The tension between the freshman congresswoman from New York and the speaker of the House continues to build. Late Wednesday evening, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ratcheted up the Democrats’ in-house fighting by complaining to The Washington Post about Nancy Pelosi’s “Singling out of newly elected women of color.”
The intramural squabble is likely building to an irreparable rift between the established Dems and the new crop of idealistic socialists who refuse to allow for any compromise. As a conservative, I must confess that I find myself sitting gleefully on the sidelines, unsure of which side to root for. With AOC’s latest salvo, I find myself reflecting on and appreciating the old saying: what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. It’s nice that the Democrats, at least some of them — namely Nancy Pelosi — are suffering jabs from the indiscriminate sword of identity politics.
AOC admitted to the Post that “When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood.”
A posture of long-suffering before delivering the blow. Well played, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. Paint yourself as someone who longs to be a team player — who wants to get along, if you weren’t being thwarted by the system. Well played, indeed, Ma’am.
And, oh, by the way, when she transitioned to connecting Pelosi to that system keeping her down, the system is revealed by AOC to be systemic racism. AOC added, “But the persistent singling out … it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful … the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”
For those of you who don’t have your intersectionality bingo card handy, AOC checked off four identity politics boxes, but I may have missed some: 1. woman. 2. woman of color. 3. woman of color who has obtained power. 4. woman of color who has obtained power but is being kept down by the establishment. In a nutshell, Pelosi is the racist arm of the system keeping women of color down.
AOC was responding to comments Pelosi made about divisive Democrats who refused to back her spending package. Holding a closed-door meeting with members of her caucus on July 10, Pelosi lectured Democrats for not only refusing to support each other with their votes but for also lambasting fellow Dems on social media. Everyone in the room and everyone not in the room knew exactly whom she was talking about. As The Hill reports, Pelosi’s lecture comes on the heels of a New York Times interview in which the House Speaker said, “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
The squad of four Pelosi was pointing towards, of course, includes AOC and fellow Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). Pelosi is well aware that those four are not afraid to vocally stand up to the Democrat political machine and to act on any rebellious impulses they feel. As has already been attested by AOC’s response, the House Speaker’s current words only serve to deepen the divide. It will be interesting to see how the Dems’ brewing civil war affects the 2020 presidential election.
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