazi’s. And now we have a President inviting them to work in the White House.
She's the definition of a shitlib democrat.
What is it with Nazis and well-to-do Jews policing people's thoughts and constantly insulting their intelligence?
This kind of bullshit literally ended up in shootings at synagogues - people died; the ADL is an absolute fucking joke and a disgrace.
But, Trump's remarks about the Gaza coastline harken back to Jared's condo comments when he "forgot(?)" to include the Palestinians in "his" Abraham Accords...and his most recent "move them out" and "clean it up" comments...just saying...
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/03/20/jared-kushner-gaza-waterfront-property-valuable-trump-israel-sot-vpx.cnn
Strengths and pitfalls?
Clinton had the issue of being chosen beforehand by the DNC who actively worked against Bernie.
Kamala lost momentum fast after she started listening to advisors and started courting the right.
And yes we are a nation of sexist racist dipshits.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8FpHbBt/
It is time to find a way to physically PROTECT her.
I do NOT trust MAGA and its Militias.
White people love of performative BS is the exact reason Trump is in office
Leaders ACT. AOC is making the statements she needs to and I'm behind her all the way.
I guess the leader of the conservative opposition is Liz Cheney but she doesn’t have an actual job.
She and Michelle are the only ones who deserve our support
Two ex-Presidents will have to be ostracized (and agree to it publicly).
There's been just too much avoidable catastrophic failure and shame, on a global scale.🤯🤦♂️💔
If we get to vote again - she has mine
Nancy,.....RETIRE!
PLEASE!
Step up, people.
ADL Statement
This is a delicate moment. It's a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Association_of_German_National_Jews
She's not like them at all
People cheered a Nazi salute from behind a podium with the POTUS seal on it.
We are a loooooong way from electing anyone like her.
Protect against enemies foreign AND Domestic!
Yet we have Geriatric @schumer.senate.gov calling out to work with them.
They are Domestic enemies you dementia-riddled fool!@
Senate needs to remove Schumer as official leader - he sucks so bad.
https://youtu.be/fUh9ckEmUP8?si=R5VDZT0KmvNPfyUF
"And the emperor said . . . nothing"
I feel like we suddenly live in a feudal hellscape.
Gerry will get to it next week.
“The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don’t have any.”
- Alice Walker
Part of the reason we're in this mess is because too many people fed that delusion
He didn't create Tesla or SpaceX pr Twitter. He bought them with borrowed money & forced out the founders.
https://youtu.be/4y40RU5Nx6U?si=dzg5Gvs487AclmO_
#TheCrueltyIsThePoint
#TheInternetIsForever
https://youtu.be/UsftqsDCW5c?si=Xpa6LiBtMSVEzJWQ
AOC and the Justice Dems can't steer the whole ship on their own.