People Like Beto, People Like AOC
Democrats fall in love, Republican fall in line as the adage says but I think that’s becoming increasingly false, as Republican are slowly voting in love with the wandering of 2012 and quite a quick ascendency of Trump in 2016, and I suspect many Hillary vote in the primary was to fall in line with the establishment, notwithstanding the push.
But it’s time for Democrats to fall in love again, and it’s coming in many forms. Many looks to Beto, who closed the gap in Texas as this shining light, which feels weird, considering he was a small-time congressman from El Paso, and didn’t do so well in the primaries, which was the reason I sullied on him, and sully on him for the 2020 race.
He’s also moderate, much more moderate that many people tend to believe, of course it’s also strange that we have the flip side with the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and in concurrence Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, although she had a head start in 2016.
It’s astounding to see many liberal elites slowly fawning over her, even though she’s quite a socialist... in fact her leftist credence is how she got her fame in the first place. There was a few post wondering about that nature and I thought an earlier incidence.
I am thinking of Malala Yousafzai. She is/was absolutely adored by every liberal white middle-class or upper suburban female. There were merch and people were remembering her quotes and watching her speech, being defiant against the Taliban...
What don’t they know is that Malala was, again, quite socialist in her rhetoric and actions. If you don’t believe me, search Malala socialism and you’ll see good evidence. But the fact that you are even doubting this is an deeper point into this big quandary.
I think we should also step back to Martin Luther King Jr., which almost everyone adores, even conservatives at times, and many try to use his rhetoric to bolster themselves. But he was quite socialist too, he did fought worker’s right, against commercialism. I still remember that Dodge commercial using a speech in a Super Bowl ad, while King Jr. was criticizing the nature of car commercial... in the same speech.
I mean how big of a blind spot you have if the commercial maker and the corporate board didn’t even read the whole speech before putting it on your Super Bowl ad?
But therein lies our solution. White centrist feel a need to be admiring of people of color, but they can’t make themselves think about them as actual people, and so they kind of become this blank slate in which you can put whatever ideology you have onto them, even though those people have outwardly and proudly proclaimed their own ideology.
Martin Luther King Jr., Malala Yousafzai, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is all going to be remembered by centrist as someone who overcame the odds - of segregation in the 1900s, of being shot by the Taliban, of working as an waitress and running an insurgent campaign against an entrenched incumbent; while completely ignoring the fact that all three of them believes that the hardship that they endured ultimately comes from the hegemonic capitalism that exacerbate regional/racial/economic inequality in the pursuit of profit and power and that they want to undo the hardship they (and many others) have faced by the way of radical implementation of socialist, universalist policies.
It’s so funny in the end. Good thing the last POC the white liberals flocked was a neoliberalist incrementalist, one who fundamentally agreed with the their view of the world... what if Obama came from a more Bernie-like point of view? In fact, you can imagine those same white liberals being very confused when they elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as president in 2028 and she start putting radical socialist policy in line with what the opponent argued and which they fiercely debated against. In fact, it’s obviously that they will either turn on her, or more likely find some other group that they believe is the culprit of this ‘betrayal’. I can see the argument now, that those crazy DSA people pushed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into enforcing their policies and that if they remove the DSA influence, the world will be right again. And the leftist brain, including mind, will blow in unison in hearing that impeccable train of logic.
But perhaps the rhetoric can worm their way into their adoration. Maybe this white suburbanites will start supporting single-payer and they didn’t even realize it. Noah Smith and Paul Krugman ostensibly know about the leftist leanings of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and they are starting to lean on her ideas. So least in that sense, she’s infiltrating the minds of the establishment to support more socialistic policies.
But it’s far more likely that white liberals will continue to be wooed by whatever charming young person is making you feel good by owning the conservatives. Which is where our opportunities lie. If owning the other side becomes the way in which we gauge our leaders, then we will just have to present socialism as the best ownage tool available. Soon, the liberals will be slowly seduced into supporting worker rights and universal welfare, and they won’t realize it by the time the world is turned upside down.