Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has spent the past year excusing and condoning violent protest. But now that she’s experienced a riot for herself, she doesn’t like it very much.
To start things off today, let’s travel back into the deepest mists of time. Long, long ago, in early December 2020.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a counter argument Wednesday to former President Barack Obama’s critique of “defund the police” as a slogan for the progressive left.
Obama expressed his frustrations with the slogan during an interview with Snapchat published Wednesday morning.
“You lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done,” the former president said.
Here was her response, in part:
The whole point of protesting is to make ppl uncomfortable.
Activists take that discomfort w/ the status quo & advocate for concrete policy changes. Popular support often starts small & grows.
To folks who complain protest demands make others uncomfortable… that’s the point.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 2, 2020
“The whole point of protesting is to make ppl uncomfortable.”
She said this after six months of rioting across the country. People weren’t just “uncomfortable.” It wasn’t just “discomfort.” People were violently killed. Small businesses were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods are simply gone now.
She played with fire. And I mean that literally. Just look at this advice she gave all her fans last May, when the nationwide George Floyd riots were just kicking off:
View this post on Instagram
Look at the infographic carefully. Here’s a screenshot.
Why would you need to wear heat-resistant gloves to attend a peaceful protest? Are you planning to make s’mores? And why bring “water for drinking and tear gas” unless you were planning to do something that would get you tear-gassed?
But that was then, and this is now. The Capitol riot seems to have changed AOC’s thinking, if it can be called that:
“This is how democracy can burn. It is fragile. We must cherish it. And they didn’t. And they don’t. So they need to leave. Donald Trump needs to leave. Ted Cruz needs to leave. Josh Hawley needs to get out. They need to get. out.” – @AOC pic.twitter.com/KB6n8V656f
— marisa kabas (@MarisaKabas) January 13, 2021
And now she’s saying she was almost attacked during the riot. Kenneth Garger, NY Post:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night said a “very close encounter” at the Capitol riot left her thinking she would die.
Ocasio-Cortez disclosed the incident in an Instagram live stream, without providing specific details due to security concerns.
“I can tell you that I had a very close encounter, where I thought I was going to die,” the Queens-Bronx Democrat told viewers.
All last summer, I watched journalists and other Democrats scoff at the idea that the rioting was a problem. When William Barr declared New York City, Portland, and Seattle “anarchist zones,” our betters made videos of themselves strolling nonchalantly through their own peaceful, unscarred neighborhoods. “Everything’s fine here,” they sneered. And I said the same thing to them, over and over: “I’m glad the rioting hasn’t hit you yet.”
Well, the rioting just hit AOC. She has now lived through the exact kind of anarchy and chaos she condoned all last year. She’s feeling the same anger and helplessness that people felt in Minneapolis and Kenosha and Rochester and all the other places that were hit by the rioting she celebrated.
She’s outraged. And rightly so. There’s no excuse for that riot and no defense for the people who incited it, and I’m glad she and the rest of Congress weren’t hurt. As terrifying as it was, it could’ve been even worse.
The Capitol rioters thought they were doing something good. They were wrong, and so is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she makes excuses for leftist rioters.
And now, incurable optimist that I am, I hope AOC and everyone else who has condoned rioting stops doing that. I hope that when their rage subsides, they give a thought to all the other riot victims around the country who were abandoned by them.
Nobody cares when the guy whose AutoZone was burned down in a riot goes on Instagram and laments his fate. Once the ashes cool and the news vans go away, he’s on his own.
I don’t know how this woman is doing today, seven months after her whole world was destroyed, and the news obviously doesn’t care:
MUST WATCH TV: If you’re still unclear what impact the rioting and violence is having on the most vulnerable among us, please listen to Stephanie, a disabled Minneapolis woman who offers her heart-wrenching experience after last night’s violence. Great work by @BenryNews pic.twitter.com/k73Q65Psvs
— Tom Hauser (@thauserkstp) May 30, 2020
Doesn’t her life matter?
Will AOC learn from this? Anything’s possible, I suppose. More likely, she’ll fall back on the one and only argument Democrats ever make: “It’s different when we do it.”
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