We deserve it all

March 24, 2025 1:26 AM

Full Remarks: AOC in Tempe, Arizona - "I am here to remind you of a simple fact. In spite of what Trump wants you to believe, we are not powerless in this moment."
posted by kliuless (52 comments total)

The trouble with these leftist scolds is that they're totally out of touch with the mainstream and useless at coalition building.
posted by flabdablet at 1:39 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]

The trouble with these leftist scolds is that they're totally out of touch with the mainstream and useless at coalition building.

Please tell me you are being ironic, it's late here and I am tired.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 3:13 AM on March 24 [51 favorites]

leftist scolds

I prefer leftist scolds over right-wing fascists.... I reckon USians could use some scolding.
posted by Pendragon at 3:41 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]

coughs and slips a “/s” across the table
posted by dr_dank at 3:48 AM on March 24 [12 favorites]

leftist scolds
Are you referring to the verb or the noun?
posted by Thella at 3:50 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]

You know, folks - Fox News would have... and the right wing would have you believe that these American values are something out of the Communist Manifesto. And that we believe these things because we went to some college and read them in a book somewhere. But I can tell you that I don't believe in health care, labor and human dignity because I'm an extremist. I believe these things because I was a waitress.

Because I scrubbed toilets with my Mom to afford school. Because I worked double shifts to keep the lights on. Because I did lose a parent to cancer as a kid. And had to see my Mom open the hospital bills a couple of days later. Because on my worst day, I know what it feels to feel left behind. And I don't want us... I don't want any of us to live like this any more. We deserve better, Arizona. We deserve better than this.

And let me tell you something. This isn't just about Republicans either. We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us too. (crowd goes wild)

But... (crowd still going wild)

But that means... here's what that means. That means our communities, each and every one of us, choosing and voting for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class. And Tempe, I want to give you your flowers for a second. Because you all have been working overtime to make that happen. In fact, one thing I love about Arizonans is that you all have shown that if a US Senator isn't fighting hard enough for you, you're not afraid to replace her with one who will. And win.

Watching this woman connect with her crowd is just electric. Speaking from the heart works.

That the DNC has been doing everything within its power to shut down this faction of the party since before AOC was even elected is just unconscionable. But for the first time since Clinton, I'm starting to see green shoots peeping up in the political earth that the Third Way scorched and salted with the electrolytes plants crave all those years ago. With any luck, a Party leadership that's spent forty years training itself to forget how to fight will lose this one.
posted by flabdablet at 4:24 AM on March 24 [73 favorites]

I'm nowhere nearly as anti-capitalist or left-wing as many of you are, but it's obvious even to me that the dirty secret of the DNC national leadership is that they will forever make lots of loud, worthless social-justice noises to distract from the fact that they will never do anything meaningful to advance economic-justice — it would dilute their own and their family and friends' individual advantage over the rest of us.

For example, I cannot imagine the ACA passing even the D-majority Congress were it not for the sops to the insurance industry. Or meaningful Congressional insider-trading rules or Congressional medical care that wasn't more favorable than what they let us have.

Edit: To clarify, whatever they do for us, they'll add something that keeps them and their friends better off than us.
posted by zaixfeep at 5:02 AM on March 24 [19 favorites]

Yes, the problem for the Bernie/AOC wing of the party has been that they could build their own much more progressive party, but it would be much smaller and couldn't win significant elections, or they could be marginalized voices within a centrist (at best) party that can compete in the rigged game of money-as-speech.

But the way US politics have been completely broken now, anything could happen. If the Democrats can't win elections they could go the way of the Whigs. I don't think there's a way to fight populism except with more populism, whether that means AOC acting like a rock star or literally recruiting Taylor Swift to run (an idea that has always been too dumb to take seriously before, but is a lot less dumb than what we're stuck with now).
posted by rikschell at 5:34 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]

As they say, "She's running."

It's good to see her punching right within the party. Those vampires deserve all the sunlight we can give them.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 5:40 AM on March 24 [16 favorites]

I like the term "scold" used to trivialize and caricature the process of democratic debate and discussion. Scolding is something mothers do so that hits a misogynistic overtone simultaneously.
posted by interglossa at 5:54 AM on March 24 [21 favorites]

Yes, the problem for the Bernie/AOC wing of the party has been that they could build their own much more progressive party, but it would be much smaller and couldn't win significant elections, or they could be marginalized voices within a centrist (at best) party that can compete in the rigged game of money-as-speech.

The problem for the radical right wing of the GOP has been that they could build their own much more conservative party, but it would be much smaller and couldn't win significant elections, or they could be marginalized voices within a centrist (at best) party that can compete in the rigged game of money-as-speech.

(Probably said by someone, December 2008)
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:13 AM on March 24 [25 favorites]

Just wondering, when she goes to rallies with Bernie, do the Bernie people still think the crowds are for him?
posted by Brachinus at 6:14 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]

I will admit I'm not being entirely fair with that comparison. Citizens United didn't happen until 2009.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:16 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]

The Democratic Party has problems, just as does the USA, but I implore anyone unhappy to get involved, inside or outside the party. In many states, party elections are going on this spring. There are also related organizations, such as:
* Democratic Socialists of America
* People for Democratic Party Reform,
* progressive caucuses in many states,
* Progressive Democrats of America, and
* Working Families Party in many states.

And if you don't like the people in office, run for something yourself. (I have done this myself.) Or recruit someone else and help them. Here are some resources.
posted by NotLost at 6:16 AM on March 24 [22 favorites]

Eighteen minutes in and she finally says what I’ve been hoping she’ll say: “This is not just Republicans, we need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us too.”
posted by egypturnash at 6:17 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]

Does it matter whether AOC or Bernie is more of a draw? The point of the crowds is just how disaffected people are with the parties that got them to this point, and how much people are connecting with the ideas.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 6:18 AM on March 24 [14 favorites]

AOC is one of the few elected Dems who acknowledges the juggernaught that is right wing media on every platform. Just recently my Democratic senator, who lost reelection, is still doing the whole “we’ll win if we have better policies.” Obama and Biden were helped in part by the ways the electorate was feeling at the time, they need to tap into that.
posted by girlmightlive at 6:26 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]

Eighteen minutes in and she finally says what I’ve been hoping she’ll say: “This is not just Republicans, we need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us too.”

After we re-elect Schumer, we’ll hold his feet to the fire.
posted by Lemkin at 6:34 AM on March 24 [8 favorites]

She's going to run again Chuck D-WallSt for sure
posted by kokaku at 6:39 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]

Does she actually say the post title? I can't tell from the transcript.
posted by rossmeissl at 6:50 AM on March 24

There’s so much “oh you leftists don’t care about actually improving anything you only care about blaming dems for everything “ on this site and elsewhere, and AOC and Bernie are doing EXACTLY what many of us wanted the dems to do all along.

We don’t want something that’s pie in the sky. We want this. Turns out a lot of people do.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:57 AM on March 24 [24 favorites]

Ironically, AOC appeals to some on the right for the same reason Trump does. She "tells it like it is." The difference being, of course, that AOC actually wants to fix things, where Trump just wants to harness the power of the disaffected for his own ends.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:07 AM on March 24 [8 favorites]

AOC and Bernie are doing EXACTLY what many of us wanted the dems to do all along.

Precisely. Is this really so difficult, other Dems?

Ironically, AOC appeals to some on the right for the same reason Trump does.

Yeah, it was surprising to hear this sentiment echoed in the run-up to the 2016 election, by people I knew and in those "person on the street" interviews on TV. In response to "Besides Trump, who would you vote for?" one Trump voter's comment was revealing: "Trump, then Sanders, then nobody."
posted by Rykey at 7:12 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]

She's going to run again Chuck D-WallSt for sure

And the DNC will do everything possible to defeat her.
posted by Lemkin at 7:14 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]

I work at a public school in the Bronx but don't live there, but I've always had my eye on local politics, and I have been watching AOC from her first ad campaign to get elected before she became AOC, and I can tell you this woman is the real deal. She is dangerous in every way we need Dems to be dangerous right now.
posted by archimago at 7:16 AM on March 24 [32 favorites]

"Scolds" seems to be growing in popularity. Even Jimmy Kimmel and JD Vance are using it.

“I will say in the defense of the American people, Jimmy Kimmel’s show is so unfunny and boring and left-wing that it’s probably not representative,” Vance is heard saying on the podcast as a doctored image of the VP wearing a rainbow hat and holding a lollipop graced the screen. “If you go to a Jimmy Kimmel showing you have to really be a humorless scold.”

Kimmel snapped back: “Did you hear him he called you humorless scolds? What is wrong with you people? Are you trying to make JD’s mascara run? A humorless scold. Who talketh like that? The Archbishop of Cantebury?”
posted by sardonyx at 7:27 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]

AOC is one of the few elected Dems who acknowledges the juggernaught that is right wing media on every platform.

There isn't "left-wing" and "right-wing" media anymore, there is only "money-wing" media and it should surprise no one as to who it backs. Media by the billionaires for the morons to get angry about while we plunder your nation.
posted by Sphinx at 8:03 AM on March 24 [9 favorites]

there is only "money-wing" media

Yes, but... it's important to remember that it comes in "reasonable, polite, this-is-why-better-things-aren't-possible" and "shouting, rabid, murder-everyone-who-has-a-foreign-name-or-eats-weird-smelling-food" forms.

But yes, both of the same wing.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:10 AM on March 24 [8 favorites]

I'm so old that I remember why Clinton's "third way" was necessary at the time. But the Democrats should have moved away from it with Obama, and he/they didn't do it.

However, the rightwing media's treatment of Obama shows us what's in store for a more populist Democratic Party. Not that it should stop anyone, just that everyone should brace for it, and develop strategies to counter it.

On preview, also what Sphinx said.
posted by mumimor at 8:10 AM on March 24

This made me feel better to hear it this morning. I wish she could progress hugely in her career. I doubt it, given the world we live in, but I root for her.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:21 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]

"money wing" IS right wing.

That's the part that a lot of people really hate to talk about.

When given a choice between socialism and Fascism, money will ALWAYS choose Fascism. Everyone identified as just in it for the cash and having no ideological bias other than that is, in fact, strongly biased towards the right.

That's why Democratic policies always tip right even when they have ostensibly left goals, like the ACA. The Democrats can't embrace economic reform becuase, at core, they are right win in the sense that when given a choice between socialism and Fascism they too will choose Fascism.

Just as one cannot oppose racism indirectly by advocating for egalitarianism in a generic way, but instead must directly confront racism with anti-racism, so too one cannot effectively oppose Fascism without directly going against the money that supports Fascism because they fear socialism.

Generic appeals to civility and preserving institutions and so on will fail because Fascism is something that can only be defeated hwen you face it head on with the thng that destroys it: genuine leftist populism.

Not to go "economic anxiety" or anything, the Trumpists know damn well they're racist and they like it. But the thing is, they're not wrong about the economy.

We're getting a terrible deal and everyone knows it. For a long time the Democrats and Republicans both promoted similar do nothing "solutions". The Republicans yammered about regulations and immigrants, the Democrats occasionally tried to raise minimum wage, but both were united in their desire to do nothing at all about the problem and an abhorance of populism.

Then Trump went for populism and the result is what we have today.

Trump is full of shit, his "solutions" to the economic problems faced by Americans are going to make those problems worse. But he's the only politician who was actually talking about how shit the economy is for most Americans and claiming he could fix it. That was a lie, but it was an effective lie precicely because everyone knew you couldn't rely on the Democrats to fix it.

Because fixing it will require upsetting the status quo. Because the system isn't "broken". The purpose of a system is what it does, and ours moves money from poor people to rich people and makes poor people more poor. The system is doing what it was intended to.

You can't "fix" something that's working as intended. You can only toss that approach out and put in a system that has a different intention.

The reason the MAGA crowd is so fired up about Trump despite his actions directly harming them is because on some level they recognize that the system is SUPPOSED to abuse them and they're seeing Trump dismantling it as a messy but necessary step one in getting something better in place.

I don't know if there's any way out of what Trump is doing, but if there is it'll be someone like AOC using leftist populism to counter his rightist populism.
posted by sotonohito at 8:57 AM on March 24 [20 favorites]

AlSweigart:"reasonable, polite, this-is-why-better-things-aren't-possible" and "shouting, rabid, murder-everyone-who-has-a-foreign-name-or-eats-weird-smelling-food" forms.

More colloquially known as 'intprop' and 'agitprop' respectively
posted by Barry Boterman at 9:00 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]

"These are promises we made to each other" is a strong message!
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:35 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]

She's got my vote.
posted by spilon at 9:41 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]

I went to see Bernie and AOC with 34,000 of my closest friends in Denver. It felt like we all simply needed to know that we weren't crazy for wanting a basically decent society. They were both an absolute balm. There was a a profound moment when she asked us to turn to each other and introduce ourselves to someone we didn't know. Wow. That took everybody by surprise, and it was great. We all got to experience the "falling of the wall" that we walk around with every day.
I have a hard time looking at what we heard as "leftist populism". Healthcare for all, free higher education, fair wages, and fair taxes are populism? In fact, there was a strong admonition to not see anyone as an enemy, but to communicate a vision for the future with Trumpers in your life.
And there was a great moment when Bernie responded to chants of his name. He said, "I got a message. It's not me. It's you."
And lastly, various labor leaders in Colorado were there giving speeches as well, and they were uniformly great.
Bottom line: If the Bernie and AOC tour comes to your town? Go.
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 10:04 AM on March 24 [26 favorites]

Healthcare for all, free higher education, fair wages, and fair taxes are populism?

Sure. Anything with visceral appeal to the populace is populism.

The thing about left populism, though, is that because it comes out of the reality-based community it appeals to that minority of the populace that actually understands how shit works as well as the majority that's remained content to spend its life passively marinating in the "fair and balanced" Fox horseshit stew.

And although that well-informed minority definitely is a minority, it's a bigger minority than the "swinging voter" mirage that the DNC has been seeing where in fact there have only been rusted-on Republicans for for the last forty years.

The Democratic Party's progressive wing is the only chance that that party has of remaining viable. The best time for Democratic voters to have started organizing the primary votes needed to make the party over as essentially progressive instead of essentially centrist was twenty years ago, but the second best time is right now, especially since Carville is still advising the current centrist "leadership" that just lurking in the mud with only their nostrils showing until TFG has Surely Thised the country is their best move.
posted by flabdablet at 10:26 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]

> that can compete in the rigged game of money-as-speech.

Right wing only needs billionaires who don't care about xenophobia to fund it.

Left wing needs billionares who don't care about being rich.

Where is AOC, or the left of the democrats, going to get, say, a billion dollars to beat the right in media? This is traditional media, podcasts, astroturfed social media, etc.

Maybe fear of fascism will get some billionaires to pony up dough. But with what strings?
posted by NotAYakk at 10:51 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]

I am an incredibly risk-averse, small-c-conservative person. I believe in institutions, and i believe in careful, iterative change. Revolutions are foolish and dangerous and rarely bring about their utopian visions.

This Democratic party has lost me, entirely. Its institutions have proven so utterly useless, so completely unable to meet the challenge of this moment, that I can't see any value in them. This is painful. I am grieving. But it is clear. The party has failed, utterly, completely. Whatever hope there is for this country may wear the name "Democrats" on its banner because that is a convenient legal and organizational structure to co-opt. But we will have a revolution or we will have a decades-long Republican dictatorship. We will have massive change, led by people previously absent from Democratic leadership, or we will have massive change, led by Project 2025. Every day with Schumer and Carville and their kind in any kind of power is a day we decline further without hope.

Is every Democratic elected official awful? Nah. A few seem ok. But I'd rather throw out every single Democratic incumbent and roll the dice with whatever random new people we nominate in their stead, than keep all of the current ones. And for somebody like me to say, that is *bonkers.* It's unthinkable. It's risky as hell.

But when you have to make $100,000 in ten minutes in a casino to pay the mob off, you don't try to count cards at the blackjack table. You may as well go up to the roulette table and drop it all on 00, because the alternative is death. Today, there is no safe option. There is a risky desperate hope, and there is death.

I choose hope.
posted by Tomorrowful at 10:57 AM on March 24 [10 favorites]

A Populist Influencer Is Running for Congress, and She Actually Understands YouTube [Gizmodo] Kat Abughazaleh launched her campaign online and will challenge an 81 year old incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky.

“I say it’s time to drop the excuses and grow a fucking spine,” Abughazaleh said in her announcement video. “We need a vision that’s bigger than what we’ve been told is possible. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be able to afford housing, groceries, and healthcare with some money leftover. Families should have free childcare. Social security should be expanded, and our inalienable rights shouldn’t be dependent on who’s in power. That means standing up to authoritarians, not shrinking away when the fight gets tough.”

Hell yeah. See how easy it is Democrats?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:11 PM on March 24 [13 favorites]

> That the DNC has been doing everything within its power to shut down this faction of the party since before AOC was even elected born is just unconscionable

FTFY. Hippie-punching has been a favorite passtime of D leadership since... well, since forever, but especially since 1972. Which was when Nixon getting reelected got blamed on hippies.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 12:15 PM on March 24 [11 favorites]

I like the term "scold" used to trivialize and caricature the process of democratic debate and discussion

"Shrill" is on my bingo card as well. Still unsure whether it will be a Republican or Democrat that stamps it for me.
posted by flabdablet at 12:23 PM on March 24 [6 favorites]

At this point in my life I don't want to be given tepid platitudes about incremental progress and pragmatism. I want someone who will be honest about how fucked up everything is and who will validate my concerns instead of dismissing them. I want someone who isn't going to let decorum get in the way of standing up for what's right and who cares more about achieving outcomes than enforcing petty, meaningless rules. Someone who punches nazis their goddamned faces instead of licking their boots.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:40 PM on March 24 [6 favorites]

Does it matter whether AOC or Bernie is more of a draw?

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but I think it does matter that there's more than one headliner. Progressives need leaders and can't have all the eggs in just one basket. I adore AOC and believe in her sincerity, and she was my congress rep until redistricting moved my neighborhood out of the 14th, so I'm truly looking forward to being able to vote for her again in the future for the Senate or any other office she runs for. But the more voices like hers, the better.
posted by Pryde at 2:25 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]

This lady is killin' it here. I'm sure the Democratic Party leadership is spending more time discussing amongst themselves how to marginalize her than they are spending trying to figure out resisting Trump/Musk.
posted by kensington314 at 2:46 PM on March 24 [6 favorites]

I think it's extremely worth noting that Bernie is 1000 years old, tired as fuck, not running again, and absolutely does not need to be doing this. The guy is a fucking mensch and one in a million in US politics.
posted by windbox at 3:12 PM on March 24 [13 favorites]

I love everything about this. Its one of the very few things going on with the national dems that gives me hope (also giving me hope, Jasmine Crocket, Frost, Al Greene, Raskin a bit and a few of the other progressives) but mostly AOC.

And I hate to be petty but: an 81 year old incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky. WTF!!! At this point this is all just a joke, when Schumer is forced to step down, will Dick Durbin become minority leader with Carville as his Chief of Staff. JFC elderly dems, Feinstein's end wasnt something to emulate!
posted by WatTylerJr at 4:46 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]

Right? What's the point of politically tipping the scales and getting rich off that if you have to keep working?
posted by kokaku at 5:46 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]

"Scolds" seems to be growing in popularity. Even Jimmy Kimmel and JD Vance are using it.

I used it to refer the BlueSky commentariat* when talking to some friends on NYE 2023, and... they didn't know the word? I was surprised.

*not much has changed tbh
posted by oneirodynia at 9:27 PM on March 24

We need a left-leaning version of Joe Rogan, and there are some that come close, and it doesn't require Spotify pay them millions of dollars a year to get started.
posted by fragmede at 1:46 AM on March 25

We need a left-leaning version of Joe Rogan

I've thought about this a lot, and while it seems intuitive... I'm not sure it's the answer. Though I wish it were, because I love podcasts and radio shows.

Attempts over the years (Air America, etc.) have ultimately fallen flat. Maybe left-leaning people don't respond as readily to the podcast format, or a movement doesn't coalesce around lefty takes the way it does for right-wingers around bro influencers. Or maybe left-leaning audiences just don't buy enough of the stuff advertised (the products the show sponsors sell) on left-leaning shows.

Maybe right-wing ideas are just better delivered in a populist white-guy tone that works especially well over audio. I don't know. I just feel like it's a hurdle lefties haven't been able to jump for whatever reason, and I don't think it has to do with the quality of the message or the talent of the hosts or whatever.
posted by Rykey at 8:08 AM on March 25

Speaking only for myself, while I like to stay informed, I do not and would not choose a political podcast with the very limited time and emotional capacity I have right now, no matter how progressive it's message. I don't need the message, I live the message. I don't want to live inside a rage bubble like the Rogan listeners do. I don't need someone reminding me of what opinion I should have every day.
posted by archimago at 9:56 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]

We need a left-leaning version of Joe Rogan

Speaking only for myself, while I like to stay informed, I do not and would not choose a political podcast with the very limited time and emotional capacity I have right now

While I don't think we need a left-leaning Joe Rogan--and it hurts to recall that this signifier once belonged to Joe Rogan, actually--I do think there's wisdom about the information environment in fragmede's comment. I might have no time for a sprawling three hour puff-puff-pass blunt session recorded for YouTube, but if I were born in 1920 I might have had no time for Walter Kronkite on TV in 1960 either. But it was still important for people to master that emerging--and eventually dominant--technology.

I think the long dorm room discussion that ranges from Richard Pryor movies to trans issues to weed strains to martial arts is just really, really well-suited to people in a certain part of the workforce, who are doing long drives, manual labor, routinized work, etc and need hours worth of content to make their day go by. It's a problem that people on the right side of history haven't figured out this platform.

I have told this story here before probably, but last fall I spent a lot of time working on a local council campaign here in LA. Was working turf on the Eastside and walked up to a house with an RKF Jr sign on his lawn. The guy who opened the door was a thirty-something Chicano dude, father of two, tatted up to the throat, sweet as could be in our interaction. I gave him my spiel for the candidate, who was running on a platform to the left of all but three or four of our local councilmembers. He said it sounded good, thought he'd vote for her. I handed him the campaign lit after my spiel and he scanned it, looked up, and said, "Does she have a YouTube?"

He wanted to hear her do the unfocused and unfiltered discussion that lasts three hours on the same platform where he learned about vaccine conspiracy theories and the broken US food system from RFK, Jr. It has emerged as a political communication tool that is as important as the others. We do need to get a handle on it.
posted by kensington314 at 10:24 AM on March 25 [2 favorites]