@The Aspie Corner

Gee what a surprise. Not. He's replacing Borin Orrin Hatch who said during his first campaign 33 years ago, "what do you call a congress member who has been in congress for two terms? You call him home and if I win I won't spend more than two terms in congress."

People remind others that he said that every time he ran again, but people still kept sending him back for another term. And another and another and another .......... Oh well at least he is finally leaving!

Meanwhile, down here in Flawer'Duh, we're stuck with Wingnuts, Guzanos and Blue Dogs. Pigs, all of them.

@LoneStarMike
Volunteers going door to door especially in their own neighborhoods are much more effective than dumb expensive repetitive 30 second TV ads.

Here's an interesting little fact that kind of puts things in perspective:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez FEC Filings

She raised $312,881.78. With 98% of the precincts reporting she has gotten 15,897 votes.

Joe Crowley FEC filings

Joe Crowley raised $3,366,094.96 and so far has gotten 11,761 votes with 98% of precincts reporting.

If you do the math, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent roughly $19.68 per vote and won.

Joe Crowley spent roughly $286.20 per vote... and lost.

From one of the articles that I read last night:

“This race is about people versus money. We’ve got people. They’ve got money,” Ocasio-Cortez said throughout her campaign.

The people won this one.

@LeChienHarry @LeChienHarry
Keep her off committees, bury her bills, stuff like that.

The machine politicians have ready-made staff with history, knowledge of the games playes and how rules really work in Congress.

Who is going to help this newbie? She is going to need some strong support up close and daily if she is going to make a dent in the Democratic machine.

Winning the race is just the beginning.

Ideas?

@Lookout

Criticize all you want, but she is a move in the right direction. There are no perfect human beings.

Dingdingdingdingding!!

Give that Lookout a Marijuana! (I live in Colorado; I can say that!)

Perhaps she will end up being corrupted by TPTB, but I'm going to wait till she screws up before I'm critical. I for one am supportive and hopeful.

That said, I think we have to re-invent this nation for real reform. Can that happen from within the system? I doubt it. However I'm an ally of all who work for the issues I think are important.

And oftener than not, we must take what we can get, where we can get it.

This young educator isn't a rich kid.

In her career, Alexandria has worked on economic policy, organized families, and served as an Educational Director for high school youth. When her father passed during the 2008 financial crisis, she also found herself waiting tables and working two jobs to help her family keep a roof over their head. Her hard-working background and humble upbringing has given her the perspective and insight to properly fight for everyday Americans.

https://www.ocasio2018.com/

Criticize all you want, but she is a move in the right direction. There are no perfect human beings. Perhaps she will end up being corrupted by TPTB, but I'm going to wait till she screws up before I'm critical. I for one am supportive and hopeful.

That said, I think we have to re-invent this nation for real reform. Can that happen from within the system? I doubt it. However I'm an ally of all who work for the issues I think are important.

@Nastarana

1. Point out that the social policies she is calling for, which we all badly need, cannot be afforded if we do not scale back our imperial pretensions.

2. We all know that Wall Street, the DCCC, and AIPAC, among others will be calling her. Offering money, and, oh by the way, we have a couple of good people for your new staff. And so on. Come out to Vulgar Mansion in the Hamptons; some people want to meet you.

3. Don't forget that inexperienced staff members are often unfortunately but quite understandably vulnerable to the lure of patronage by Important People.

4. So, if she and staffers don't hear from future constituents, starting NOW, they may well conclude that said constituents don't really care very much about war and peace.

This!

if she and staffers don't hear from future constituents, starting NOW, they may well conclude that said constituents don't really care very much about war and peace.

And therefore don't care about much of anything else, as war and peace pretty much dictates what handling all other priorities get in this country.

Now, what folks who live and vote in her district need to do is make it clear to her and her expanded staff that you expect her to get behind a non-interventionist foreign policy. Call it a Peace and Justice plan, for example. Go to her events, take a sign if she is not taking questions, contact her staff, write letters to newspapers or get on whatever social media is most read in your district.

1. Point out that the social policies she is calling for, which we all badly need, cannot be afforded if we do not scale back our imperial pretensions.

2. We all know that Wall Street, the DCCC, and AIPAC, among others will be calling her. Offering money, and, oh by the way, we have a couple of good people for your new staff. And so on. Come out to Vulgar Mansion in the Hamptons; some people want to meet you.

3. Don't forget that inexperienced staff members are often unfortunately but quite understandably vulnerable to the lure of patronage by Important People.

4. So, if she and staffers don't hear from future constituents, starting NOW, they may well conclude that said constituents don't really care very much about war and peace.

@Cassiodorus
And spend our time on line crabbing about how the world isn't perfect?

No thanks. I'd rather work for a better world for my (future) great-grandchildren. My grandchildren have already been screwed by the corporate Dems and Right-wing crazies.

The Perfect is the enemy of "A whole lot better than what we've got".

So a 28 year old Puerto Rican woman, a DSA member won the Democratic primary in a majority Latino NYC congressional district. I can understand what some people think it means. I just don't think it means what they imagine it does.

It's not that I'm unsympathetic. But her identity and affiliations are NOT real victories. We just had 8 years of a black president, NYC had a black mayor a generation ago. How'd that work out?

Over the years I helped elect "progressives" to city council, to county offices, to state legislatures and to congress. They didn't succeed in changing the Democratic party. Usually that party and the institution of elected officialdom isolated and changed them. Institutions change people more often than the other way around.

Those who are celebrating the Ocasio victory seem unable to ask, let alone answer what makes this week's any different from victories we had a generation ago, which ultimately amounted to nothing. They seem to believe nobody has ever tried this before.

@Cassiodorus

had written on june 6:

"In reality, Barack Obama deported 2.7 million people, more than any other president, and his administration expanded the border wall and built many of the for-profit prisons currently housing immigrant children, literally paving the way for Trump’s present policy.
Particularly significant has been the response of Senator Bernie Sanders. Appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, Sanders volunteered that he had voted to fund Trump’s border wall.

When asked directly if he was in favor of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that is overseeing the Gestapo-like attack on immigrants, Sanders gave a deliberately evasive answer, declaring: “I think what we need is to create policies which deal with immigration in a rational way. … What we need is Trump to sit down with members of Congress and work on a rational program which deals with this serious issue.”

zo...miz ocasio-cortez is more radicule than her mentor. but no her extended platform never mentions war nor imperialism. 'create a green new deal' in 2018 kinda made me chuckle given how baked in the sixth extinction is already, COP paris included.

So a 28 year old Puerto Rican woman, a DSA member won the Democratic primary in a majority Latino NYC congressional district. I can understand what some people think it means. I just don't think it means what they imagine it does.

It's not that I'm unsympathetic. But her identity and affiliations are NOT real victories. We just had 8 years of a black president, NYC had a black mayor a generation ago. How'd that work out?

Over the years I helped elect "progressives" to city council, to county offices, to state legislatures and to congress. They didn't succeed in changing the Democratic party. Usually that party and the institution of elected officialdom isolated and changed them. Institutions change people more often than the other way around.

Those who are celebrating the Ocasio victory seem unable to ask, let alone answer what makes this week's any different from victories we had a generation ago, which ultimately amounted to nothing. They seem to believe nobody has ever tried this before.

@The Voice In the Wilderness poorly. Both sides are making that claim, one proudly, one with contempt. Both views diminish what she is trying to do. If you latch on to one dimension you're just holding up a mirror, silver side towards yourself.

(Not you you, I mean the other kind of general you)

Crowley's Queens-Bronx district includes Archie Bunker's old neighborhood, but the old neighborhood ain't what it used to be. Today NY's 14th Congressional district is roughly 50% Latino and 25% "other minorities". Crowley wasn't/isn't a bad representative for his district; it's just that times have changed.
Basically, the claim is that she won because of her ethnicity and not policies. Another victory for Demographics Is Destiny.

Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.