“I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”
—-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in her cynical and ominous reply to ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl after he asked how Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong would “get around” her past radical and unpopular positions on abolishing policing among others.
Later, she said, laughing, “I have a local city councilman that has this saying, ‘Woke 1 was crazy.'”
[A quick digression before the commentary starts. Ten years ago, I swore off using deliberately unflattering photos of public figures, especially Hillary Clinton, as unfair and akin to ad hominem attacks. I recognize that I broke from that pledge regarding Joe Biden, primarily because the mainstream media was unethically protecting him from public scrutiny of his galloping dementia, and photos like this one…
…conveyed important information. I will now officially declare that AOC will be another exception to that EA policy. She is a silly, light-weight, unethical Dunning-Kruger victim, yet the Axis keeps claiming she is charismatic and “cute.” Ignorance and dishonesty are not cute. The woman is a dangerous fool, and photos like the one above help clarify that.]
Digression over. Now, regarding that quote… the two quotes, in fact.
The main quote above, though the Axis of Unethical Conduct is working mightily to spin it, is a deceitfully worded admission that AOC and her ideological allies are now prepared to disavow their intentions and beliefs as expressed openly during the peak of The Great Stupid, highlighted by the duel afflictions of the George Floyd Freakout and the Wuhan Virus Ethics Train Wreck, because it is no longer politically expedient to reveal those intentions. So now they intend to lie.
Ethics Alarms 
Glad you posted about Occasional Cortex’s comment. When I heard it, I couldn’t help but think AOC hit a kind of record breaking attempt at relying on or alluding to the most rationalizations in the shortest amount of time that she could. My gut says she relies on or tangentially touches at least these:
1B. The Psychic Historian, or “I’m On The Right Side Of History”
1C. It Happens To Everybody, or “You’re not alone!’
1E. Tom’s Delusion, or “Everyone agrees with me!”
3. Consequentialism, or “It Worked Out for the Best“
13. The Saint’s Excuse: “It’s for a good cause”
14. Self-validating Virtue
19. The Perfection Diversion, or “Nobody’s Perfect!” and “Everybody makes mistakes!”
19B The Insidious Confession, or “It wasn’t the best choice.”
20. The “Just one mistake!” Fantasy
21. Ethics Accounting, or “I’ve earned this”/ “I made up for that”
21A. The Criminal’s Redemption, or “It’s just a small part of what I am!”
22. The Comparative Virtue Excuse: “There are worse things.”
28. The Revolutionary’s Excuse: “These are not ordinary times.”
29. The Altruistic Switcheroo: “It’s for his own good”
31. The Troublesome Luxury: “Ethics is a luxury we can’t afford right now”
33. The Management Shrug: “Don’t sweat the small stuff!”
35. The Tortoise’s Pass: “Better late than never”
38. The Miscreant’s Mulligan or “Give him/her/them/me a break!”
38 A.“Mercy For Miscreants.”
38C. Biden’s Inoculation or “I don’t deny that I do this!”
38D. Yoda’s Annoyance, or “I was trying my best.”
42. The Irrelevant Mitigation: “He’ll/She’ll/They’ll get over it.”
52. The Underwood Maneuver, or “That’s in the past.”
55. The Joke Excuse, or “I was only kidding!”
57. “The Idealist’s Delusion,” or “We’re/ You’re Better Than This.”
69. John Lyly’s Rationalization, Or “All’s fair in love and war“
‘then the U.S. deserves what it gets’
When conservatives prevail, everyone benefits from a more robust economy, lower crime, fewer regulations, more freedoms.
When liberals prevail they take our private property, our wealth, our choices, our freedoms.
Hard to be sanguine about this.
And AOC is particularly dangerous because she’s cute. People overlook a lot if you’re charming and/or good looking.
It didn’t work for Teddy, it didn’t work for Beto, it won’t work for Gavin, it won’t work for her. Smart and cute is powerful; dumb and cute gets exposed. I don’t think she’s cute and I never have. She’s a perfect example of why a female President is a long, long way off.
I really hope you’re right. It just seems that no matter how awful things get in places like New York and California, people pull the lever for the same incompetent scalawags and jackals who created the messes. It is discouraging. You believe that voters are smart. I’m not so sure.
Wait, when did I ever say that I think voters are smart? I literally just wrote, in THIS POST…
To be fair, enough Americans might be as dumb as the Left thinks they are. One really dumb American, ex-CNN toyboy Chris Cuomo (aka “Fredo”) praised AOC’s version of “integrity,” “Your principles shouldn’t really change, but your positions should,” he said in a posted video, because that’s the way “to win elections.”
I am rapidly reaching the point of saying, “You know what? If conservatives are too lazy, inarticulate and cowardly to out-maneuver the totalitarian Left after being somnolent for decades and allowing them to capture education, entertainment, journalism, the professions, and the academic disciplines, and if the resulting American civic literacy is so degraded that dim-bulbs like AOC seem like credible leaders, then the U.S. deserves what it gets.
The Republic that Ben Franklin said we could have as long as we could keep it requires a populace with courage, sacrifice, commitment, critical thinking skills and constant due diligence. If the nation no longer has the character and skills to keep the government the Founders won for us, so be it.
Voters elected Joe Biden as POTUS after decades of watching and listening to him show he was of average intelligence at best, and also seeing with their own eyes how much his cognition had declined. Either you must believe that the election was stolen, as Trump has said, or that voters are stupid. There is no third option.
And her mousy voice. Completely unpresidential. She’s also only 5’4″. Like HRC and Harris, she’s too short, even in heels. The public won’t tolerate a tiny, squeaky voiced woman going up against our adversaries.
The soon to be ex-paid liar in the Press Secretary position is the template for the first female President, and it will have to be a Republican. After that, the woke women will have shot. Sarah Palin could have pulled it off if she hadn’t been greedy, shallow, lazy and corrupt. She had the right tool set.
Don’t underestimate Ocasio-Cortez. She might not be a Rhodes Scholar in Pulbic Policy, but she is very astute in marketing, branding, and use of social media. I realize that she won in a heavily Democrat New York district but she out-performed a sitting DNC House member who took her for granted.
She is attractive, photogenic, and has a certain charisma/charm about her – much like Gavin Newsom. They both know how to say a bunch of words that sound really great until you think about it and say, “wait, what did you say?” But, by then, they are two miles down the road and you missed your opportunity to follow up the statement with a “uh, what do you mean?” She also knows how to meet with friendly media to recast her image, quite possibly for a 2028 or 2032 POTUS run.
Here in Texas, a contested race for US Senate is heating up between James Talarico (D) and Ken Paxton (R) (who beat the incumbent John Cornyn for the Republican ticket). The general thought is Paxton should win, right? It’s Texas.
But, Paxton is very polarizing. Talarico comes off as a nice, friendly, workers’ kinda guy – he has raised tons of money in and outside of Texas ($68.6 million to Paxton’s paltry $9.25 million).
Paxton should wipe the floor with him but the polls* have them running neck and neck, and the media blitz for Talarico is just getting started, espcially with a media that hates Paxton with a rabid passion. Worringly, I see Talarico signs in affluent subdivisions. Were I an advisor to Paxton, I would tell him to get off the couch, meet with reporters – who should ask hard questions that he should answer – and hit the ground to meet with donors and potential voters. He should go to Austin and San Antonio and talk to those voters. But, he is arrogant and lazy.
As for Ocasio-Cortez and her “Woke 1” comment, it is infuriating but she came out of that interview not only unscathed but brimming with success, mostly because the interviewer didn’t challenge her on anything substantive. I was surprised that she and Bernie didn’t endorse Hong. Their policies mirror each other. I don’t think the “Delete Thanksgiving” comments are what did in Hong. It was the DNC looking to November thinking that Crowley has a better chance of beating Tom TIffany in the general election so the DNC placed its hands on the scales in Crowley’s favor. What happened to the 5 USB drives that had no votes on them? How does that happen?
jvb
*Ed Note: Yeah, I know. Polls . . . But pundits and the public at large pay attention to them and are swayed by them, even though they are terribly inexact.
But John, when she opens her mouth, she doesn’t even sound as substantive or serious as Betty Boop. Remember the nine-year-old girl doing an impersonation of her? They’ve done a good job of hiding her voice, but at some point, she’ll have to campaign and do rabble-rousing. She will sound ridiculous and look like Minnie Mouse throwing a tantrum.
Bing Videos Here’s one.
I dunno about that.
I am certainly not saying that she is a formidable adversary. I don’t think she is overly bright and her policy positions are sophomoric but she is good with a soundbyte, right in line with leftist sloganing. But, I am saying that she is good with manipulating imaging and, with a fawning media on her side, that is going to be a tough obstacle to overcome.
jvb
If history has taught the world anything it’s that socialists/communists never admit their mistakes. If they do, they are lying.
Americans have been “educated” to be unable to discern truth from fiction and magic thinking from reality. To many, perhaps a majority, her semi-articulate and half-witted walk backs seem to be genuine reflection instead of the poll-reading calculation her handlers have determined is the best path toward their version of “progress”.