AOC thinks crime surge in NYC is due to people who need to shoplift some bread

[GeneralMacArthur]

AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib are extremely dumb, with a sprinkling of truly nasty beliefs (in Ilhan Omar's case especially).

This is known.  We've known it for a while.

Unfortunately, in this cycle especially, they are too entrenched and popular and well-funded by the Justice Dems to be removed in a primary.  And their districts are Safe D, so they are not going to flip to republicans.

Most of us want them gone just as much as you do.  That's the annoying thing about these splinter left organizations like Justice Dems and SocAlt.  They raise tons of money and then focus it all on a small set of low-profile races because their goal is to create celebrities, not to actually get anything done.  The amount of money spent on AOC/Omar races is unreasonable for a congressional primary with only tens of thousands of voters.  But winning the primary matters a lot more to them than it does to everyone else.  So they dump all their money on it.  Same with Sawant here in Seattle.  She raised millions and millions of dollars from all around the country to eke out a narrow victory for a city council seat over some local gay dad type.

Maybe one day we'll get the opportunity to kick them out, just like you were finally able to get rid of Steve King.  But until then, stop pretending like they speak for any significant portion of the Democratic Party.  They are just firebrands out to get attention and money for themselves and their small constituency of grifters and wingnuts.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Dumb statement, but the only truly HP member of the squad is Omar. however the Pressley wing, which is also the soon-to-be Jamaal Bowman and Ritchie Torres wing, is far superior.

I'd expect Marie Newman as well.  They're basically the Warren equivalents in the House.  All of them are fine.  Probably.

[GeneralMacArthur]

One of the best things about Queen AOC is seeing all the neolibs from both parties get so triggered about everything she says.

One thing Trump and AOC have in common.  In both cases, the thing their biggest fans love the most about them is that they trigger the hated "other."  Trump triggers the libs.  AOC triggers the neolibs.

Neither of them actually accomplishes anything positive.  In fact quite often even their most ardent supporters cringe at the stupid stuff they say or do.  But they "trigger" the bad guys so that makes them champions.

Of course Antonio won't even see this post because I'm on his blocked list along with every other Atlasian to the right of Fidel Castro.  That's one way to never get "triggered" I suppose.

[GeneralMacArthur]

AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib are extremely dumb, with a sprinkling of truly nasty beliefs (in Ilhan Omar's case especially).

No fan of Omar or Tlaib, but this doesn't describe AOC. At the age of 30, AOC has shown more political maturity and personal growth than Bernie in his nearly 4 decades in politics. She's not the smartest person in Congress (nor even close to the dumbest), but that's irrelevant. Thomas Massie is probably one of the "smartest" guys in Congress, but he's an unproductive asshole. As a legislator, you develop through experience, and she has the potential to become a great legislator.

AOC has said numerous stupid and/or questionable things, but that is just the norm in politics, and elsewhere, too. The more you talk, the more stupid things you say. She is hardly exceptional in this regard, and there is no good reason to have such an intense hatred of her as so many people do.

To clarify, I don't think she's dumb in the general sense, just dumb politically.  "Ignorant" would be the better word, except that word has basically been redefined to mean "bigoted."

AOC has been in Congress for two years and even after having two years two learn, it's still obvious every time she opens her mouth that she would fail the AP U.S. Government exam.

And her understanding of individual policy issues is equally poor, mostly just repeating age-old left-populist talking points.  I haven't seen any reason to believe that she has a better understanding of any single policy issue than your average viewer of Last Week Tonight.

She has little respect for the institution and zero knowledge of political history, which is why she repeatedly comes up with these major political blunders that she insists Democrats must make.  It's also why she's quick to take the bait from Republicans at every single opportunity.  People who have been watching the back-and-forth for the last decade or two are able to see bait for what it is.  AOC seems to have just started following politics in 2017 and doesn't understand any of this.  It makes her a huge liability because she's constantly stumbling into bear traps and giving Republicans absolute gold for their advertisements.

She just strikes me as an above-average high school student who got elected to Congress and thought she could just repeat her rhetoric and policy from Mock Congress and it would work.  And she's shown little interest in learning from the other 232 Democrats in her caucus, who would love the opportunity to mentor her, give her a solid policy and government grounding, and turn her into the hard-hitting substantive superstar the left seems to think she is.  Instead she's content to ride the latest hashtag and pick non-substantive fights with Pelosi every 3 months.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Maybe one day we'll get the opportunity to kick them out, just like you were finally able to get rid of Steve King.

Because being heavily aligned with the Sanders campaign is comparable to palling around Austria with neo-Nazis.

I haven't read much into Tlaib so I'll reserve judgment, and Omar is well... Omar, so I'm not going to complain about the comparison. But to compare a right-wing, out-of-context (but true!) statement to someone who trafficks in actual hate is so absurd and offensive that I'm not even going to give your post the dignity of a response back.

And of course there are at least 2 more going in this year that are at least as bad as Steve King.

RUNNING AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT

IS THE SAME AS NAZISM

sadhjakjjdshjasjddfshgfdksfdassfheuweiojksddfhuieqiwoj

She and Steve King are similar in that they are both huge embarrassments to their party, and their other party members are pretty tired of having to answer for their politically-damaging statements.  They both provide easy fodder to the opposition on a regular basis, and the opposition loves to hold them up as emblematic of everyone in their party.  They are both examples of congresspeople who are staying in place solely on their strength with the base, while the establishment of their party would really like them to just disappear.

Believe it or not, people can be simultaneously similar and dissimilar.  You are the one who assumed I was comparing her to King on a rhetorical basis.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Guys, the point of the AOC-King comparison is that Steve King was an embarrassment to his party who eventually got beat in a primary.  That's all there is to it.  The backup comparison would be Dana Rohrabacher.

Matt Gaetz and Louis Gohmert are also embarrassing but didn't lose their primaries.

Alan Grayson is another apt comparison.