Democratic New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bashed former President Donald Trump throughout her speech at the opening night of the Democratic National Convention Monday, while highlighting Vice President Kamala Harris’ promises to working class Americans.
Ugh, I hope not. The whole reason Joe Crowley got run out of his seat was due to his fixation on national issues above and beyond the local concerns. Some of the biggest criticisms I’ve seen leveled at AOC amount to her national ambition running contrary to the demands of her local constituents. Some of her biggest defeats involved backing down and submitting to the demands of Dem leadership.
Christ, Schumer’s old af, but its Gillibrand who really needs to GTFO. After getting caught with her hand in the FTX cookie jar, she should have been tossed out with the rest of the congressional trash. Its so gross to see Senators from an ostensibly blue state like New York practically living in the pocket of the worst finance-bros you can think of.
Would love to see an AOC-style candidate replace her. But there’s no chance Wall Street lets anyone like that near the position.
i mean being a congressional representative in washington has always been about representing your district on national issues.
being a state representative is about representing your district on local issues.
The conflict is between climbing the leadership ladder within the institution (which periodically means compromising your constituents to ingratiate yourself with leadership) and serving your constituents with relatively little influence in party leadership (which means being strident but ineffectual, because you’re not in a powerful committee).
In order to climb, AOC has repeatedly been forced to downplay issues and vote in ways that alienate her from her constituency. And that’s what lead to her predecessor’s downfall.
Not what I intended. Congressmen must first learn to the internal politics of the House, who to see to get things done, which committee is important, etc. AOC has already been assigned to some important committees and as she goes on will gain more power if Democrats get a majority.