Some of you who have been reading blogs since the beginning probably remember fisking, which is the practice of doing a paragraph-by-paragraph refutation of an argument. I’m going to sorta-kinda do that with a BlueSky thread that commenter Another Scott linked in the comments yesterday. I’m just going to put the text of the thread here because the embeds would be pretty heavy duty.
The thread is a reaction to this post by Ken Klippenstein.
Trump fired 12 inspectors general last night. Meanwhile the top Democrat in charge of oversight, 74 year old Rep. Gerry Connolly, hasn’t done a media hit in over 2 weeks
I didn’t spend a lot of time on Twitter, so there are Twitter influencers that I don’t know about, and Ken is one of them. I followed this guy on BlueSky for a while and stopped because I thought he tended to over-dramatize fairly mundane political events.
Ken’s post got the attention of Aaron Fritschner, who is the Deputy Chief of Staff to Don Beyer, D-VA-8. Fritschner has a lot of sensible posts on his BlueSky. Aaron quote tweeted it:
He is not going to let this go but you who follow me can at least know that he is lying.
The post had a picture of Gerry doing a TV spot for a local DC station, WJLA. There’s no date on the screenshot but I’ll buy it was recent. So far so good. Then he followed it up with this:
AOC as far as I can tell has not responded at all on the IG news, which is fine, it hit very late in a Friday and it takes some of us time to sort through details and react. Connolly’s statement got three paragraphs in AP and is in fact doing numbers on social via CBS.
Now, since Aaron is clearly a reasonable person who has a long history of working on the Hill, this is pretty disingenuous: the last thing a politically savvy politician who just lost the race for ranking member of Oversight would do is to bigfoot the new ranking member on something that’s squarely in the purview of Oversight.
Basically, he’s trying to set up a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation for AOC. If she comments, then damn her for doing Gerry’s job. If she doesn’t, well, where is your opposition leader now, isn’t she supposed to be the best messenger ever?
Why is a veteran Hill staffer doing this? Because he’s part of the established order, and she threatens it. In his world, getting three graphs in an AP story and doing “numbers” (relatively small numbers) on social media is a good day.
AOC is just a whole different level from that. For example, check this out:
That’s a re-tweet by the President of Colombia. If you believe Twitter analytics, her tweet has had 20 million views so far.
Then there’s today’s Politico Playbook, which every staffer on the Hill reads.
Attack lines at the ready: Also taking to social media on Sunday was — surprise, surprise — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was swift to warn of the impact of trade wars on the Average Joe. “To ‘punish’ Colombia, Trump is about to make every American pay even more for coffee,“ she wrote on Xon Sunday afternoon. “Remember: *WE* pay the tariffs, not Colombia. Trump is all about making inflation WORSE for working class Americans, not better. He’s lining the pockets of himself and the billionaire class.”
Rinse and repeat: It’s almost the first decent attack line we’ve heard from Dems this whole past week — and you can expect to hear it again and again if Trump follows through with his tariff threats. Helpfully, my colleague Elena Schneider has a smart piece about why Dems have largely pulled their punches against Trump 2.0 so far.
As someone mentioned on BlueSky, you can almost feel the Politico writer gritting their teeth as they write that, because that rag is not a fan of her. She’ll never appear at their events (which is how they make their money), and if she has ever mentions them, I’m sure it isn’t as part of a compliment. She doesn’t give a fuck if she’s in Playbook — a regular Member of Congress would kill to get this kind of coverage.
Anyway, here’s what Aaron and Co. don’t get: AOC’s supporters weren’t hoping that she would beat Gerry because Gerry was bad, it was because AOC is fucking lightning in a bottle, an Obama-level politician. Showing that Gerry got a couple of TV hits and a few grafs in an AP story just makes it sound more pathetic when his former competition can get 20 million views and a re-tweet from the leader of the nation having a trade fight with Trump.
The fight wasn’t about Gerry Connolly, it was about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He will make a perfectly decent ranking member of Oversight, doing all the right things at the right time. She regularly demonstrates that she’ll do exceptional things. That’s the loss that I and many others are feeling as we recognize what Playbook recognizes: there are very few Democrats doing any opposition, and she would have an even bigger impact as a ranking member.
Please keep comments on the topic of Democratic response to Trump.
(Just to be clear, I started following Aaron on BlueSky because most of what he writes makes sense, I just disagree with this particular tweet.)
Partners in the Fight, Not Donors to the Cause
Shalimar
My response to Trump and whatever stupid shit Republicans have done now: Should I be grateful they’re so dumb that they keep doing incomprehensibly incompetent and idiotic things? Because I don’t really feel grateful.
Old School
I did not realize the Democrats have to compete with each other to respond to Trump.
Professor Bigfoot
@Old School: You know they’re very good at doing it wrong, whatever it might be at the moment.
sentient ai from the future
it’s a fairly subtle point here, but the “lets you and him fight” attitude widespread in the general-public-focused big-budget media is, i think, a large part of why the press corp is just wired for republicans. pull this mean girls shit and the RW gives you a handjob for helping them maintain their hierarchy, or else you get a bunch of views because it turned into an actual fight. for a big-tent coalition like us lefty folks though, it can genuinely cause internal fighting since we are already doing it to try and navigate anyway. stenographers either get pissy because theres no fight and no views, or they get their views because there is, and that also makes us less effective.
but i have no idea what is to be done about this.
rikyrah
It is SLAVERY
Plain and simple.
SLAVERY
MISSOURI TOO
Mississippi has introduced HB1484, allowing enslavement of undocumented immigrants via life imprisonment for “illegal aliens.” It will also establish the “Mississippi Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/01/24/reward-reporting-illegal-immigrants-mississippi/
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Everybody should read the Elena Schneider piece linked to above. It’s all about talking to advisors to Dems who will be running for Preznit in 2028, anonymously of course. There’s 3 for 3 different candidates quoted.
It’s all about “being muted” while they figure out the best response which, according to the piece, leaves a “messaging void”.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@sentient ai from the future:
Steve M (blogger nomomremisterniceblog) remarked that Politico is afraid that if everything becomes Republican or Republican-lite, Politico won’t have the usual Dems vs Republicans both siding to write about. That was his explanation for them saying something about AOC — they need copy!
As Commander Scott points out, there really is a lot of “muting” going on.
I’ll be writing another post (probably tomorrow) about good Dems to follow on social media, but it really isn’t that many.
laura
I wish AOC would become a democrat. DSA undermining the democratic party just fries me. Yes, she is adept at messaging, as are others. Jerry Connolly, in spite of his age and health challenge, is a democrat full stop. If you want a third party, go start one. Quit co-opting the Democratic Party.
I said what I said.
Baud
@laura:
AOC isn’t Bernie. To my knowledge, she has always identified as a Dem.
sentient ai from the future
@rikyrah:
holy shit, you’re not even fucking kidding.
https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2025/html/HB/1400-1499/HB1484IN.htm
things got real dystopian real fucking fast.
Miss Bianca
@Old School:
Didn’t you? Well, don’t worry – apparently, they’re all Doing It Rong, anyway.
Steve LaBonne
@rikyrah: They stopped pretending a while back that their intended time-travel destination isn’t 1850.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@laura: AOC runs on the Working Families Party and Democratic Party lines in New York. WFP is the more lefty version of Democrats, but it’s super common for Dems to get their endorsement. There is no DSA party line in New York. If that makes you feel better.
sentient ai from the future
@Miss Bianca: also, if only one messaging source is not “muted” then they can’t play “let’s you and him fight” and sorta-hafta cover it
randy khan
Connolly used to be my Congressman (redistricting gave me Don Beyer at some point) and he’s fine. Nothing more, nothing less. He gets very active on things related to federal employees because he has a ton of them in his district, but otherwise he does what a normal Dem would do.
VFX Lurker
However, AOC associates with the DSA, hosting one of their meetings recently.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@VFX Lurker: Yep, I should have been clearer: She’s getting their endorsement and she clearly takes it, but she never gets a DSA vote because there’s no effective DSA party in New York.
It’s relatively easy to get a ballot line in New York. There are a lot of little parties around. It takes a little money and work. The DSA chooses not to do it.
She has a D after her name on the roll calls — that’s her party.
Hildebrand
Why not simply talk about what AOC does well? I mean, why wade into the process murk about ‘competing’ Democratic responses. There is no good purpose to playing that kind of game (and that’s all it is).
You like what AOC does? Great, write about that. Why does that have to be packaged with talking about how other Democrats aren’t communicating as well?
Betty Cracker
@VFX Lurker: I know the DSA association gives lots of folks the vapors, but Repubs call all Democrats “socialists” in the mold of Fidel Castro, including Joe Biden. (Probably Joe Manchin too!) The problem is Repub lying, not the existence of left-leaning Dems, whom we need in our coalition.
gene108
AOC is good at reaching younger voters. She’s good at communicating about the unfairness of the economy.
It’s something very few Democrats are good at.
What this means for her future, I don’t know. Her ability to reach a broad audience is important.
Quicksand
@VFX Lurker: Oh no. Does she have any connections to antifa?
Bupalos
A lot of folks don’t seem to want to hear it maybe because there are old battle lines drawn with Bernie, but the anti-billionaire lane is pretty much what is open to us politically now.
Kudos to AOC. You don’t just say Trump is failing to lower prices. You say he’s raising them, and that he’s doing it intentionally to screw you because he is a billionaire for billionaires.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Hildebrand: Because he’s mad she didn’t get picked for that role and Connelly did.
Baud
@Hildebrand:
I agree. I don’t think it even serves AOC’s interests or ambition when her supporters use the things that she does well to criticize others. She doesn’t do that, but if her fans keep doing it, that negativity will stick to her.
hueyplong
@Steve LaBonne: Maybe 1849. Best guess is they’d be fairly red-assed if told the details of the Compromise of 1850. “What do you mean we agreed to admit a ‘free’ state?”
rikyrah
AOC needs to win something statewide in NY first.
Bupalos
@Baud: She does do it herself, though with a smile and not with the kind of moralized insta-war vibe that happens with so much online discourse.
Personally all I react to is that she has a potent narrative that can be delivered in everyday language. I don’t even necessarily believe in that narrative to the extent that she does, but I do recognize it as the direction this party needs to head.
RevRick
@Old School: One of the most dysfunctional games is called “Let you and him fight.” Setting one Democrat against another is just this tiresome thing.
NaijaGal
@sentient ai from the future: I read a post linked by someone on Balloon Juice recently that clarified things for me in a way that I had never thought about. If the Civil War didn’t end with the Union victory but went essentially into “guerilla warfare” mode during Reconstruction and an eventual win *by the Confederates* with the introduction of Jim Crow and widespread national propaganda (Birth of a Nation, Gone With the Wind, etc), then the Civil Rights era of the 1960s was a temporary setback. So we go back again to the need for putting “those people” in their place (Obama’s win must have been a psychological blow like no other) and the addiction to free labor via enslavement (whether it’s through the US prison system or forcing undocumented people to work for free). Germans apologized for Nazism. White South Africans went to the polls and voted to end Apartheid. The US South never apologized for slavery and apparently the lesson learned appears to be that it should reemerge under a different disguise because there’s nothing wrong with it.
Geminid
@VFX Lurker: It’s no surprise that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez would host a meeting of New York DSA members; Ocasio-Cortez is member of New York City’s DSA chapter and has been since 2018 at least. She doesn’t talk about it a lot, but it’s no big secret either
RevRick
@Old School: One of the most dysfunctional games is called “Let you and him fight.” Setting one Democrat against another is just this tiresome thing.
ETA: sentient ai beat me by a mile
Baud
@Bupalos:
I don’t hear every word she says, but she seems to try to be a happy warrior, at least over the last couple of years, than someone who puts others down. She debates her views, of course, but that’s not putting people down for not having her style or qualities.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Hildebrand:
Because there aren’t many Democrats communicating much at all! Isn’t it obvious? I mean, I’ve had multiple posts, and will have multiple posts asking for good examples of communication and it’s aways a small cadre: AOC, Maxwell Frost, Jasmine Crockett, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy and a few others. It’s not like there are dozens and dozens of them posting stuff every day.
There are way more Republican-lite Democrats saying shit, or nutballs like Ro Khanna, than there are decent Democratic messengers. Or there’s stuff like Hakeem Jeffries tweeting “Presidents come and Presidents go. Through it all. God is still on the throne.” on the day Trump tried to start a trade war with Columbia.
And yet when AOC misses one of his pet issues, we have an DC insider with a snide comment about her lack of comment. That’s the kind of support she gets for being one of the few good spokespersons for the Democratic Party. So yeah, I’m going to wade into that. This is an inside baseball political blog, I’m going to write about the inside baseball of politics.
“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” — Elie Wiesel I wish some of our elected Democrats would internalize that quote.
Belafon
@Old School: Some people are sore winners.
Belafon
It seems to me, reading above, that the only real intraparty issue is this:
There was no reason for Aaron to put this out. That needs to stop.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Hildebrand: What we need is 50 AOCs yelling at the top of their voices, but instead we have 1 AOC, and 50 Democrats mumbling “something..something, norms…civility..” I get that she makes the leadership uncomfortable,but maybe they need a few matches lit under their backsides.
Betty Cracker
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Thank you! I appreciate your efforts and often learn from the discussions.
Another Scott
The only reason I pointed to Frischner’s thread because you had a post titled “Checking In With Opposition Leader AOC”. I was mildly amused that old conventional Gerry Connolly was out with a strong statement very quickly about the illegal IG firings, but “Opposition Leader” AOC apparently hadn’t said anything yet.
Yes, there are good reasons for her to let Gerry take the lead on this.
As I’ve said, I like AOC and think she is very talented. I don’t think she’s ready for leadership in the Democratic Party yet, and I think that folks that are pushing her should recognize that she’s not demanding to be made leader right now, either. She ran for something, lost, and accepted the result.
It also would be good for folks pushing others to realize that she’s so popular to explain how that popularity translates into increased votes in general elections. I haven’t been able to find anything that would be hard evidence for or against that hypothesis. E.g. looking at Ballotpedia for NY-14 it looks like she does about as well as Maloney or Crowley did in numbers of votes (and maybe a little worse on percentages). Comparisons over time are always tricky though. Maybe an advocate can go through those numbers and tell us that she’s so much better than Crowley in driving Democratic turnout, but I don’t immediately see it. I assume that we all have better things to do though. :-)
FWIW.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Another Scott
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Hakeem Jeffries has live stream press conferences.
HTH!
Best wishes,
Scott.
WTFGhost
American factual discourse is so polluted it’s trivial for a normally sensible person to say something really stupid. Every now and again, if you live outside normal conversations, you see people discussing or debating something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, except… people have been *talking* about this nonsense, see? And you can’t help but wish they’d hired a four-year-old to say “but the emperor isn’t *wearing* any clothes, and I can see his mushroom!”
Booger
Man, if I was a lawyer I’d set up an internet law boutique firm of Godwin, Fisk, Poe & TBogg, just to celebrate all the Internet traditions of which I am aware.
hoytwillrise
@laura: AOC is a better person & politician than almost any Democrat alive. It wasn’t AOC that “undermined” the Dem party into losing the 2024 election, that was the actual ‘real’ dems.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Another Scott:
I want to expand on that because the post was long and I had a point to make about this that I left out, other than the obvious one that a savvy politician would not tread on Gerry’s turf right after he beat her to get his job.
A good opposition leader picks her fights. Asking her to address every single thing that comes out of the Trump firehose of shit misses the point of why she’s good at what she does — when she weighs in, it’s at the right time with the right observation. The Colombia tweet I posted is a good example of that. If there was more of an opposition, some of the “shadow cabinet” would address other parts of the Trump firehose, leaving the leader free to drive home the most important ones.
As for the number of votes she gets, she won 70/30 in her last election. Whether her predecessors did 65/35 or 75/25 is kind of irrelevant when she’s absolutely crushing her general election opponents, as one would expect in a D+28 (!!) district. I don’t know how you get to “more popular” or “less popular” with numbers when variables like turnout, etc., drive small variations in her vote totals. She’s a safe set representative. Obama had a safe seat in the state leg and his Senate seat was pretty safe. Biden had a safe seat. Harris had a safe seat as Senator. Safe seat members of Congress can win elections.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Laura: While I was researching AOC’s vote totals, her Wikipedia informed me that the DSA did not endorse her in 2024 because Gaza. So I guess she didn’t leave the DSA, the DSA left her.
catfishncod
@rikyrah: It’s a stunt.
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/mississippi-bounty-hunter-bill-to-go-after-undocumented-immigrants-faces-legal-and-political-hurdles-experts-say/
Which is not to say it should be pooh-poohed or ignored; as we have seen, this is all part of the Overton creepage and normalization of the intolerable. But it’s not going to happen. Yet.
Bupalos
@Another Scott: I think this is a good comment but one of the things I feel like we need to get away from is looking for a leader rather than a message. I’ll more or less agree that AOC probably isn’t going to be our most effective tactical leader and I don’t need to see her in that role. But to me right now the priority is finding and forming a coherent and easily understood message and brand for a Democratic Party that has been badly beaten up. I think she is showing what an effective left-populism can look like.
Big picture I think we will not win in any kind of significant way until the Republicans are rebranded as the party of the super-rich. AOC is doing that work.
Kay
The line about the coffee is good though, you have to admit. She really does use ordinary language and she doesn’t sound self pitying or sad sacky.
Citizen Alan
@@mistermix.bsky.social: I am of the deeply held belief that the DSA, like the Greens, exists only as a tool for wealthy elites to (a) undermine the Democratic Party and (b) make actual Socialism look ridiculous in the eyes of the average voter. The last time I voted in Mississippi, the Dem challenger to beady-eyed homunculus Trent Kelly was a woman who proudly identified as a DSA member who was the only person to run in the Dem primary. She was a recent transplant from up North, was working as an International Law professor at Ole Miss, had some kind of weird half-mohawk, and was known for wearing floral “hippie” dresses and combat boots to the law school classes she taught. She was, IOW, the living embodiment of the caricature of liberals that most conservatives have in their heads. I rolled my eyes and voted for her, of course, but Kelly won handily.
Two years later, I interviewed for a job at Ole Miss and she was on the search committee and was cold, bordering on rude, to me in the interview, presumably because I was a white Mississippi-born male and so it was probably inconceivable to her that I might be a liberal.
Citizen Alan
@Betty Cracker: My problem with the DSA as an institution is that I am nearly convinced that it is secretly funded by rightwing oligarchs as a way of fracturing our coalition.
Kay
Trump and the GOP are pretty much teeing up “we are reckless plutocrats who don’t care about you” for us right now. If we can’t use this stuff in a politically advantageous way, we should just hang up politics.
The GOP tax plan doesn’t include tax free overtime but does include accelerated depreciation for racehorses. They’re handing us a big cartoon mallet to hit them with.
ThresherK
If Politico wants anyone to think of Schneider (whose work I don’t know) as worthwhile, Playbook touting it is the wrong way.
So, he got this wrong. I seem to find Klippenstein as being into “Democrats are doing it wrong” punditry. I know there’s a lot of competition, but I feel he’s made a bit of a name in it.
Kay
I would have used the billionaire inauguration too, but it’s too late to bring that up now.
Republicans held an inauguration that was wholly centered on four billionaires. It was like a screeching air horn sounding “kleptocracy!”
Anyhoo! Hope they get going soon. They’re missing a lot of easy shots.
Princess
Gerry Connolly has a perfectly good deputy. Her name is Jasmine Crockett. Between the two of them, I’m sure they will handle Oversight well.
As for the rest, “Dems suck OMG!!11!!!” Is starting to feel like a NYT psyop to me. I don’t even follow a lot if Dems but every time I scroll even a little, I find multiple electeds who are never mentioned on here taking this or that policy or statement of Trump’s to task. If people aren’t seeing it, they’re probably spending too much time in the doom threads. Could they be more organized? Yes. But they’re beginning to get their feet under them.
Princess
@rikyrah: I cant see the state that elects Cuomo and Hochul ever electing AOC state wide. She could run for mayor of NYC I guess but even there, pretty right wing candidates tend to win. For a supposedly blue state NY is very conservative compared to Illinois.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s association with the DSA doesn’t give me the vapours. I’ve just said it could a drag on her chances if she runs for state wide in New York. But New York Democrats can work that out; that’s their business, not mine. Anyway, this is all hypothetical until actually she actually runs statewide.
I guess it would be my business Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was being selected as Spokesperson for the Democratic Party, but there is no such position even if people believe there should be.
I don’t think the association gives many other people the vapours either, because it’s just not that well known.
I remember reading a City and State article about a wrangle last year between the National DSA apparatus and the DSA’s New York Chapter, about whether “AOC” merited the organization’s endorsement. The upshot was the local.chapter endorsed and the National Committee refused on account of her position on Israel. They didn’t think she was hard enough on Israel.
But I had a laugh at the introductory paragraph, where the reporter described Rep. Ocasio-Cortez as America’s best known DSA member. I thought: Yeah, and that’s one of the least known facts about her.
Personally, I really don’t have very much animus the DSA, certainly not towards its members. They are fairly idealistic and don’t traffic in the caustic cynicism and accelerationism that infests other parts of the “Left.”
They are not that large a group either. I read that the New City chapter numbered 5,000 in 2018, the year they helped Ocasio-Cortez beat Joe Crowley beat Joe Crowley. That was in a city of over 7 million.
I think the New York City chapter is still going strong but they have lost members nationally since then. Their position on the Ukraine war seemed to start the decline. I had a conversation about that here with a DSA member who said he did not care for the Internstional or National Committees’ foreign policy positions, that he was committed to the organization because of other issues.
This must have been in the summer of 2023 because their Bienniel Convention was coming up and he said he would attend as a Delegate. A few months later he said he’d left the DSA.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Princess:
I will be running posts on this and I invite you to track and add the ones you see. I do re-tweet some on BlueSky but I’m sure I miss some.
WTFGhost
@Booger: One thing I loved to be pedantic about was Godwin’s law, because I was on Usenet, and I *got* it.
The “law” was, if a discussion lasts long enough, the odds that Hitler or Nazi comparisons would come out approaches unity.
And it wasn’t about who was right or wrong – it was just, if the discussion lasted long enough, people would stake out their positions more firmly, until either they baselessly made a Nazi comparison, *or* staked out a Nazi position. I saw it *all* the *time*.
And, since sometimes, Godwin was proven correct because someone stakes out a Nazi position, the law was never intended to pick a winner or loser. It was just an observation of group dynamics in an unregulated discussion forum with lots of different people of different backgrounds participating, and sometimes ranting and raving. And if you don’t think a strong Nazi position could be staked out in a debate on Kirk vs Picard, you simply don’t know Usenet, as it was back then.
With *no* disrespect intended *at all*, sometimes pondering Godwin’s Law can help in acrimonious discussions. Godwin’s Law is a kind of “market failure” where economic forces don’t generate a good outcome. Well – if you’re in a Godwin-bound discussion, maybe change how you’re responding to the forces that are mucking with you.
Because the other thing about Godwin’s Law is, it’s a bit funny – you can be caught in a Godwin-bound discussion without even realizing it. *I* have been so caught, for sure!
Princess
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Ron Wyden is the new one I saw most recently, coincidentally right under a “nooo Dems are saying anything” post. Lauren Underwood. Brian Schatz, who has always been vocal but I hadn’t seen recently.
I’m all for putting pressure on our electeds. It’s something we’re always entitled to do. I’m finding the fooling is taking on a life of its own though.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Princess: I’ve seen a couple good ones from Schatz recently on BlueSky. I follow him and Wyden. I’ll take a look at Underwood. Thanks
No Nym
@Kay: “Republicans held an inauguration that was wholly centered on four billionaires. It was like a screeching air horn sounding ‘kleptocracy!'”
Jason Crow, Colorado representative, was on Nicolle Wallace’s show just in the past hour saying almost exactly this. He said that the billionaires close to Trump were lined up to use our government as a personal piggy bank. I thought More of this, please.
Geminid
@Geminid: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine came at an inopportune time for the DSA. That Spring they had a slate of DSA-endorsed candidates running for a number of offices in the New City suburbs. Their platforms emphasized criminal justice reform and affordable housing, but the other Democrats made sure everyone knew the National DSA’s position on the war:
Voter: I hear you’re against NATO.
Candidate: That is the position of our National and International Committees. I take a more nuanced view, that we should consider….
Voter: It sounds like you’re against NATO.
Candidate: I did not say that. I just believe that as New Yorkers, we should direct our attention to more pressing problems like affordable housing and crim–
Voter: YOU’RE AGAINST NATO?!!!
The DSA-endorsed slate did not do well that Spring.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: I think AOC and Pete Buttigieg are great examples of Democratic spokespersons. They’re young, they’re telegenic, and they’re excellent, articulate-but-pithy communicators. We could do a lot worse than having folks like them (and Jasmine Crockett!) be the new public face of the party.
Melancholy Jaques
What Ocasio-Cortez does & what Connolly does not do is say & do things that will answer the questions Who are the Democrats? & What do Democrats stand for?
The “quietly effective legislator” & “crafty deal maker” models do not do that. So we had the most effective speaker of the house since Sam Rayburn & we benefited greatly from her skills & dedication. But because Republicans were able to define who she is for the general public, she was a net negative in presidential races & purple congressional districts.
We need more loud & proud Democrats who speak like normal people about the issues that the general public agrees with us on. They don’t know that they do because our congressional leadership is composed of quietly effective legislators who are crafty deal makers. Not that that is bad or that we don’t need such people, but I’m just saying they do us no good with our brand
ETA – Also too, I don’t see any evidence that “AOC is good with the young” in the get them to vote for Democrats sense of that phrase. She does a great job communicating with me & I’m twice her age. She’s 35, not a kid. She’s just about the most visible communicator of who & what Democrats are all about. Who is doing more or better?
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: Hakeem Jeffries is young enough, and very telegenic as well. I think Jeffries is an excellent communicator in long, medium and short form.
I’m not saying Jeffries should be the face of the Party because we have so many other talented politicians, and no one of them can do it all anyway. But 214 other Democratic Representatives chose Jeffries to be their main interface with the public, and I think they chose well.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I wish there had been more real-time emphasis on that too, but I don’t think it’s too late. We’re a week from that event, and the right-wing kleptocracy is and will remain a target-rich environment.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: No arguments against that from me.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I was careful not to compare Jeffries to any other Democrat. I know better now.
They say that “all comparisons are invidious.” I really came to understand this during the debate we had here about possible VP selections (you may have missed it). I came to realize that I could not say candidate A was stronger in some respect than candidate B without in effect shading candidate B. At least, candidate B’s fans would take it that way and their resentment at me would attach to candidate A.
I think Hakeem Jeffries leads a talented and capable set of House members. This view is contrary to one often expressed here, that there are a few shining stars and the rest are so much chopped liver. I have familarized myself with most of our House caucus and I can say, they are not chopped liver. So I try here to build them up individually while others tear them down collectively. This might look like an uphill battle, but I am a patient person and tenacious about things I feel strongly about.
But enough about me. Are you still gonna build that sauna? Or are you already steaming.
Tim in SF
Hey @mistermix.bsky.social – when you write a blog post like this, do you bluesky the link and tag those mentioned in the post? I’m asking because I’d like to see what Fritschner has to say about your post, and I doubt he would respond here, but maybe he would on bluesky.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Well, I’m sure we would *all* agree here that even the dullest of the Congressional Democrats are miles above their Republican counterparts when it comes to integrity, intelligence, and sense of public duty.
Alas, the sauna remains a fantasy…although I’ve just joined the community gym and apparently *they* have a sauna. Heavenly days! Now I just need to remember to pack a swim suit along with my other gym rat wear. :)
brantl
@Hildebrand: MM doesn’t like elbows being thrown on the same side of the offensive line.
brantl
@Quicksand: Sure, just like you and me.
brantl
@Kay: I think that’s when you swing for the fences.
brantl
@Melancholy Jaques:
We need more loud & proud Democrats who speak like normal people about the issues that the general public agrees with us on.
This is wrong, We need more loud & proud Democrats who speak to normal people about the issues that the general public agrees with us on, in simple terms.
PatD
@Baud: People are quite obviously going to compare people who communicate and message well and people who don’t, especially given the void in Democratic Party leadership. The sensitive types are going to need to grow up fast, this is going to get worse before it gets better.
PatD
@Another Scott: goodness, but what has Gerry Connolly done to deserve leadership other than longevity? He has maybe 0.5% name recognition in the US. The moment requires effective communication, especially when Dems are in the minority.
Kayla Rudbek
@NaijaGal: we made the Germans deNazify after WWII (I remember my dad saying that the US Army JAG had gone through the German law codes all the way down to the traffic laws and showing me various stamped law codes) and we may have done similar things to the Italian law codes post-Mussolini. We never did anything like that to the white South (if I had been in charge post-war, every Confederate bearing arms over the rank of corporal would have been hanged for treason and sedition).
Another Scott
@PatD:
Gerry’s record on Oversight and Reform.
It’s a pretty good one.
HTH!
Best wishes,
Scott.
PatD
@Another Scott: Yeah, in normal situations I’d be fine with a replacement level politician doing the job. But the guy, unfortunately, has very little juice. Hopefully that changes soon. This isn’t a plug for AOC, either, as I don’t think she’s the only one out there better suited for the job.
pajaro
@Alce _e_ardillo:
Sorry, Connolly doesn’t mumble. Why not try a different word? And the crap that is happening right now to federal employees is absolutely city wide here. They are issuing stop orders, firing people, stopping people from doing their jobs. USAID contracts have all been cancelled. the NIH has been partially shut down. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has been paused. A number of Jack Smith’s colleagues who are civil service and are not subject to firing have been fired. In immigration, programs run by the Executive Office of Immigration Review were paused. In immigration more broadly, the app used by asylum seekers to schedule their appointments was shut down, leaving 30,000 prospective asylum seekers outside of the US who were waiting in line, doing what they were told to do, without appointments. There’s much, much, much more. Absolutely no one is talking comity, or thinking about blue slips, or any of that crap, but these stories or the explanation of what is happening to Inspectors Generals, who have a right of appeal to the Merit System Protection Board, are competing with the stuff about Hedgeseth, or Colombia, or Greenland, or Gaza, or Kash Patel coming up, or the flights at the border, or honestly a dozen different things, so it’s not surprising that you are not hearing about a particular democrat complaining the way you would want about a particular thing.
jefft452
@Quicksand: My dad was antifa
1942-1945