I guess if your only goal is to win office, then sure, saying Maduro is an authoritarian won't hurt. But if you goal is to build class consciousness and move towards socialism, then it definitely hurts.
She's not saying Maduro is an authoritarian here, though.
But if you goal is to build class consciousness
There are dozens of better ways to build class consciousness than talking about countries no one in America really knows about except in talking point form. Talking about universal healthcare instead of getting into a struggle session over a country that hasn't existed for 25 years is one of them.
Well obviously giving everyone a history lesson doesn't in and of itself build class consciousness. But running away from your own history while celebrating social democracy (which is crumbling elsewhere by the way) doesn't do it either.
I get what you're saying, but I don't think most people think like this. The people who she's speaking to certainly don't think like this -- she's speaking to people who don't know what class consciousness or social democracy even are.
When people (who aren't terminally-online leftists like us) think of AOC, they think of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Rather than fighting endless battles over which countries are good and which countries are bad before even getting to the part where she pushes polices that might actually affect people, she's saying "look, this stuff is what the countries you think highly of already do." It's not running from history because it's not a historical discussion, it's a policy discussion. It doesn't matter whether those countries are good or whether other countries are also good. It's strictly about saying this is not scary, it's good.
Just off the top of my head she could have called bullshit on his framing and segued into talking about socialism: what it is, what it's goals are, how it is relevant to the vast majority of the American working class, what a socialist methodology in building a new world would imply, etc. But she'd have to have those hidden power levels to begin with, which she doesn't. What you see is very often what you get with these things.
I guess if your only goal is to win office, then sure, saying Maduro is an authoritarian won't hurt. But if you goal is to build class consciousness and move towards socialism, then it definitely hurts.
She's not saying Maduro is an authoritarian here, though.
There are dozens of better ways to build class consciousness than talking about countries no one in America really knows about except in talking point form. Talking about universal healthcare instead of getting into a struggle session over a country that hasn't existed for 25 years is one of them.
Well obviously giving everyone a history lesson doesn't in and of itself build class consciousness. But running away from your own history while celebrating social democracy (which is crumbling elsewhere by the way) doesn't do it either.
I get what you're saying, but I don't think most people think like this. The people who she's speaking to certainly don't think like this -- she's speaking to people who don't know what class consciousness or social democracy even are.
When people (who aren't terminally-online leftists like us) think of AOC, they think of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Rather than fighting endless battles over which countries are good and which countries are bad before even getting to the part where she pushes polices that might actually affect people, she's saying "look, this stuff is what the countries you think highly of already do." It's not running from history because it's not a historical discussion, it's a policy discussion. It doesn't matter whether those countries are good or whether other countries are also good. It's strictly about saying this is not scary, it's good.
Just off the top of my head she could have called bullshit on his framing and segued into talking about socialism: what it is, what it's goals are, how it is relevant to the vast majority of the American working class, what a socialist methodology in building a new world would imply, etc. But she'd have to have those hidden power levels to begin with, which she doesn't. What you see is very often what you get with these things.