Im skeptical a fair bit of time about those congressional ‘lefties’ but this is true, for the most part they’re doing what they can. What I do like most about them is when they show up outside of a legislative capacity, like showing up at strikes or going to meet unions. I think many people discount how important that boots on the ground work is. Imagine being a franchise owner of something trying to snuff out union efforts knowing you’re gonna have US Lawmakers who agree with your workers physically there with the workers. You better come correctly in that situation.
Just want to point out that they only showed up in support of the current labor movement after immense pressure was put on them after failing to support the historic Amazon JFK8 union drive. AOC and politicians like her still have to pushed, sometimes hard, to do the right thing.
They show an ability to learn from their mistakes, at a minimum. Can’t be said for all.
Sorry man I just fundamentally disagree and feel like you are ignoring/undervaluing the role grassroots organizing plays. This is pure political pressure, not a reevaluation of policy.
I say this specifically because as soon as you give a politician the benefit of doubt and remove that political pressure they stop “learning from their mistakes”.
Oh I agree with you and am biting my tongue to not talk about how disappointed people like them made me when it came to the railroad unions and strike in this thread simply because at the end of the day through mistake or other means nymag got it right that they do indeed do thing that have an impact.
Don’t bite your tounge! These are not people to revere, they are there to represent their constituency and it’s our responsibility to constantly push them to do so and righteously criticize them when they fail to act. Articles like this and bite your tounge comments are antithetical to a healthy democracy.
I don’t give a shit if AOC cried when she voted to increase the military budget for apartheid Isreal. All that matters is she was a deciding vote and Palestinian people are dieing because of it.
Good. I hope they achieve far more in the future, it would be a net benefit for everyone, even those who dislike them and their politics
Their own party treats them with more disdain than their supposed “opposition party.”
AOC and the other actual left-wing minority making waves in a sea of right-wing neoliberals and righter-wing fascists is amazing. They can’t win, the game is fully rigged and the institutions are fully captured by monied interests with political bribery legalized, but it’s like watching Cap get up to face Thanos’ army alone, it’s inspiring.
Too bad no one, including most Americans, are on their left.
Because were too far into the sunk cost fallacy to reject “free market” rigged crony capitalism.
“We can’t re-examine our core economic beliefs! We already gave the owners all the money, and they promised for half a century to whip their dicks out and urinate golden showers of prosperity on all of us!.. any day now…”
I read the article, and I agree with Freddie deBoer. This is just liberal apologetics. This is just the same arguments of things are getting better, just wait, blah, blah, blah. I’m old. It’s tired. Give me healthcare and change my mind.
So until we get single payer healthcare, you won’t be happy with any other policy wins and you’d rather burn all your political capital fighting us instead of uniting against the literal fascists?
Isn’t that just the progressive left? As far as I know we don’t worship figureheads like the fascist right with their orange demigod.
America’s “left” is pretty middle of the road if you compare the US to other first world nations.
Things like free affordable / free university education, universal healthcare, consumer protection, and decent unemployment insurance are not controversial elsewhere. But in the US the right wing claims these boring ass ideas, that the rest of the modern world has embraced, are radical.
If left wing idea were hot sauces, the GOP would think mayo was the Last Dab on Hot Ones.
You can still respect and admire a figurehead without worshipping them. The difference is whether you bend definitions and rules to make exceptions of them when they deviate from expectations.
I mean, the article linked is an AOC apologist quite literally bending “definitions and rules to make exceptions” for her after another columnist said she was “just a regular old Democrat now.”
Branding the progressive left the “AOC Left” is also problematic and indicative of some hero worship on the author’s part.
Naming a movement after a figurehead is not worship, it’s just descriptive.
Nope, worship people claiming being other sex and making people to call them by a gender they are not. :)
She’s the Obama of millennials, and will probably achieve the same political success. (Once the boomers preventing her ascension all die off.)
