At seemingly the worst possible time, the prolific and increasingly powerful group, known as “The Squad” has started a feud within Congress. This politically, untimely series of attacks has been predictably spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And AOC has spent months of casting accusations against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This gnashing of teeth could be an ugly warning of disaster, chipping away at the ever-fragile relationship between the moderate Democrats, and the new wave of progressive fanatics.

We have heard the timeless, subtle dog-whistle of “you’re not racist, but..” a host of times during the turbulent election season. Incidentally, this language has made a couple of appearances between Democrats. In late June, it came from Kamala Harris against Joe Biden over the issue of busing. Kamala Harris stated “I do not believe you’re racist..” predictably followed with vague notions as to why exactly Biden is a racist.

Finally, this counterproductive rhetoric has fallen on the lips of the young Democratic firebrand AOC and her clique of freshman congresswomen. It is difficult to pinpoint precisely when this chaos developed, but it’s only hitting the climax as of now. In April, Pelosi cheekily jabbed at AOC. Pelosi indicated that while her districts are difficult to secure, AOC’s are extraordinarily easy to win as a Democrat. Now, she may not be wrong, as AOC’s 14th Congressional District has not elected a Republican since the early ’90s. Although this does not seem cynical, Pelosi pointing to a glass of water, said: “This glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name in those districts.”

Insulted, AOC fired back with a sarcastic tweet, specifically targeting her distaste for being a glass of water, and Pelosi mocking the Green New Deal, satirizing it as “The Green Dream.” Further, she declared, “Having respect for ourselves doesn’t mean we lack respect for her.” Pelosi’s harshness on The Squad, and particularly AOC, continued with an especially ugly debacle on the most civil online outlet: Twitter. AOC’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, leveled criticism against moderate House Democrats who accepted the terms of a 4.6 billion dollar emergency border funding in late June.

“A glass of water could’ve [beat a 20-yr incumbt]”

“The Green Dream or whatever”

“Their public whatever”



Those aren’t quotes from me; they‘re from the Speaker. Having respect for ourselves doesn’t mean we lack respect for her.



It means we won’t let everyday people be dismissed. https://t.co/VMRkcd8xlL — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 8, 2019

Simple criticism would not suffice. Chakrabarti then angrily tweeted about the acceptance, likening the Democrat status quo to “New Southern Democrats” who wanted to destroy the lives of black and brown people. When one party in an argument uses race, it is only natural for the other to do the same, and this was done to great effect by the official House Democrats Twitter in response. The official page subsequently accused Chakrabarti of singling out a Native American woman of color, Congresswoman Sharice Davids, in his tweet. As soon as the accusations were made, Chakrabarti backtracked and said the tweets were calling moderate Democrats enablers of a racist system.

Pelosi, seeing an opportunity to dampen the flames of the racially motivated rhetoric, enters the brawl. She tells The Squad and their sympathizers to “meet” with her, and realize that they are junior members. Unsurprisingly, The Squad responded with blistering language, accusing Pelosi of singling out women of color. Representative Tlaib went directly on the offense, saying that Pelosi ought to “acknowledge the fact that we are women of color” and implied that Pelosi’s language has a relation to The Squad receiving death threats, specifically because they are women of color. Not to be outdone, Pelosi’s Black Caucus allies fought back, claiming that AOC was playing the timeless race card. Later, following the same pattern as everyone else in the party that calls someone else racist, said that she was “absolutely not” calling Pelosi a racist. It is a simple but effective formula: imply that someone is racist just enough to hurt them, then quickly run away and make lamentable amends with the initial target.

If all of this sounds like absolute madness, it is because it is truly madness. Representative Jayapal is entirely correct. Pelosi is not used to Congresspeople having a bigger Twitter following than her. Her voice, power, and influence can be easily dismantled by the online hivemind control. As a result, the far left fanatics, in spite of being junior members of Congress, wield more influence than the party leaders due to this incredible online presence. They are like the political Beatles and idolized accordingly by their “fans.”

Though, this may be a sign of something much more profound than a dispute within the party. It is a calculated, cynical attack to dislodge the status quo; out with the old, in with the new. We know this because the far left has members have no reservations whatsoever with not only questioning and challenging their moderate party members, but legitimately implying, or overtly stating that they are racist. Perhaps the greatest testament to this is the fact that the Democrats has propped up their party with candidates trying to outdo each other by pushing as far left as possible. While calling everyone racist in lieu of actually having a compelling argument works to a terrific extent, it’s also totally counterproductive. Not to mention, it’s laughable that weaponized identity politics are being used on their own.

The twilight of the moderate status quo is slowly becoming realized as the progress Olympics continue, but at what cost?

Advertisements

Share this: Facebook

Twitter



Leave this field empty if you're human: