Claire McCaskill’s Bitter Farewell

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

I do understand what McCaskill is getting at. Many on the left have fallen for AOC's understandably appealing policy platform without adequate consideration for legislative logistics or political convention. We have absolutely no way to know for sure that AOC will be a remotely effective legislator, and thus I find the glorification of her a bit premature. I didn't particularly like the fact that AOC was campaigning cross-country before even winning election to her own district; obviously, that's her prerogative given the national profile that she accumulated and given that she didn't need to focus on her own district to win, but it rubbed me the wrong way. Additionally, AOC's response to McCaskill's criticism was terribly lacking in political nuance; suggesting that the passage of a minimum wage increase indicates that it takes a more liberal candidate to win a federal race in Missouri is a pretty objectively bad take.

However, McCaskill absolutely should not have used the terms she did to describe AOC; in general, I don't like any person calling another person an "object" or a "thing," unless that person is objectively reprehensible (while AOC is just a political dissenter). I don't know why McCaskill even felt the need to discuss AOC in the first place, especially in such a hostile way; I really don't want to think that it's partially out of bitterness from her own loss, but it does somewhat appear that way. (Not to mention that I think that AOC's critics are only bringing her more attention and appreciation the more that they incessantly talk about her.) Also, in defense of AOC, just as I said that we should not excessively praise her before she proves herself in Congress, we should not tear her down before we give her a shot at legislating. Maybe she'll prove to be more effective than some of us worry she will be.