Well, something. Yes, hold on to your butts: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is imparting what she regards as wisdom. I was going to make this an Unethical Quote of the Week, then I decided that I didn’t know what it was, except disturbing. Here is what she ranted last night in a live stream; I’ll have some rueful comments at the end…
“What I see right now, and I want you all to know, is that over the last several weeks, there have been lots of Democrats who have been giving little anonymous quotes to the press, to some journalists, to print, and I’m not here to knock the press on it, I’m here to knock my colleagues on it. Because to me, I think that’s and I’m sorry — I’m going to say it because it’s after midnight — that’s bullshit. I’m not coming for the people who have made a public statement and put their name on it. Like, Lord knows, I’ve done plenty of that myself. I’m talking about people who are too scared to say what they want to say in public, but somehow not afraid to say what they want to say to a journalist so long as they promise not to use their name. That’s a bunch of horseshit!
“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that Kamala, that they will support Kamala, Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken. A lot of them are not just interested in removing the President. They are interested in removing the whole ticket. I’m here to tell you that a huge amount of the donor class, and a huge amount of these elites, and a huge amount of these folks in these rooms that I see that are pushing for President Biden to not be the nominee, also are not interested in seeing the Vice President being the nominee. Will they win out on that? I don’t know. But I am here to tell you, do not take that for granted. What I can tell you is that I have stood up in rooms of folks making these decisions, and I have raised these questions, and no one had an answer for me.
“People underestimate Biden’s performance. I think that is how he became President, is through a lot of people underestimating his performance with demographics that are not traditionally valued. And I think that people see where he’s weak. They don’t often see where he’s strong and just electorally, purely electorally. Joe Biden kind of like stomps with older people, like electorally, which is one of the strongest and most consistent electorates, and it’s actually a hard electorate for Democrats to win. You know, those are not people that are on Twitter, but they vote more consistently than almost any other bracket. So you take that off the table, you cannot assume that that electorate transfers to any other candidate.
“What I’m here to say is we can’t just allow these decisions to be made by groupthink, momentum, inertia. We really need to consider the consequences. And if the data, the logistics, what have you, supports another path? Go ahead, like make that. But this idea that we’re we’re just going to talk about what theoretically is best. This isn’t, this is not 2023. And so, you know, folks are saying the- and also, folks are saying polling only has momentum. Maybe that might be true, have we thought about what is leading to that? Because I think hundreds of millions of dollars in earned media from people, like members of Congress saying things off the record, like I just…And again, I could be wrong, I could be wrong. I’m not here to tell you it is what it is. But what I, what I am here to tell you is some of the red alerts that I’m seeing on the dashboard in terms of things, concerns that I have not seen adequately addressed.”
I know, I know: AOC is firmly in Julie Principle territory, which is why I don’t discuss her idiocy frequently on EA, though she provides rich material almots every day. However, this particular sample of her verbal diarrhea requires that attention be paid.
To state the obvious, she talks like she’s in high school. (She uses “I’m here to tell you” or a variation no less than nine times, for example. I guess I should be grateful that she only uses “like” six times.) This is not the sign of an orderly or mature mind, and the fact that we have elected officials in Congress that think it is appropriate or trustworthy to communicate this way shows how far civic literacy has fallen.
AOC is notable for being completely unaware of her own intellectual, educational, rhetorical and logical deficiencies: she really thinks she’s smart and worth listening to. She is worth listening to, but only in the sense that her very existence as a “rising star” of the Democratic Party should alert us to how much trouble we are in. Furthermore:
1. AOC thinks it is acceptable for distinguished members of Congress to be using “bull shit” and horse shit in public statements when it’s after “midnight”? Someone explain to this idiot how social media, the web and cable news works. Our elected officials are obligated to act with dignity and civility, because they have the audacity to present themselves as worthy of our respect, trust and admiration.
2. The reason AOC’s colleagues are anonymously telling the news media the truth about Joe Biden is that the leaders of their party and the party itself actively opposes informing the public about reality, which is why they have lied about the President’s deterioration for virtually his entire Presidency. The official position for four years is that Joe is as sharp as a scalpel. Telling the truth anonymously may be less admirable than telling the truth openly, but both are ethically superior to lying or obfuscating, which is what AOC is doing in her rant.
3. Yes, AOC, “the elites,” “the donor class” (she does talk like a Communist, doesn’t she?) and others want to dump Kamala because she has proven that she is wildly unqualified to be President and nobody who has worked with her respects her. I know such details don’t concern you, but some people in your party still care about competence.
4. AOC’s definition of Biden’s “performance” relates only to whether people will vote for hi, his “performance” at the ballot box. His performance as the leader of the nation for the rest of his term and the next four years are apparently irrelevant to her. Indeed, there is no hint of interest or concern in this statement about whether the man she wants to see heading her party’s ballot in November is capable of doing the job at all. She is literally only concerned with winning, not what is in the best interests of the United States. Power is the goal, not responsible, competent governance.
5. I’ve read that last paragraph many times, and I still can’t decipher it. It almost sounds like a Joe Biden impression. This is the quality of minds and public servants people are electing to Congress and other important positions. Governing a large, vibrant, powerful and essential nation like ours is a serious commitment. How do we teach the public to treat it seriously?
Ethics Alarms 
“I’m not here to tell you it is what it is.”
“AOC thinks it is acceptable for distinguished members of Congress to be using ‘bull shit’ and horse shit in public statements when it’s after midnight‘ ”?
Glass half full?
She was able to…um…deftly inject BOTH Bovine AND Equine excreta references.
PWS
I think she’s upset that the momentum that’s got rolling to remove Biden from the ticket is being spurred by the threat of donors withdrawing their millions and that nobody is talking about it.
I think?
Because, as you wrote, she talks like a Communist. Deep pockets instigate every unsavory act in this country, up to and including getting rid of a weak President and his laughable VP.
Surely the only skill Biden needs to be President is to have the ability to sign whatever bill his puppeteers put in front of him. Anything more than that is superfluous to requirements.
I think that is the turning point. He was supposed to speak in Vegas and he suddenly ‘got Covid’ and had to cancel. My guess is that he was in no shape to do anything. They finally realized he is gone and he is never coming back. They were hoping to limp him along through November and they didn’t care what happened after that, but he just isn’t capable of putting on the performance he did in the debate and in the interviews after it. Now, we might consider those failures, but the Democratic base were OK with that. I just don’t think he can eve do that anymore.
All they needed Biden to do was read from a teleprompter and sign his name on command. I think that is beyond his capability. Now they don’t know what to do. The media claims that the Democrats have a strong bench, which might be true, but they don’t have anyone on that bench.
If Trump had been killed, the Republicans could have gone with DeSantis or Cruz, or Gov. Abbot, or Josh Hawley. They aren’t Trump, but in a normal cycle, they would have been presentable candidates. Who do the Democrats have?
Harris: I’m not sure, but she always appears to be drunk when appearing in public. That is the only way I can explain her bizarre behavior, such as when asked in Poland if the US is willing to take in some of the crushing flood of refugees from the Ukraine war she stated “A friend in need is a friend indeed” while laughing the whole time.
Gavin Newsom: His qualifications seem to be “I have credibly destroyed the state of California so I am the most qualified to ‘Finish the Job’ as Joe has described the next term”.
Then who do they have? Mayor Pete? Hillary Clinton?
Michelle Obama seems to be the most desired candidate despite the fact that her qualifications are….she was 1st lady? I had to look up her career. She worked in law until 1993, then took on a position at a Hospital as a PR person for $250,000/year and then got on boards to make $500,000/year. Then she…kept getting salaries for being on boards.
Female NY and Michigan Governors: All are most famous for acts of tyranny. Who said women in power would be more compassionate?
So, what are they going to do? They haven’t developed any strong personalities because those people would challenge the party. The only person they can agree upon is a feeble old man deep in the grips of demetia.
I bet they are panicking.
I think, in her own inimical fashion, she is making some reasonable points, for at least certain values of reasonable.
Even though the primaries were basically rigged in Biden’s favor — suppressing other names on the ballot or even skipping one or two of them — it’s true that the overwhelming majority of primary voters voted for Biden. Arbitrarily replacing him is, really, rather undemocratic, certainly if done so against his will.
I think the other point she’s making is that the people wanting him gone also want Harris gone, too. I.e. even if Biden agrees to withdraw they want to be able to dictate the candidate. AOC and her ilk are not going to be happy with tossing aside Harris as well as Biden.
The way I read the last paragraph is that she’s trying to say that the time to bring all this up was in 2023 — as normal political parties do if they want to explore getting a new leader. Waiting until the last minute — as is the case here — is not right.
Of course, we all know why they’ve waited until now to try and pull Biden, they were hoping he could last through the election. So, it’s a bit disingenuous for Democrats or the media to complain about this now.
Personally, as a partisan, I rather hope they’ll stick with Biden or Harris. That’s the best chance the GOP has of giving them a real thumping in November. As an American, I can’t help but think it’s dangerous for Biden to stick around. More dangerous than having Harris in that seat for six months? Tough call.
The time to bring up the fact that Joe Biden proved to the public and the media he was senile and sliding fast in 2024 was in 2023. Got it! That probably IS what she is saying in her garbled way, and that is similar to the argument used to go ahead and launch the Challenger when engineers warned that it was dangerously cold. “We can’t back down now! It’s too late to postpone again!”
Wow, apt analogy.
Thanks. That struck me while I was writing this post.
AOC is moderating her rhetoric:
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1814308466405613606
Forget her being in Congress, what does this tell anyone about the worth of four years at an American undergraduate institution and an undergraduate degree?
Remember, she came in second in the International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007 (in microbiology). What does that tell you about the state of science and math education?
There seems to be a talking point memo that’s gone out saying that Joe has to withdraw and there needs to be an open convention. This seems to be what AOC is reacting to. I think the hardcore lefties are uniformly terrified an open convention will kick Kamala Harris to the curb and some white people, maybe even a white man, will win the nomination at the convention. For the hardcore lefties and the Congressional Black Caucus, that’s simply not acceptable. Evidently, the Democrats are convinced they can’t win without a massive black vote. They are relying on black voters to pull them through. I’ve never understood that metric, but it seems to be revealed truth.
From you comment on the post “Today’s “Nah There’s No Mainstream Media Bias!” (Or “Nah, The Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want to Rig The Election!”) Note Of the Day…”
OB: “(the ballot boxes are already stuffed and sitting in warehouses all over the “swing states”)”
Do they have time to print and refill those warehouses with new ballots to ensure they’ll win the election? Where will they incinerate the old ones?
As of today (Friday), there are reports of a memo from his campaign that he still is not withdrawing. “Biden won’t drop out, campaign insists in a new memo”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/19/biden-wont-drop-out-campaign-insists-in-new-memo-.html
Joe’s handlers seem to be marching along, but I saw somewhere a report that it’s a done deal and Joe will withdraw this weekend and there will be an open convention allowing someone, anyone, other than Harris to get the nod. Maybe AOC is just standing up for the Squad and the rest of the militantly left Dems, the Justice Democrats, Commies, and so forth. It’s the schism between the young Turks/Bolsheviks and the Chuck Schumers and Nancy Pelosis and Clintons and Obamas and the other old school Dems. It’s funny the Turks are rooting for the 81-year-old.
From an MSNBC piece by a black reporter named Ja’han Jones elaborating upon AOC’s statement:
“Democrats ought to heed these warnings and cease their hasty effort to oust Biden (or, failing that, to push aside Harris in the process) at the risk of fomenting resentment among voting blocs that are essential to their electoral goals.”
The black voter bloc’s representatives are flexing their perceived muscle. “Nice little election you got going there, party heads…”
OB: Have you read this article over at UnHerd?
“The 2024 political war is just beginning The Democratic party has rigged the system”
https://unherd.com/2024/07/america-is-at-war-with-itself/
The ‘open convention’ can’t be the DNC. That is too late for the filing deadlines. They have to have an online campaign and a vote by Zoom to determine the candidate. I would assume they would cancel the in-person convention or seriously restrict it because of the discontent that would be aired.