What is the significance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

@TexChik You are such a great Christian. jesus would be proud of your forgiveness and your love for (libtard) humanity. Just like any other pacifist socialist would.

I think I'm in love with you. 😂

@Burnley123 I think her platform will resonate in some areas, primarily in the major cities but not with all Democrats in all areas. I'm very glad she won the primary and will likely be elected in the Fall.

I live in an area that has gone back and forth between relatively moderate Republicans and Democrats for the past few elections. Ocasio-Cortez wouldn't play as well in this more rural area, at least now, but as we see more presidential abuses, I won't be surprised if that changes with time.

@Burnley123 I would have commented on that one but SW now won't allow me to even reply to you on her comment since she blocked me. I'm sad to find out the only argument is name calling but on the plus side when you find out their news is from Breitbart and dismantle it like a pro, all of a sudden they turn dark and crickets lmao 😆

However yes I think Trump taught people to take action, which is a good thing. We need more informed people and not the kind Breitbart gives.

@Heartlander Being desperately poor or obscenely rich can definitely bring out a person's dark side

@Heartlander Sadly good attitude doesn't stop the house being repossessed if you work for the main employer in the city and they just closed down, and you switch on the tv and see it replicated many times over elsewhere.

@HerKing

[quote]Sadly good attitude doesn't stop the house being repossessed if you work for the main employer in the city and they just closed down, and you switch on the tv and see it replicated many times over elsewhere[/quote]

That's why a good, [b][u]diverse[/u][/b] economy is so important. Remember, not only do businesses fail but banks, government and countries also sometimes fail. A mortgage makes home ownership conditional and unfortunately we sometimes learn that lesson the hard way :( To not follow the rules of accounting and finance can bring down an entire country. While the "all or none" may sound appealing, places like Cuba and Venezuela are examples of what happens when no one is allowed to prosper unless we all do.

A lot of failed one-industry towns in America had a hard turn-around, and some never, ever turned around. But that's where attitude really needs to kick in.

@CountScrofula [quote]But that's in its infancy and the left is usually more content to just have its head up its ass trying to figure out if Pizza Hut is cultural appropriation.[/quote]

😂

I don't know too much about Canadian politics but it amazes me that the NDP are in power in what I know to be Canada's most right-wing state. Alberta had the reform party, Stephen Harper and also a right-wing quasi-independence movement, right? Do the liberals not stand there in order to not split the 'progressive' vote?

I also read that there is a division between the Alberta and BC NDP leadership on the Keystone pipeline issue. Alberta are for it and BC against, with the national leadership saying they can see 'both sides of the argument'.

It must be a tough situation to be a radical left Albertan. The Alberta leadership must be the bedrock of the party right nationally and will lead opposition to progressive change but they are the only game in town where you are and the alternative is hell.

Am I right on this? This shit is interesting so feel free to say more.

@Burnley123 You have the sum of it. Uh... short history.

Alberta is the soul of Canadian conservatism - although that's changing a bit. The mainstream conservative thought is based out of the Calgary School in the University of Calgary, and the Canadian west populism also came out from here when the federal conservative party collapsed in the early 90s.

The province has been a single party state since 1935, changing over once from a weird populist group to the Conservatives in 1971. The Liberals have not been a force here in that long, and are very much the party of the 'Toronto elite' which has a bad history with Alberta. Alberta has never been as conservative as people think it is. But it's always been conservative enough.

The NDP won because the Conservatives fell apart after bad leaders, and their opposition - the populist Wildrose part fell apart after their leadership tried to merge with the Conservatives and basically failed. The demographics of the province had changed, and they ran a REALLY GREAT campaign, and you had that "Every street has an NDP sign" phenomenon. It was this crazy wave that nobody predicted.

Since coming into power, the NDP have done some fantastic stuff. High minimum wage, better farm safety rules, great stuff on LBGT+ kids in high school, a ministry solely dedicated to womens' rights, etc...

They've failed completely on oil. Alberta is run by oil companies - their first act was to review our oil royalties (cheapest in the world) and then decide not to change it. Pipelines are a hot topic in that oil companies have wanted major pipelines built for years, and nobody can get them built. The NDP think if they get a pipeline, they can win.

So they're in a major inter-province war with British Columbia, who are also NDP but not run by oil companies. They've basically broken with the federal party on this issue and gone 100% against not only environmentalists, but the Indigenous groups too. The entire thing is the pipelines leak frequently, the leaks are catastrophic, and this is over Indigenous land. It's a giant fucking mess that escalated into a brief inter-province trade war.

@CountScrofula Thanks for sharing.

@TexChik You said Democratic socialists were NAZIs. It's ridiculous

@Burnley123 I said their hate for Christians , white men , guns, and conservatives was a page out of the old Nazi play book. Hate and blame 🙄

@TexChik The NAZIs loved guns and white men. They also tolerated Christians.

@CopperCicada Thank you for an informative answer. This is the sort of engagement I was looking for.

@Burnley123 Wow. I didn't see the other comments. Fuck me. TexChick and Hippyjoe have me blocked so that is a gift.

My comments aren't partisan. They apply to any political flavor. Go local and you are free from party politics if you can actually press the flesh and be relevant to people. Crowley out spent her 18:1.

If more candidates did that, we wouldn't be winning races by a few percent. Especially at the national level. That is how one gets a real mandate. Not my running on sound bites of fear and party duty.

What Breitbart is doing to her is fucked up. I know that part of the world. The mean income in Yorktown Hgts is like 130K or so. It's not all mansions. It's funny a millionaire's income is irrelevant to his or her ability to hold office. But living Westchester for a time as a kid nukes your identity.

@Northwest It depends on what you define as extreme left. It's a social democratic platform, much like Corbyn's manifesto in the UK election.

I do think that there is a huge difference though between what she represents and what Hillary represents(ed). Hillary had a plausibility problem with progressives, because of her background and because of the corporate money she accepted.

I agree that the Democrats need to take this agenda on more, but with money in politics, it seems like there will be some reluctance with the status quo. Pelosi has said that her election 'means nothing' and I am sure most elected Democrats would have preferred the incumbent.

I do think there is sometimes a gap between what center-left politicians say and what they do. This is certainly true in the UK, where it took people from radical left backgrounds to push Labour back into what is historically centre-left territory. Perhaps we don't disagree.

@Burnley123

I am talking relative to Europe.

Hillary was not going to switch to the Bernie platform overnight, but she would have pushed two of his primary issues: education and healthcare.

The third: two state solution and full rights to the Palestinian people, would have been a tougher sell for the Democrats.

I support Bernie’s platform fully, and I caucused for him in 2016 (our state uses the caucus system). What turns me off though, is that some of his supporters are just as blind as some of the Trump supporters.

@Northwest Radical left intensity can be off-putting. People from all persuasions lose the right to be self critical. I know the American political situation is different so its good to get people's views.

@HerKing It depends on whether someone else posts elsewhere about global climate change, Islam, or another topic he thinks he knows something about. If so, he'll go there with fake facts and leave this post alone.

@Heartlander I guess I don't understand how any of this explains how Ocasio-Cortez must be supported by the criminals (and their victims) in her district.

My time in Queens tells me that her support is probably because people can relate to her. More so than any political position. It's as rare as two suns in the sky to actually find a candidate that one can relate to at a person level. To actually meet. Somebody who lives where you do. Who has the same background.

I've never had that.

@CopperCicada

I can see some of that. My queens neighborhood was pretty secure. We subleased a house for a few months and we awoke on our first morning to the sound of eggs splattering against the house. What followed were a few phone calls of kids laughing and hanging up. Apparently they didn't want us there :)

We then made a courtesy visit to all the neighbors to introduce ourselves and "oh ... what's with the kids throwing eggs?". By noon we were all friends and by mid-afternoon some kids came to give us blitzes. I think they were the same kids that had thrown the eggs :)

The people who liked her were probably those caught in the cross-fire and considering some of the immigrant and Latino neighborhoods, her anti-ICE rhetoric probably went over there. As I recall, Charlie Rangel and Adam Clayton Powell held power for years and years because they constantly stared the pot on racial inequality and never missed referring to their constituents as disenfranchised. Cortez followed that winning formula for NYC :)

@Heartlander Your arrival in Queens was like my family's arrival in the South. We got the eggs. The car tires slashed. Screen doors kicked in with us at home. The garbage emptied on the lawn and driveway.

Except without it ending in happy neighbors.

There are many reasons to like Ocasio-Cortez other than her particular political vantage points... which I'm indifferent to.

It comes down to political candidates living in their district, like their constituents, and interacting with them. That is rare. It is something I thought was long in the past.

She is also somebody I can recognize. She looks like people I came up with. Not necessarily Hispanic, but ethnic. That is something I can relate to.

@TheeOriginalEXLover You're no fun. 😞

@TheeOriginalEXLover gawd you're a weakling...thin skinned, insulting, defensive, angry...it was such an intelligent and civilized conversation before you came in and made it toxic and unpleasant

@RodionRomanovitch But your election predictions have been wrong before... 😎

@Burnley123 @Burnley123 Here's hoping ......

@RodionRomanovitch I am predicting that we will F*** things up and not take either.☹️😡

@RodionRomanovitch

I'm just really interested to see how these things develop.

My experience is that electing left representatives doesn't necessarily mean it damages your electability. Corbyn actually increased the Labour vote by ten points on the 2015 election, though not yet enough to win. Most European social democratic parties have stayed in the centre and seen their vote collapse.

The theory is that authentic lefties increase your turnout, especially your youth turnout. Also, some disillusioned working class people who have flirting with the nationalist right are tempted back by a 'non elitist' left.

I know things may be different in America though and I'll read your article. Thanks for sharing.

@Burnley123 I think you might not have noticed I changed my username. It's me Pezza , the British leftie living in France. 🙃

@RodionRomanovitch I didn't notice lol. You changed your pic too, which makes it even harder. 😆

I really want to swap out Dave Gahan but I don't wanna confuse people.

@GunSmoke9 She is in favour of abolishing ICE and in raising taxes. You said sp yourself, so why are you asking how she will pay for things?

@Burnley123 I said that she will raise taxes, I don't believe she said so herself.

@GunSmoke9 she won't raise taxes. she might co-author a bill, sit in a committee, vote on a bill. but she won't raise taxes herself.

i'm not trying to be a prick by pointing out the obvious, but this is the reason that people are scared off of non-conventional candidates, regardless of whether they are right or left leaning.

the impression they'll muck everything up.

if she's elected she'll join the class like everyone else. and her politics will be pulled back to the mean and she'll have to be pragmatic.

but what her constituents will gain is a proxy who lives in their district and who will talk to them.

@TexChik You just need a history lesson

@Burnley123 not from you asshole . I have no interest in lies and omissions . Take a hike

@TexChik This is my post and you chose to engage. Tell me what aspect of what I voted was wrong?

I am guessing you can't which is why you are resorting to insults.

@Byron8by7 Perhaps a picture paints a thousand words

@Burnley123

She seems very passionate about her campaign.