It’s weird, right?
After spending the last three years attacking Bernie Sanders and his supporters for being racist, sexist dudebros who are wall-to-wall white men and only care about other white men (Bernie Bros, amirite?), the same group of diehard loyalists to the institution of the Democratic Party is now attacking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the crime of daring to challenge the Queen of the House of Representatives, Nancy I, directly to take strong action on climate change. (Pelosi has promised to do “a study” of the issue. BTW, her state is currently on fire.)
Their attacks are classist:
Their attacks are racist:
I was so excited for her until right now. This is unacceptable. They need to bring her to heel
— Roman Blue 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊 (@RomanState36) November 13, 2018
Their attacks are condescending:
Their attacks are willfully ignorant. (Who could expect the… *checks notes* Justice Editor of ThinkProgress to actually do a little research on the topic he’s talking about, regarding actual progressive policy?)
RIP, my mentions. But I don't understand the strategy here.
The woman they are protesting is on their side.
There's this dude who runs the Senate, this other dude who occupies the White House, and these five guys at SCOTUS who aren't on their side. Maybe protest them? https://t.co/eLKBTglI25
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) November 13, 2018
And above all, their attacks are seemingly based in the idea that actually confronting Queen Nancy is extremely bad and out of line, and that people should just suck up to Democratic leaders and hope they grant them policy boons. After all, given that the Democratic Party is currently the institutional bulwark of fascism, we should get behind them so they fight Trump hard, right?
Nancy Pelosi: "We have an obligation to try to find common ground." https://t.co/QbFv4XMw4N pic.twitter.com/BahoPZ6zE4
— The Hill (@thehill) November 11, 2018
…Oh.
The prevailing attitude among establishment-loyal Democrats is that it’s never the right time to criticize or challenge a Democrat. Can’t do it during election season, they might lose. Can’t do it when they’re out of power, it’s not fair. Can’t do it when they’re in power, it’s “divisive.”
“Mommy”?! BTW, this last tweet is from Bravenak, who was previously suspended from Twitter for publicly trying to arrange women to make false sexual assault claims against Bernie Sanders. Normal people. (I’d like to ignore them but they have a gallingly substantial platform.)
Indeed, the best summary I saw of their attitude comes from Leonard Pierce, a name many of you may recognize for non-political reasons:
That's not democracy. Elected leaders should (a) listen carefully to what their constituents want and (b) act accordingly. Predictably, we've turned it into an extension of capitalism: keep doing what the boss tells you to do and maybe you'll get something out of it one day.
— Leonard Pierce (@leonardpierce) October 30, 2018
Hats off to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and to Sunrise Movement. Direct action works.