The boogeyman of the conservatives is in fact not a man. She isn’t who most would have ever expected. No, it isn’t Hillary Clinton. The woman donning the crown is a 29-year old woman from the Bronx. Oh, 2019. May you live in interesting times.
The reason for this piece about Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not to critique her politics, and then make a sweeping generalization of the Democratic Party. You’re more than welcome to go to Fox News for that entertainment. This piece calls attention to something that few journalists have done. What is that exactly? Their job.
How are we to believe that Ocasio-Cortez is not controlled in some fashion? We know she has a team of staffers, and we know her tweeting has become semi-controlled, but are we so foolish to think it stops there? How would a 29-year old, newly-elected Congresswoman, with the popularity she has amassed in a one-year period not enter The Swamp without some sort of control? She has 3.2 million twitter followers. This makes her one of the single-most followed politicians in the USA. Well, finally someone did some digging. It turns out, she already appears connected to a PAC, the Young Turks, and implementing money schemes to churn ‘donations’ into cash payments. Look, no matter who you are in D.C., the money will come, and no matter how hard you try to fight it, or not, the money will take over. This is a tale as old as time, or at least our capitalistic, Democratic Republic.
You can read the carefully-constructed piece for you to decide for yourself. In short, she is already up to tricks that politicians regularly use, but her situation is different. She is the congresswoman parading around as the woman representing the working class, hard-working, disenfranchised Americans. Seems a tad hypocritical to already be resorting to the tricks of D.C. politicians that she continually calls out. It’s amazing to think the swamp got to her before she even entered D.C., but to her defense she was only up river from the swamp in the grimy New York waters swimming with the sharks without her floaties.
This is important for four reasons. One, as our journalist so eloquently claims at the end of his piece, this wasn’t hard work. It’s piecing a puzzle together when the bulk of the information is publicly out there. Think of it as a tedious brainteaser. Fact is, journalists aren’t investigating in 2019. They rely on loose sources to prove a cause or support a bias they already consider worthy. This isn’t responsible, and instead its journalists parading around as champions for the truth, as long as it aligns with their truth that their viewers will click. It is important to note this problem is not partisan.
That leads us to point number two. Don’t simply fault the journalists, or media. Viewers are equally to blame. They need to ask for investigative pieces, and long reads. The viewer who doesn’t divert himself from irresponsible click bait cannot complain when the sites he frequents dissolve into junky tabloids.
Three, AOC, like all politicians, has agendas. This agenda is typically rooted in more money, or more power. It’s the chicken and the egg story. Honestly, it doesn’t matter which one they fancy more, because one requires the other. The problem with someone like an AOC, or even a Bernie Sanders, is that you cannot go around crying foul at injustice, when you are on the record for sleazy deals yourself. Best we not forget the ongoing scandal with Senator Sander’s wife. Trump sounds like a buffoon, but he doesn’t gallivant around virtue signaling everyone. He calls it like it is. This is why he still retains a loyal base.
Finally, just follow the money. The way the Parkland students followed right-leaning politicians into the pockets of the NRA, post last year’s shooting. The way conservatives investigated the money in Fast & Furious with the Obama Administration. Just always follow the money. There will be more takedowns of AOC. It will be much more than a gentleman on Medium being picked up by Dave Rubin next time. Eventually, the boogeyman of the right will actually have her takedown moment. Who knows? Maybe the right-wing doesn’t want to actually destroy her yet. After all, they get quite the clicks with her stories. Why would they want it to end?
The sad part about AOC is the money consumed her before she even had the chance to truly be the politician we thought she may be. Ah, the beauty of capitalism and lobbying.
Phil Your Day 