Too nice for a girl who struggles
Yesterday some spiteful anonymous fool on Twitter tried to discredit Ocasio-Cortez. The Times reports:
“Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is,” read the tweet from AnonymousQ1776, which incorrectly described it as a video from her high school days. The account has since been deleted.
Only, nobody saw the clueless nitwit part, probably because it’s not there.
If the video showing her dancing and twirling barefoot on a rooftop was meant to be an embarrassing leak, it backfired badly.
The dance video — a mash-up of 1980s dance moves from the movie “The Breakfast Club” and the music of “Lisztomania,” by the French band Phoenix — proved to be too endearing to many social media users. Some also saw a right-wing effort to undermine Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a liberal Democrat known as “AOC” among her fans.
There’s nothing embarrassing about it.
Since Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described Puerto Rican “girl from the Bronx,” was elected in New York in November, she has been a target of conservatives and far-right groups. She won political notice after jolting the Democratic establishment by defeating an incumbent congressman to win the primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District in a virtual landslide in June.
But her origin story, which saw her go from being a bartender to a lawmaker, has been dismissed by some on the right. Her clothes have come in for particular scrutiny, with a conservative journalist criticizing a fitted coat and jacket she wore as “too nice for a girl who struggles.”
Has it all, doesn’t it – the focus on clothes, the dismissal as “a girl,” the expectation that people who struggle should be in rags or go home, the pointless mean aggression.
When Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, dressed in white in homage to suffragists and pioneering women in politics, was sworn in on Thursday, Republicans booed her.
For what? Is that normal behavior – booing a colleague when she’s sworn in?
We’re all wallowing in the mud that flows from Trump’s pigsty.
That's it, Alexandria you're in the club! ❤️❤️ @allysheedy1 #AlexandriaOcasioCortez #DemsTakeTheHouse
— Molly Ringwald (@MollyRingwald) January 4, 2019
Surely AOC has more in common with the suffragettes than the suffragists…or that’s what Republicans seem to be afraid of, anyhow.
Hopefully, though not likely, the media and pundits will realise these vile tactics for what they are. It’s been Republicans’ go-to for decades, especially with women, and most especially with HRC. It was enough to make the difference after three decades of solid smears. Maybe AOC will break that model, and won’t suffer the same fate.
If that’s being a clueless nitwit, then maybe we need more clueless nitwits! It looks to me like joy of living, talent, and an easiness in her own skin that allows her to just dance.
I danced a lot in high school, too (and still do – anyone walking into my house when I’m there might find me dancing in the kitchen, in the living room, in the hallway, and often with the dog, who loves to hear me sing though no one else does).
Republicans are apparently against women having fun in life.
That’s charming. In my day we’d have called it ‘school spirit’. In George W. Bush’s day, ‘cheerleading’.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3140/2934/1600/bush%20cheerleader.jpg