[Peace-discuss] NYT: AOC Has Never Spoken to Joe Biden. Here’s What She Would Say.

[J.B. Nicholson]

Robert Naiman quoted the New York Times recent interview with Alexandria 
Ocasio-Cortez (AOC):
> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/us/politics/aoc-progressives-joe-biden.html
> 
> Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Has Never Spoken to Joe Biden. Here’s What She
> Would Say.
> In an interview, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she intended to support the
> presumptive Democratic nominee, but the “process of coming together should
> be uncomfortable for everyone involved.”

Jimmy Dore had a show that responds to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM_AxFH7bQ -- footage of AOC talking about sexual 
assault at a rally which (I understand from the description Dore provided) featured 
Anita Hill. Presumably this video was made well prior to AOC's statement of support 
for Biden.




Here's the transcript of what AOC said from a clip played on the video above:

> Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Sexual assault is not a crime of passion. It is about
> the abuse of power. And that is precisely why it is one of the most serious,
> serious allegations anyone who cares to be a public servant can be accused of.
> Sexual assault is about the abuse of power. It is always women who are
> marginalized, it is the young, it is the interns, it is the immigrant, it is the
> trans. They are always most at risk, because society listens to them the least.
> And that is why a man believes that an elite education, a high income and his rich
> friends can get away with sexual assaults. That is why I want to thank every
> survivor that is here today that is allowing themselves and everyone in this
> country to be re-traumatized over and over, because people and people like Dr.
> Anita Hill, I mean people like Anita Hill and Dr. Ford have to sit there in front
> of panels of eleven men. Could you imagine if Brett Kavanaugh had to sit in front
> of a panel of eleven women of color, deciding his fate? Could you imagine? Could
> you imagine?
Jimmy Dore was interviewing Aaron Maté when he played the video containing the above 
speech. Dore and Maté chatted about this video afterwards.

> Jimmy Dore: So I don't know if you saw the pickle she just got herself into,
> Aaron, and I'll just recap -- she's sitting there screaming about sexual assault
> and she's thanking survivors for allowing themselves to be retraumatized to come
> out and tell their story and then she points to Anita Hill who was obviously
> traumatized by Joe Biden and now she's supporting Joe Biden now. Aren't you
> retraumatizing women, AOC, by supporting a guy who did that to Anita Hill and now
> has a credible allegation against him? Who are you supporting? You're not
> supporting the victims! You're not supporting the wom-- you see the pickle she's
> in, right Aaron?
> 
> Aaron Maté: She is in a pickle. Has she endorsed Biden yet? I thought she gave
> this interview to the New York Times saying that Biden needs to appeal to the
> progressive movement but I could be wrong.
> 
> Jimmy Dore: Here's what I tweeted, I tweeted out here: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
> said she intended to support the presumptive Democratic nominee, but the “process
> of coming together should be uncomfortable for everyone involved. That's how you
> know that it's working.” [Maté responds affirmatively] What I tweeted out was
> "According to @AOC: Having to support & vote for a war-mongering, WallSt puppet
> who's also a pathological liar & obviously demented, is how you know the "process
> is working"! #CantMakeThisUp #PartyHacks".[1] [Dore and Maté laugh] So she's in a
> pickle: she has to know she's supporting-- she said she's gonna support him and
> but she might not do a rally for him. That's what she said.
[1] https://twitter.com/jimmy_dore/status/1249719461487079424



There's more to this discussion:

- how Maté was initially "excited" about AOC's candidacy but:

> Aaron Maté: [O]n all the issues I personally care about [Maté found her]
> disappointing on some of them. For example, when she praised John McCain for his
> "unparalleled example of human decency" when he died and when the Trump
> administration launched a coup in Venezuela and she said 'I'm gonna defer to the
> Democratic Party leadership on this' the same leadership that is headed by Nancy
> Pelosi who was getting up at Trump's State of the Union and giving a standing
> ovation to the puppet whom Trump is trying to install in Venezuela. So that's been
> disappointing. But on other things I think AOC deserves a lot of credit and on
> this one, yes, she's in a pickle and I'm just happy I'm not a member of Congress
> and a member of the Democratic Party who has to rally behind Joe Biden with his
> horrible record and his allegations of sexual assault. [...]
- Dore & Maté don't point out what a reputation-ruining hypocrisy this is for AOC 
(particularly because she built a name for herself on stances like this around issues 
like this). Instead they talk about AOC in euphemisms like saying she's "in quite a 
pickle" or that "AOC [is] twisting herself in a political pretzel". Maté concludes 
that this "is a pickle for all of us" but that's just plain wrong. It's not a pickle 
for those of us who remain consistently and firmly against the behavior (ranging from 
ill-advised and inappropriate to allegations of rape) Biden has carried out against 
some girls & women (some of which we have on video). It's not difficult or wrong to 
point out that this is one of many reasons why Biden does not deserve our "support" 
or our vote.

- Dore points out some followup posts on Twitter that are quite apropos and keep the 
discussion focused on issues that matter including war, sexual abuse, the narrow 
scope of allowable debate for the Democrats, and that AOC is (quoting Dore) "just 
another politician". Indeed, she's shown that she's nothing special and no more 
worthy of her constituents vote than someone else who might vote properly when big 
bills come along (Massey, for example, was one of the 'no' votes against the CARES 
bill and he rejected a consent vote thus moving that vote to a voice vote). After 
all, her constituents might reason, what is the point of AOC if she can't be counted 
on to vote the way her district's residents need her to, particularly in their time 
of need as so many presumably lose their jobs during the stay-at-home order.

- Dore insists (and I think rightly) that AOC voted for CARES and has been waging a 
PR effort to try to convince people otherwise (like Krystal Ball who I believe is 
probably in-the-tank for AOC -- see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjXMdFCMDuk for 
its title on YouTube which insists on an entertainingly self-contradictory stance of 
"AOC DID vote no on the bailout bill" while Ball simultaneously maintains there is no 
proof of how AOC voted). Jimmy Dore, by contrast, made an offer to AOC to come on his 
show and correct the record. But she has yet to show up. We know from Dore's other 
guests that he accepts guests via VOIP & traditional phone, so there's no technical 
reason why she can't contact Jimmy Dore's show and get a short segment wherein she 
declares that she did not vote for the CARES bill. I'd be willing to bet he'd 
interrupt whatever he was doing and ask her for her vote on this bill and not accept 
an unclear PR-driven response. That's just how important and career and 
economy-defining this bill is.



Relatedly: We recently learned that the Biden campaign has rejected putting Nina 
Turner (from the Bernie Sanders campaign) on a "task force" to ostensibly identify 
what Americans need now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C49HL0K2qIY). Not only is 
that task force a complete waste of time (we already know what we need), this also 
shows how important political leverage is -- it stands out that Sanders as so little 
leverage right now he can't put Turner on such a time-wasting task force even for PR 
purposes (and for all we know, Sanders might be just enough of a sheepdog to not even 
care to try). Therefore Biden can afford to stand by his already-stated promise to 
veto Medicare for All bills that reach his desk as President, support anti-Iranian 
sanctions, and stand behind other horrible neolib/neocon policy (continuing the Iraq 
occupation, backing more Venezuelan coup attempts & sanctions, etc.). Sanctions are 
war as https://sanctionskill.org/ points out. So war with Iran & war with Venezuela 
have been underway for some time now.

The New York Times wrote:
> [AOC said] I just want to tell the truth and I want to feel good about the truth.

Note the difference between AOC's claim there and Jimmy Dore in 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM_AxFH7bQ
> Fuck all them. Fuck all them and their career climbing. Go fucking do something
> worth living for. Go fucking tell the truth about something without fucking your
> paycheck hinging on it. Just go fuckin' do it. I had to do it my entire goddamn
> life and I'm still fucking doing it and I do it better than you guys do. And
> that's a fact.
I quote this including the strong language precisely because we're talking about such 
an important matter here -- life & death, people losing their jobs and their health 
care at the time they need health care. And all while trillions of dollars are added 
to the economy with virtually nothing going to most ordinary taxpayers ($1200 ± 
$500/child won't go far to pay for healthcare bills, rent, food, electricity, etc.). 
The Democrats spent their leverage supporting the big businesses not the people. 
AOC's rhetoric on CARES might be entirely right-headed but that rhetoric is not 
policy. Her vote helps make policy. And what we heard in that voice vote, and what we 
hear from her tells us that she's not telling the unvarnished truth about how she 
voted on that bill.

The truth will encourage AOC's constituents to vote her out but the establishment 
media won't have any of that. Instead of asking tough questions, demanding clear 
unmistakable answers, and judging elected officials by votes on bills, the 
establishment media wants us to judge AOC's choices by her pre/post-vote rhetoric 
which is not policy.