Summary
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for Democrats to elect “brawlers” who fight for the working class to counter GOP power and oppose policies endorsed by figures like Elon Musk.
Speaking alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders in Las Vegas, she criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for not filibustering a GOP spending bill and labeled the decision a “tremendous mistake.”
Ocasio-Cortez urged voters to support candidates willing to take bold stances.
She continues her “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Sanders across Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona.
Yes, which is… Not helpful. If that worked on its own America wouldn’t be here. There are massive obstacles all over that he’s just ignoring, and it’s that part of the equation that I’d call the “how”; voting people you like into office is just the victory lap.
Incidentally, he and AOC having this roadshow that’s traveling to red areas in particular is in part doing that job of tearing down obstacles all over. He’s not lazily telling other people to do it, he’s just doing it and showing how.
I hope they keep the full-court press going for the entire election cycle. I think it’ll be most powerful during the primary campaign when they’ve put in the work leading up to it; and since their votes in Washington aren’t super effective most of the time, I think this is probably the best use of their time.
At the rate America is going primaries won’t matter because elections won’t matter. If you think Trump won’t have significantly curtailed democracy in America by the midterms you need to take a look at the news for once. The most important obstacles to taking down the oligarchy are Trump’s wannabe authoritarian regime and the entrenched political establishment, and Bernie’s tour is doing nothing to address the former and very little to address the latter in a reasonable timescale.
This sort of thing isn’t helpful. You do what you can while you can. You assume there will be an election until there isn’t. I know what you’re saying, but unless you have a better option, all it’s going to do is depress turnout just like it did in 2024.
And what do you do when there isn’t an election? Just hoping won’t ensure there are free and fair elections in 2026.
Turnout won’t matter if nobody protects democracy.
I mean, I’m not sure what else you expect him to say.
I don’t expect him to say anything. Don’t get me wrong the problem isn’t so much Bernie himself as it is progressives’ worship of Bernie as the new messiah of progressivism, though he’s not doing nearly enough to dispel that illusion. Now what I want him or any other progressive leader with national recognition to say is that the only hope for change will come from the streets and that the people must protest, march, strike, boycott and whatever else they can do until their demands are met. Again I’m not expecting Bernie to say this, but a time where America needs geese Americans must be willing to call a duck a duck and accept that no matter how much they squint a duck will never be a goose. This is necessary before you can search for the geese you need.
Looking at Bernie’s history, I don’t think there’s any way he would disagree with you.
Maybe, but many of Bernie’s supporters do disagree with me, so this is something that needs to be said.