2d ago

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lays out battle plan against 'shockingly dim' Trump White House

www.rawstory.com Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lays out battle plan against 'shockingly dim' Trump White House

The Trump White House this week sparked chaos across the nation when it issued an executive order that resulted in Medicaid portals getting shut down in all 50 states.Although the administration rescinded the order after mass outcry, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt afterward issued a confus...

Summary

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged countering the Trump administration’s policies by resisting at every turn, arguing that its incompetence makes it vulnerable.

Her remarks followed chaos caused by a rescinded executive order that temporarily shut down Medicaid portals nationwide.

She encouraged activists to take offline action, citing ongoing mobilization efforts.

Her strategy focuses on making governance difficult for Trump, calling his administration “dangerous and cruel” but also “shockingly dim.”

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246 comments

"Tyranny is eroded by a sea of small acts. Everything matters."
A lot of Lemmy users really need to understand this. Far too often I see people deride any action that doesn't immediately fix all problems in the world as worthless or meaningless, simply because they lack the imagination needed to see how small actions can add up to big changes.
- Republican strategists are masters of the long con. Trump has been coming since Nixon.
  
  Trump has been coming since Nixon.
  I understand what you're saying, i really do, but i did NOT need the mental image you just gave me...
  
  I’ll just apologize ahead of time, but you made me think of this.
  https://youtu.be/0TdJSRg2S9E
  
  🤣
- It's letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
- Even if the actions really do nothing, they get people active and organized, so that they can take more effective actions later on.
  I honestly think a lot of this criticism is people's internalized rationalization for why they themselves don't take action.
- That's true, but it can also be used in reverse as a pacifying mechanism. For example, contributing to making the US the most incarcerated population in the world with ridiculously strict "tough on crime" legislation and then pardoning a small fraction of prisoners. Another example is forcing student loan debt to stick around through bankruptcy, but then forgiving a tiny fraction of loans. It's a move to pretend change is in motion, but it's so small and so slow that it's never going to actually solve the problem. This is especially bad when the other party makes such huge moves in the negative direction while we're supposed to be content with tiny steps toward "progress".
  
  Neighbor, you're who they're speaking to...
  
  What is this pacifying people from, do you imagine?
  Like, let's say Trump gives the order to disband all DEI committees everywhere, and a lot of people who like theirs resist the order to do so at every turn. Malicious compliance, straight-up refusal, sleight of hand. This pacifying resistance means they won't...?
- Well, they focused on one issue and ignored the convicted rapist insurrectionist in the room.
- This Lemmy user has the right idea.
- I strongly disagree. As in all things, you need to pick your battles.
  It's absolutely possible to take a counter productive action with the best of intentions.
- Incrementalism got us here. At some point, you have to realize that you can't stop a flash flood by bailing with a solo cup and shouting "I'm helping!"
  It's a stalling tactic to placate chumps while they sell us all out.
  
  So it's better to do nothing while they sell you all out?
  
  Note how they bitch without bringing any actionable suggestions, but instead try to denigrate those that are taking action, all done with a sense of superiority.
  
  That's not what I said.
  Don't be so easily placated. They're selling you out.
  
  Who? Who is selling you out? Ocasio Cortez? Really?
  
  Incrementalist democrats. Pay a tiny bit of attention.
  
  The difference being that the incrementalism was outsourced to elected officials. What I understand that sentence to mean to say is that it needs every one of you who is able to do anything of any magnitude. It adds up. And like kattfisk says, you get active and organized. You have more power than you think and democracy is more than just drawing a few crosses in a box every few years.
  I mean, who is going to do it if not you? What have the heroes from the Democratic party been up to since the peaceful transition of power? Some of the Dem senators voted for many of Trumps catastrophic picks. In a time where the White House is flooding the zone (as Steve Bannon put it some time ago), Shumer is giving speeches on the senate floor, that no one is listening to and Dem leadership is scheduling emergency meetings for after the reason for the meeting goes into effect. Finally AOC shows some kind of leadership and calls upon all of you to mobilize and resist fascism and you react with "it's a stalling tactic"? Please realize that you want the same thing. But if you want a mass movement, you will need to be organized on a smaller scale first or else it will fizzle out quickly.
  
  Finally AOC shows some kind of leadership and calls upon all of you to mobilize and resist fascism and you react with “it’s a stalling tactic”?
  AOC is not calling for incrementalism.
  
  AOC is not calling for incrementalism.
  That's what I'm saying. Because neither did the user you replied to. They didn't call for politicians to take small steps over time, but for everyone to take action so it adds up. Big difference.
  
  Because neither did the user you replied to. They didn’t call for politicians to take small steps over time, but for everyone to take action so it adds up.
  No, they just misrepresented the position of people who are sick if incrementalism for the sake of sliding right:
  Far too often I see people deride any action that doesn’t immediately fix all problems in the world as worthless or meaningless
  
  This is like not believing in macro evolution.
  Actually, I think a lack of incrementalism got us here. We incremented in the wrong direction.
  
  This is like not believing in macro evolution.
  Ever hear of punctuated equilibrium?
  Actually, I think a lack of incrementalism got us here. We incremented in the wrong direction.
  Sure is neat how Republicans get to do what they want all at once but we need decades of baby steps and half measures.
  
  The Republicans only get to push things this far after decades of baby steps and half measures to get there. Things like getting fox news going, getting to draw congressional districts, slowly getting courts set up to let their movements work, working smaller representative races to get a foothold, facing a rejection as they tried to go all out with the tea party. Finally their preparation has a house, Senate, supreme Court, that was ready and willing to enable this effort.
  
  So, what were Democrats doing while all this was going on? What was their celebrated incrementalism setting up?
  Because it looks to me like they spent all this time moving to the right, incrementally of course.
  
  The whole "If the Democrats don't immediately and completely do everything I want I'm not going to participate at all" is a self-fulfilling philosophy.
  On the republican side, when the larger party was "too far to the left", they didn't just throw up their hands, they worked at it, slogging away at the relatively less glamorous task of mucking about within the framework of their party, getting small victories and parlaying them to broader victories and preparation to have their time when the ground was ready. But the entire time supporting the party closest to what they wanted while they worked things even as the party failed to move as far as they wanted. All the time learning lessons on how to advance even the parts of their agenda that kept getting rejected even by their own party. They were clowns, mocked, too ridiculous to really be feared, but they were ultimately pragmatic and as a result, here they are...

246 comments