Let Me Reiterate the Questions I Asked in My AOC Essay
I try not to get into direct back-and-forth things when it comes to criticism of things I write, as I think it can easily become self-indulgent and I’d like to think that my work speaks for itself. But with a couple weeks now past from the publication of my piece on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I have to register my unhappiness at what my many critics haven’t done. Because Ocasio-Cortez is a deeply symbolic figure for many people, I knew that I would get attacked in general, and particularly that my piece could easily be seen as personal rather than based on substance if I wasn’t rigorously substantive. So I wrote the piece to be a very specific set of criticisms about her very specific behaviors as a legislator, a list of particular missteps where I think she violated left principles, demonstrated a lack of political savvy or plan, or both. And to my deep frustration, almost all of the many responses to the piece have simply ignored those specific behaviors in favor of broad discussions about the state of the left in American politics. Well, I opened the door at the end for that discussion, so that’s OK as part of the response, but the near-complete silence on the actual specifics of what AOC has done seems bizarre and unconstructive. I just keep waiting for people to say “OK as far as this criticism goes, I think….” It just kept not happening. Here are some questions I posed in the piece:
Why did AOC announce her endorsement of Joe Biden on Pod Save America, given that podcast’s reputation for hippie-punching, when she could have sent out a one-sentence press release or declined to endorse at all? Why did she do it mere days after host Jon Favreau collapsed in laughter at the idea that Democrats should have to actually appeal to the left?
Why did AOC cry on the floor about Palestine and then vote “Present” rather than “No” on a bill to fund Israel’s military machine? Why did she vote to deny rail workers the right to strike? Why did she vote in favor of the American Rescue Plan, after vowing to fight to include a minimum wage increase, when she’s shown a perfect willingness to make protest votes in the past? What rhyme or reason has there ever been to her role as a legislator?
Why did she attend the 2021 Met Gala, during a devastating pandemic, when that event reflects exactly the elitism and excess that AOC once railed against? Without wearing a mask, when she had been admonishing Americans for the entire pandemic to mask up? Why make that choice, at that particular moment in history?
Why has she not pursued the issue of the border crisis under President Biden with the same visibility and passion that she pursued it under President Trump? What happened to kids in cages? I can go back and find the fundraising emails about immigration and the border from 2018 to 2020. People voted and gave money based on the idea that Democrats would do something about this issue. How are they supposed to feel now that Democrats have essentially nothing to say about the crisis?
What of substance is the Democratic party offering the leftist voters whose votes, they believe, they’re entitled to? What is the positive agenda of Democrats, a message that goes beyond “we’re not Trump”? And what is the plan through which the Justice Democrats and Bernie Sanders achieve some sort of meaningful and lasting change to the Democratic party?
Almost everybody just responded to the last question. But the other questions are the substance of the critique of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez! Here’s an hour-plus podcast about my piece with Brian Beutler, Eric Levitz, and Ryan Grimm, none of whom engages with a single specific criticism I made of Ocasio-Cortez. Not a one! Which echoes Levitz’s response piece, which only addressed one of those criticisms and named it as a reasonable point. All of which speaks to the broader point that Ocasio-Cortez is not treated like a legislator, but like an icon, a sacred cow who can’t be criticized where any back-bench fifth-year representative would be for similar behavior. I don’t know what that is, but it’s not progressive.
For the record when Grimm calls me part of the “alt-left, YouTube left,” I don’t know what those things are. I’m a Marxist and have been a political activist my entire adult life.