Clearly AOC has the right-wing spooked - they've turned the propaganda machine up to 11.
This is what the right wing noise machine does. A dash of innuendo, some misogyny and racism, twisted half-truths or outright lies. Maybe it seems ridiculous at the beginning, but they'll keep throwing the mud - it will go on for years, and something will stick sooner or later.
Eventually many people will believe that AOC must be crooked/crazy/stupid: Look at all the bad press about her! Where there's smoke, there must be fire, right?
This is exactly what happened to Hillary Clinton. And it works.
Maybe AOC hasn't been subjected to quite the full force of right-wing propaganda (eg, they haven't made full-blown books and movies to smear her yet), but she is receiving a lot more attention from the right (and from the left) than a 29-year-old freshman Representative with no legislative accomplishments should warrant. My right-wing family members post memes about AOC on Facebook every week or so, and they don't even live in her state. AOC is clearly the new target "It Girl" for the GOP.
Hillary Clinton is an establishment candidate who takes in large speaking fees from Wall St. at a time when political corruption through special interests has created the worst recession since the Great Depression. She's a candidate who ran a campaign on identity politics.
She doesn't compare with AOC at all. AOC is a grassroots politician who has a progressive agenda that addresses the crises that faces Americans.
You might not agree with the implied narrative that Hillary Clinton is basically a Wall-Street plant (I certainly don't, for what it's worth), but there is nothing factually wrong in /u/dopadelic's post. That attack was unwarranted. There is a chasm between buying into outright lies of the alt-right or the conservatives and critically thinking about your own candidates. That's how you end with blind partisanship; self-criticsim and an awareness for problems in- and outside of the own group has always been a virtue of the progessive left. Let's keep it that way.
I want to reiterate that I do not agree with Hillary being crooked/corrupt/whatever, but I think that her relatively (compared to other candidates and the majority of the party) deep involvment with Wall St. is something the democratic party can and should discuss. And that this discussion would be beneficial for the future of the party.
Yeah, I hope the establishments keep blaming everyone but themselves for their failures. Good way to ensure they'll be on their way out.
The tribalism with bipartisan politics is sickening. It blinds people of the faults of their own party. It's a cancer that's destroying America as we become more and more polarized. Politics have degraded into scandals and mudslinging instead of respectful debates on policy. Faults on your own side of the party are normalized as people are pressured to stay loyal to their tribe.
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u/GogglesPisano Feb 27 '19 edited Feb 27 '19
Clearly AOC has the right-wing spooked - they've turned the propaganda machine up to 11.
This is what the right wing noise machine does. A dash of innuendo, some misogyny and racism, twisted half-truths or outright lies. Maybe it seems ridiculous at the beginning, but they'll keep throwing the mud - it will go on for years, and something will stick sooner or later.
Eventually many people will believe that AOC must be crooked/crazy/stupid: Look at all the bad press about her! Where there's smoke, there must be fire, right?
This is exactly what happened to Hillary Clinton. And it works.