But that's just been in the last three months. What has she done for me lately?
What is the benefit of critical support for AOC?
The same benefit you get from critically supporting Bernie Sanders or Ro Khanna or Nithya Raman or Lina Hidalgo. You get a high profile left-wing voice that Americans genuinely like and support to say and do things that you generally support.
AOC's continuing to bust ass endorsing mutual aid, unionization, universal health care / education / mass transportation, defunding the Pentagon, energy policy reforms to mitigate climate change, higher minimum wages, and a host of other leftist economic goals.
Haters look for anything to complain about and highlight them, almost inevitably fixating on foreign policy, as though that's anywhere in her wheelhouse to begin with. Then they shout down anyone who disagrees and turn AOC-bashing into a litmus test for True Leftism. And the end result is the self-destruction that's plagued the Left for a century.
At a certain point, you need to fight on the issues and not the people. AOC is good on a litany of issues. She's often better than people give her credit for (ie, when she wanted to focus on Min-Wage increases rather than going nuclear on M4A). Saying "AOC Bad" when she breaks from your orthodox view on anything blinds you to every other item on the agenda, in an effort to play at purity politics. Critical support for AOC is about supporting the things both you and AOC support, not about putting AOC on a pedestal like she's the second coming of Ho Chi Mein.
Haters look for anything to complain about and highlight them, almost inevitably fixating on foreign policy, as though that’s anywhere in her wheelhouse to begin with.
In a country like America I would say Foreign Policy is the first thing to look for. You could make American into a utopia and still destroy the rest of the world to extract what you want. If you can't be principled on that then I would claim such a person is dangerous to support because if they are successful that would just mean a more efficient empire. (I would imagine if China were to actually want to dominate the world they would be far more successful as they do a better job of distributing the spoils and are good at administration)
Spoken like a guy who doesn’t work in an Amazon warehouse
You are speaking like someone who has not lived in the third world :)
Their exploitation doesn't erase the fact that their role in the warehouse is just efficient distribution of the spoils of the empire. I am not suggesting that Americans don't care about the people around them but if you truly believe that you can ignore the cost of the American system on the rest of the world then you are an enemy to most of the world. Shouldn't it be the responsibility of every American leftist to be able to articulate a way to help Americans while being able to dismantle the empire. If you think that is impossible, I would be interested to hear your reasoning behind it. It would help clarify some of the questions I have about the movement in America.
AOC leapt into the ongoing Twitter battle between lawmakers and Amazon over workers' rights and bathroom breaks, by sharing internal company memo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raises $1 million for Texans in the wake of the Big Freeze, plans to travel to Houston
Following Arrests, AOC Rallies 1,400 Striking Grocery Workers As Railroaders Refuse to Deliver Produce in Solidarity
But that's just been in the last three months. What has she done for me lately?
The same benefit you get from critically supporting Bernie Sanders or Ro Khanna or Nithya Raman or Lina Hidalgo. You get a high profile left-wing voice that Americans genuinely like and support to say and do things that you generally support.
AOC's continuing to bust ass endorsing mutual aid, unionization, universal health care / education / mass transportation, defunding the Pentagon, energy policy reforms to mitigate climate change, higher minimum wages, and a host of other leftist economic goals.
Haters look for anything to complain about and highlight them, almost inevitably fixating on foreign policy, as though that's anywhere in her wheelhouse to begin with. Then they shout down anyone who disagrees and turn AOC-bashing into a litmus test for True Leftism. And the end result is the self-destruction that's plagued the Left for a century.
At a certain point, you need to fight on the issues and not the people. AOC is good on a litany of issues. She's often better than people give her credit for (ie, when she wanted to focus on Min-Wage increases rather than going nuclear on M4A). Saying "AOC Bad" when she breaks from your orthodox view on anything blinds you to every other item on the agenda, in an effort to play at purity politics. Critical support for AOC is about supporting the things both you and AOC support, not about putting AOC on a pedestal like she's the second coming of Ho Chi Mein.
In a country like America I would say Foreign Policy is the first thing to look for. You could make American into a utopia and still destroy the rest of the world to extract what you want. If you can't be principled on that then I would claim such a person is dangerous to support because if they are successful that would just mean a more efficient empire. (I would imagine if China were to actually want to dominate the world they would be far more successful as they do a better job of distributing the spoils and are good at administration)
Spoken like a guy who doesn't work in an Amazon warehouse
You are speaking like someone who has not lived in the third world :)
Their exploitation doesn't erase the fact that their role in the warehouse is just efficient distribution of the spoils of the empire. I am not suggesting that Americans don't care about the people around them but if you truly believe that you can ignore the cost of the American system on the rest of the world then you are an enemy to most of the world. Shouldn't it be the responsibility of every American leftist to be able to articulate a way to help Americans while being able to dismantle the empire. If you think that is impossible, I would be interested to hear your reasoning behind it. It would help clarify some of the questions I have about the movement in America.