Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is preparing for New York's establishment Dems to eliminate her district

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/09/primary-chuck-schumer.html

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All set to waste a valuable asset. I guess the perks of power are worth a lot more.

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If it was that easy, they would have eliminated the very red 27th district (which is mine) a while ago because of congressman Chris ‘get literally caught on camera insider trading on the White House lawn’ Collins.

Plus back in 2016 New York passed a law which was put to a public vote that gave communities more say on how districts are carved up… I mean shaped. If anything, it would make her district along with the other districts around that one rally behind AOC and I don’t think the established dems want to risk losing another moderate due to her popularity. That sort of thinking is one of the reasons why NY added the 27th district. It’s all about risk management from the dems in NY. Instead of possibly losing 2 liberal congressmen to conservatives, they gave the most conservative part of NY their own congressman so they can hold onto those two liberal congressmen.

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Almost all good points, save the last. Attempting to primary Chuck Schumer at this stage of her career would result in AOC looking for a new line of work. She simply has no shot outside the five boroughs, where half the registered Dems reside (especially the older ones who actually vote).

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I hope calmer heads realize in time that it would be a big mistake to try and oust AOC this way. She’s be in Congress less than 2 months and look at the amount of coverage she’s getting. I don’t agree with everything she says, but she’s bringing a powerful energy to the discussion and single handedly exposing a lot of the nasty underbelly of politics to the light. If her district is eliminated to silence someone the Democratic machine doesn’t like, then we lose all standing in complaining about the huge number of Republican gerrymandered districts all over the Country.

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Hooray for AOC!

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For goodness’ sake: “whomever holds the Democratic nomination…” should be “whoever…”. Who is the subject - “Who does a thing.” Whom is the object - “To whom is it done.”
Also, “been helping to ouster through primary challenges” - Ouster is a noun. To oust is the verb. “…been helping to oust…”
Hire a proofreader.

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Can you run in any district you want? Aren’t there residence requirements of some kind?

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To the Googles!

Yep!

Nope!

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the only reason why I really like AOC is because for some weird reason she drives conservatives INSANE

I mean I barely paid attention to her despite the media trying to sensationalize the hell out of her, until I saw idiots losing their minds over her

but she doesn’t have an ounce of power and now the left is going to attack her?

that is idiotic but exactly predictable as the left stabs itself to death, EVERY SINGLE TIME

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I don’t actually know a single Democrat, liberal, or leftist who dislikes AOC.

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Cory don’t need no proofreader. He is an author for goodness sake.

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“establishment democrats” does not equal “the left”

to make a comparison of the one to the other is on the order of comparing a hay fork to a salad fork.

get a grip.

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if the Dem’s pull more shit like this, Trump some other Repub is going to win again in 2020.

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Yeah, it’s good to be wary when reading about people hating AOC. I think about half of the stories of Democrats hating her were from Republicans pretending to be Democrats. False flag stuff. A quarter are breathless stories from conservative publications, leaving a quarter that probably come from old friends of Joe Crowley, who surprisingly fast was thrown to the scrap heap, and could nurse a grudge for being forgotten so quickly.

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TBH the part of me that believes the dem party is an obstructionist institution hopes they try- this kinda thing could push the grudge many on the left of the party still hold over 2016 into a full on insurrection.

Given that the national party is still grappling with only marginally higher approval ratings than turnip himself, the smart play would be to hitch their wagon to AOC’s star and try to absorb some of the excitement she generates. Early indicators say no, and from where I sit it seems like the establishment Dems are looking at Carter’s playbook from the 70’s as a roadmap for regaining the power the Sanders campaign siphoned away from them. If that winds up being the case, and comments like Pelosi’s paternalistic sneer “green dream” sure give me that impression, I would not be shocked to find them getting trounced running a neo-liberal in 2020. And if that is what comes to pass, the party would owe it to the people to give up the ghost- no political organization that lost to that soft lump human play doh twice deserves anyone’s respect, time, or effort.

And then y’all can join us on the dark side :heart_eyes::hugs::kissing_closed_eyes: (yes, we have cookies, to go along with serious plans for combating climate change and inequality)

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This is some pretty hardcore conspiratorial nonsense, it would be nearly impossible to redraw the map to eliminate of of the most recognizable names in the Democratic Party in just a couple years to replace it with a nobody. She literally just ran against a nobody with money, and they know how much money she has for her next campaign too.

Flatly, it would be much much cheaper and as effective to aim for character assasination and to dig for dirt in old yearbooks and stuff even if they have to push a molehill into being a mountain.

EDIT

Ok, so not only is the article based on the actions of North Carolina Republicans and the one anonymous dissenter to AOC in the House, the Daily Caller’s follow up to who would primary AOC was also mentioned in the Intercwpt article - the one where all the “primary challengers” went public to say the Daily Caller article not only didn’t talk to them but whoever they did talk to referred to one of the challengers by their proper name and not what they go by.

I don’t really understand the message I guess.

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I like Ocasio-Cortez, and I don’t need to be reminded that the Democratic Party will engage in self-destructive or weirdly craven behavior at the drop of a hat. So could this all happen? Sure. Nothing in the political equivalent of the laws of physics forbids it.

But that being said, this is the kind of 100% bona fide guaranteed pure speculation piece that bored political writers gin up to kill time until the next horse race gets interesting. I’m not saying it’s necessarily wrong, or that it’s not entertaining, or that there’s anything wrong with a little prognosticating. But that’s all it is.

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The NY political machine doesn’t neccisarily cross over with the “Establishment” in the Democratic party. Even to the extent that it controls the state party, which it doesn’t entirely. NY politics is hugely, hugely corrupt. And that corruption runs through both parties, such that the machine itself isn’t easily equatable to the apparatus of a single party. You’ll see a DNC elected official, tied to and controlling GOP politicians further down the ladder. All sitting nicely in some sort of “moderate” or supposedly bipartisan wing of their parties. And the fundamental infighting in NY politics is less between parties. Than between this big, massive, cross over political machines and any also corrupt purely partisan cliques. You see this in the infighting between our governor Andrew Cuomo, who sits at the top of the old cross party machine. And Bill DiBlasio who’s got his own little corrupt coffee clatch going on the left. The fight there might look like progressives vs the establishment. But its really about who’s cronies are gonna get the good shit.

So it would not surprise me if Cuomo’s machine was gonna try to screw with AOC, cause perhaps the most encouraging thing about her to a NY resident is that she doesn’t seem to belong to any machine. But from what I know about NY politics, they’d almost certainly be doing so against the wishes, and to the detriment, of the national party. Or even potentially the state level DNC. You’re talking about a state that’s controlled by a smoke filled room, made up of people who will openly fuck their own for the sake of the “opposition” making a buck. And often enough those who are supposed to be standing against that system. Are merely attempting to carve out a pay day for their smaller corrupt machine. Less about which party or view point controls things, or the disposition and well being of the state. Than an in fight about who’s cousin gets a contract to tow cars on the Belt Parkway.

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