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More Identity

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Clarissa

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Nothing teaches them, nothing. That somebody can seriously write this sort of thing in 2018 is truly insane:

We are in the midst of an intense partisan and ideological battle over culture and identity; the Democrats aren’t backing down or moving to the center on these issues; and politicians who want to lead in either party will probably have to take strong, clear stances on matters of gender and race.

Identity has lost them every election since forever, yet they want more of it. They’ve been taking stances on absolutely nothing whatsoever but gender and race. The strong, clear stance they take is that neither is real yet both define everything because of evil racists and sexists. And because choice is sacred for everybody but evil sexists and racists. This form of pouty consumerism is not attracting voters, yet the idiots keep promoting it with fanatical dedication.

18 responses to “More Identity”

  1. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    Identity Politics: I survived an Alexandra Ocasio Cortez Rally

    But then Ocasio-Cortez spoke, followed by Bush, and I saw something truly terrifying. I saw just how easy it would be, were I less involved and less certain of our nation’s founding and its history, to fall for the populist lines they were shouting from that stage.

    I saw how easy it would be, as a parent, to accept the idea that my children deserve healthcare and education.
    I saw how easy it would be, as someone who has struggled to make ends meet, to accept the idea that a “living wage” was a human right.
    Above all, I saw how easy it would be to accept the notion that it was the government’s job to make sure that those things were provided.
    I watched as both Ocasio-Cortez and Bush deftly chopped America up into demographics, pointed out how those demographics had been victimized under the current system, and then promised to be the voice for those demographics. The movement, Ocasio-Cortez shouted, “knows no zip code. It knows no state. It knows no race. It knows no gender. It knows no documented status.”

    Bush, after saying her piece, noted that she had been careful to allow speakers from across all demographics to make it clear that she was not running to represent just one particular group, but all.

    I left the rally with a photo — in part to remind myself of that time I crashed a rally headlined by a socialist, but also in part to remind myself that there, but for the grace of God, go I.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “The movement, Ocasio-Cortez shouted, “knows no zip code. It knows no state. It knows no race. It knows no gender. It knows no documented status.”

      • I know she is young but is she really young enough to be this. . . childishly naive? Which government’s “job” is it to provide healthcare and education to the whole world irrespective of the “documented status”? What does the government in question govern? The entire planet?

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      1. xykademiqz Avatar
        xykademiqz

        I visited Beijing a few years ago for a conference, and my son was with me. He was 9 and touched everything. On day 3, his eyes were red. Our hosts took us to a hospital across town, he was seen by an ophthalmologist in the emergency room, the equipment in the ER was first rate, and all we had to pay for were his eye drops, which was a few bucks.

        Now imagine the cost of the same visit for someone without insurance in the US. Just to talk to the triage nurse is about $100.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          China doesn’t have a problem with people wanting to come in. To the contrary, people are desperate to leave. The depopulated areas of Siberia are experiencing an explosion in Chinese settlements. Who wants to be in Siberia, in the middle of nowhere? Apparently, the Chinese do.

          Nobody is moving by the million into rural China. So we can’t compare.

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      2. Dreidel Avatar
        Dreidel

        “I know she is young but…”

        Well, she’s not that young — there’s a big difference in real-world experience between 28 (Ocasio-Cortez’s age) and 21. And she has a bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations, so she ought to have learned something about those subjects!

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          I want to be positive so I ascribe this to youth. People seem wildly enthusiastic about this person, and there’s got to be a reason. There’s got to be something salvageable here.

          I’m truly stunned that these “ideas” are being expressed with so much panache and to great acclaim.

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          1. Dreidel Avatar
            Dreidel

            She and Bernie make a very photogenic couple when they campaign together. Too bad she’s too young to run for president or even VP (minimum age is 35), and Sanders is way too old.

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          2. xykademiqz Avatar
            xykademiqz

            My husband says, “She’s a young Bernie.” She’d be very appealing to Berniebros, in more ways than one.

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  2. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    They might as well quit campaigning. As Melissa McEwan over at Shakesville has been warning us for years, there aren’t going to be any more free elections in America. Here’s her latest tweet:

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      This is exactly what Trump did when he thought he’d lose to Hillary. What’s good for the goose…

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  3. JProf Avatar
    JProf

    The identity issue just goes to show that the Democrats have no real ideas and that there are few substantive differences between them and the Republicans. The focus on identity politics is really just an acceptance of the (economic) status quo–see Walter Benn Michaels’ The Trouble with Diversity. The Democrats keep on talking about how mean Trump is, making me think that this is gonna be their platform again–“Trump is unfit to be president, so vote for us”–and that they’re not gonna focus on real issues like health care, income inequality, student loan debt, etc. The refreshing thing about Ocasio-Cortez is that her campaign, from what I understand, didn’t/doesn’t really talk much about Trump and instead addresses real issues that “ordinary” people care about.

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    1. Demotrash Avatar
      Demotrash

      That’s been true of many midterm campaigns this election season though. Ocasio-Cortez is not unique in that regard. Conor Lamb didn’t talk about Trump. Everyone running statewide in Ohio is focusing on real problems, and they have better ideas for solving them than yelling “abolish ICE!” The Democrat running in my congressional district is mainly focused on healthcare, and while he talked about Trump some early in his campaign he quickly realized that he’d be better off focusing on the issues and on his opponent. These are just a few examples, I could give dozens.

      Of course, the great people we have running are drowned out by bleating, Trump-obsessed morons in safe seats (ex. Kirsten Gillibrand.)

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  4. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti


    Calls to Abolish ICE Not ‘Open Borders’ (factcheck.org)


    Despite President Donald Trump’s repeated claims, Democrats are not advocating open borders, not even the ones who are calling to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    The small minority of Democrats in Congress calling for the end of ICE have all said they would like to have many of ICE’s functions redistributed to other, existing government agencies. None has called for abandoning border enforcement…
    . As we wrote then, Clinton supported the 2013 Senate immigration bill, the so-called Gang of Eight bill, which in addition to providing a path to earned citizenship for those then in the country illegally, would have included significant investments in border security. The bill would have doubled the number of border patrol agents along the Mexican border, added 350 miles of new fencing, and added a host of security and technologies to prevent illegal immigration.

    In fact, every Democrat in the Senate voted for the bill. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, cited that bill in a tweet responding to Trump’s repeated claims about Democratic support for open border.

    Ocasio-Cortez campaign website: The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was created in 2003, in the same suite of post-9/11 legislation as the Patriot Act and the Iraq War. Its founding was part of an unchecked expansion of executive powers that led to the widespread erosion of Americans’ civil rights. Unlike prior immigration enforcement under the INS, ICE operates outside the scope of the Department of Justice and is unaccountable to our nation’s standards of due process. …

    As overseen by the Trump administration, ICE operates with virtually no accountability, ripping apart families and holding our friends and neighbors indefinitely in inhumane detention centers scattered across the United States. Alex believes that if we are to uphold civic justice, we must abolish ICE and see to it that our undocumented neighbors are treated with the dignity and respect owed to all people, regardless of citizenship status

    .
    …“We absolutely do need to make sure that our borders are secure,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with CNN, “to make sure people are safe in passage. But what we need to realize and remember is that ICE was established in 2003, right at the same time as the Patriot Act, the AUMF, the Iraq War, and we look back at a lot of that time and legislation as a mistake now. And I think that ICE is right there as a part of it. It has an extra-judicial nature, it’s baked in to the structure of the agency and that is why they are able to get away with black sites at our border with the separation of children. We are committing human rights abuses on this border and separating children from their families. And that is part of the structure of the agency. We can replace it. And we can replace it with a humane agency that is directed toward safe passage instead of the direction of criminalization.”

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Safe passage, eh? 🙂 Safe passage of what?

      In any case, who cares if it’s not even a contested seat?

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  5. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    I have not seen any video of Ocasio-Cortez so perhaps she has a charisma that a lot of politicians lack. [Yes, I know by Clarissa’s definition of liking someone even if they say repellent things she probably doesn’t.] The fact she is young, relatively good-looking and beat a long term incumbent while spending a fraction of what he did and not having the endorsements he did is quite startling.

    It’s supposed to be a chestnut that you lose your first race. Tammy Duckworth, even with Rahm Emanuel pouring money into her race and outspending everyone else, only managed to win a primary before losing her first election.

    Charisma is a funny thing. I had not seen any video of Scott Walker until he showed up in a primary debate and then I was mystified at how he held any elected office because his presence was so lacking.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      She’s not going to lose. It’s a secure seat. I have no idea why people are creating so much hype over an inconsequential seat. Other than that she’s young and cute, of course.

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  6. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    “I have no idea why people are creating so much hype over an inconsequential seat.”

    The hype isn’t about this specific seat or really even this specific candidate — it’s about the extreme far-left message (“Abolish ICE!” etc.), and the hype is coming from multiple opposing political positions:

    The message is being cheered (gleefully) by left-wing activists on MSNBC who actually believe that going in this direction will win back the White House for the Democrats!

    AND the message is being tamped down by cautious Democratic leaders like Pelosi who realize that it will drive away moderate voters in a general election,

    AND it’s being cheered (maliciously) by conservative hosts on FOX who want to convince worried voters that these extreme views are mainstream Democratic Party positions.

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. Demotrash Avatar
    Demotrash

    Off topic, but thought Clarissa would want to see this

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/25/us-stock-index-futures-bumper-earnings-in-focus.html?__source=twitter

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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