U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez castigated House Republicans for pursuing massive cuts to Medicaid "in the dead of night" as a committee markup hearing on the GOP's legislation dragged on into the early hours of the morning.
Yeah, there have been a lot of attacks targeting AOC by faux-leftists accounts trying to sew discord. I’m not saying that’s you, but the discourse around H.R. 1449 was definitely part of that, so I definitely think you were exposed to some asroturfing on that, even if it was indirectly. In most ways, she has a stronger record on Palestinian rights than Bernie, who was slower to condemn Israel than many other progressives, and (to my knowledge) still hasn’t used the word, “genocide,” to describe what’s happening in Gaza. He’s still better than the vast majority of Democrats, but AOC has been an even stronger voice, and the attempt to smear her over one symbolic vote definitely seems like it was started by bad actors.
The problem with AIPAC isn’t just that it’s a powerful lobby, but that it’s one of several anti-progressive groups that the left has to contend with in Democratic primaries. Big tech companies (especially Alphabet) are huge spenders, as well as health insurance and big pharma, just to name a few. Fighting all the 150+ AIPAC- funded Democrats s would take a lot of time and energy, and probably won’t resonate as much with the average voter as something like health care would. I think the best strategy is to find the most vulnerable centrists and hammer them on all fronts. You’d probably have a better chance ousting someone like John Fetterman by pointing out that he’s taken money from the Pro-Israel lobby, Wall Street, the health care industry, and Google rather than fighting 17 Senate Democrats at once over AIPAC money.
The most important thing, though, is to defend progressives who are under attack from AIPAC. The next time someone like Cori Bush is targeted by AIPAC, people need to fund her, volunteer for her, and most importantly, refuse to allow the Israel lobby to equate condemning a genocide with antisemitism.
Yeah, there have been a lot of attacks targeting AOC by faux-leftists accounts trying to sew discord. I’m not saying that’s you, but the discourse around H.R. 1449 was definitely part of that, so I definitely think you were exposed to some asroturfing on that, even if it was indirectly. In most ways, she has a stronger record on Palestinian rights than Bernie, who was slower to condemn Israel than many other progressives, and (to my knowledge) still hasn’t used the word, “genocide,” to describe what’s happening in Gaza. He’s still better than the vast majority of Democrats, but AOC has been an even stronger voice, and the attempt to smear her over one symbolic vote definitely seems like it was started by bad actors.
The problem with AIPAC isn’t just that it’s a powerful lobby, but that it’s one of several anti-progressive groups that the left has to contend with in Democratic primaries. Big tech companies (especially Alphabet) are huge spenders, as well as health insurance and big pharma, just to name a few. Fighting all the 150+ AIPAC- funded Democrats s would take a lot of time and energy, and probably won’t resonate as much with the average voter as something like health care would. I think the best strategy is to find the most vulnerable centrists and hammer them on all fronts. You’d probably have a better chance ousting someone like John Fetterman by pointing out that he’s taken money from the Pro-Israel lobby, Wall Street, the health care industry, and Google rather than fighting 17 Senate Democrats at once over AIPAC money.
The most important thing, though, is to defend progressives who are under attack from AIPAC. The next time someone like Cori Bush is targeted by AIPAC, people need to fund her, volunteer for her, and most importantly, refuse to allow the Israel lobby to equate condemning a genocide with antisemitism.