Right on! Little Ms. AOC can't even pull more than 120,00 votes in her district. She is capable of growing up, but until she does, she is dividing the party, AND old people vote, so she should play to the main flank of the party!
211
@Ron Horn
your usage of the word 'little' to describe Ms Ocasio-Cortez is demeaning and insulting.
288
Yeah! What she said...
Every generation thinks the one before them did it all wrong. That's okay. It's healthy. But to let them carry forward as if their opinion based upon exactly nothing is the key to attaining the sun, the moon and the stars is a problem.
AOC, her posse and her hem, chief of staff need to sit down, shut up and watch what is going on for awhile. These people haven't been cognitively aware for more than 10 years and they think they've got the answers...
That's the real problem. The idea we'd even take them seriously they are so wet behind the ears. And boy, oh boy, do they sound and act like Trump even if they have a different agenda.
296
Rahm Emanuel is the epitome of what is wrong with moderate Democrats. They cover things up; they hem and haw and wind up with compromises that people don't like (Obamacare vs. public option); and they don't actually accomplish much. Emanuel left Chicago worse off than when he was first elected. (I shudder at having volunteered for him and other Cook County cesspools.) And this circling of the wagon to which Dowd is blithely lending her ink is more of the same blather.
129
So the Woke Guards are running around denouncing their elders? Sounds vaguely familiar.
And their favorite word, “Racist”, has left the english language. Disagree with me? Racist! As though Nancy Pelosi and the CBC are attacking people of color. It’s like listening to teenage boys talk: you root for the wrong sports team—Racist!
And the Squad casts itself in victim hood. How laughable. Maybe Rahm Emmanuel wishes them death threats, but I am sure Mitch McConnell prays for their safety every night. He and the GOP need them front and center.
210
Get rid of Trump. That is the deal.
Pelosi gets my vote.
AOC blew it with her squeal.
She really got my goat.
We need fresh blood but not extremes.
Not at the present time.
It is OK to have your dreams
but don’t start hurling slime.
255
Old people like Pelosi have been getting played by Republicans for generations. AOC won't get played. So all you old white people are wagging your fingers at AOC and the best female crew when instead you all should be backing them and proper progressive and Liberal ideas...not the mealy-mush and center-right of the old white Democrats.
The Republicans rolled the dice with Trump - they went all fascist and far right. While the useless Democrats continue to go center-right. Why can't Democrats embrace Liberal ideas and values? They never have. Democrats only stand for fairness...which really ain't a Liberal value, TBH. Liberals should stand for progress, for equality and equity and for crushing millionaires who are proven to have gotten in the way.
114
It is part of a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party. Comrade Joe Biden was re-educated in a public trial that reminds one of a Soviet-style purge. It is high time that AOC, Kamela and their ilk can take the time to crack the history books and learn some thing about the world before they were born. Yes there were and are racists who would do very bad things to people of color if elected, but Joe and Nancy aren't them. So much for tolerance and inclusivity.
196
Another Squad member inflames her own party.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2019/07/13/ayanna-pressley-tells-liberal-conference-democrats-don-need-any-more-black-voices-that-don-want-black-voice/OWh75AMUdWjXqehtSHdPKL/story.html
16
AOC and her cronies behaviour disgust me to the point that I believe I will not waste my time voting in the next presidential election.
57
AOC! Burn the house down.
37
This is how you get more Trump.
164
Okay ... I got it all wrong in first post. (NYTimes, help me out if you can; don't post first one.
This, below, is, is what I meant to put in this comments section. Thank you!)
Here is the corrected -- and correct -- reference.
From Frank Luntz' Twitter. Luntz is Republican Strategist with a finger on the pulse of things. Can't say he's wrong on this.
@FrankLuntz
Live look at the @HouseDemocrats:
(From a "Nature is Scary" video)
"King cobra bites python. Python constricts cobra. Cobra gets crushed to death. Python dies from the cobra’s venom."
19
"They're going to dither it away." Seems like the centrist Dems have done their share of dithering. Wealth inequality found its legs with Clinton and hit its stride with Obama. The Dems did little on climate change, and nothing on gun control, under Pelosi and Obama. Obama dithered when McConnell stole the Scalia seat on SCOTUS, instead of barnstorming the country to rouse voters. Dems wring their hands when another unarmed person of color is shot by police, but won't act like this is the emergency it is. Pelosi pressured the House into passing the Senate border crisis bill, but migrants are still being treated inhumanely and Pence puts the onus on the Dems. Trump continues to destroy the government and collect emoluments every day, but Pelosi still drags her feet on using the investigative power of impeachment. She hopes that the Dems will win in 2020, but who in the candidate circus shows the ability to beat Trump? The question shouldn't be why AOC doesn't start playing on the team, it should be why do the rest of the Dems in the House continue to dither in the face of the many emergencies the country faces?
123
The new religion is Wokeness.
The sin is Privilege. Privilege comes in the form of a specific skin color, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, political leaning, religious affiliation and age group.
Blasphemy is when someone of privilege criticizes or a calls into question any woke person or any woke doctrine.
The Punishment for blasphemy is condemnation by innuendo and smear, sometimes followed by doxing or worse.
Praise be!
148
Which is the bigger threat - Republicans or populists? For me, it is populism, in any of its costumes.
37
If the journalists had had any integrity in the last couple of decades we also might not find ourselves in these predicaments.
79
You know, Maureen. I am a fan, but please be aware you are from the same generation and maybe more importantly, the same Washington establishment as Nancy Pelosi. Many of us realize this establishment, who crave going back to "normal", are the ones who have sold out average Americans and even Democracy itself.
Going back to the same corrupt system that lead to Trump, the financial meltdown with bank bailouts while millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes, the endless, fruitless "war on terror", our crumbling infrastructure... need I go on, is not going to cut it.
Things are so corrupt now, just getting rid of Trump may look like normal, but I assure you, this corrupt oligarchy is not normal to millions of us.
And, in case you haven't noticed, the "Squad" has a lot more than just the 4 votes they represent in congress. They, the justice Democrats, Bernie Sanders, The Young Turks, and many other progressives and digital media sources are getting things done that are important to many millions of Americans.
Try beating Trump without them.
151
Fortune Favors the Bold. Nancy Pelosi is sadly protecting Donald Trump. Moderate Democrats should join Republicans if they are so afraid of losing their seats.
45
With a good economy and no unnecessary wars Trump is a shoo in. Incumbent Presidents with excellent economies rarely get defeated. If we stay out of war with Iran we will be very lucky. This is the main threat of Trump. For all his bigotry he has kept us out of wars so far which is all to the good. I don't like him. Hopefully the next President will be able to avoid unnecessary deaths on our Southern Border which is all that we can hope for in our broken system.
25
there are socialists and capitalists. there is the working class and the ruling class. there are workers and bosses. there is karl marx and maureen dowd. there is the revolution and the status quo. there is imperialism and there is freedom. there is class war and fear. there is ocasio-cortez and donald trump.
24
Pelosi is past her prime. She should have begun the impeachment process long ago. She's doing a lot more now to throw 2020 back to Trump than A.O.C.
51
If AOC and the squad had done more to gather power, then Pelosi would not be marginalizing them. Unfortunately the squad has not gathered the requisite power. They need to study the system, learn how to harness their personalities to work the system and ga her power, and learn how to sell their ideas. Congress is a sausage making factory, and AOC and squad have to grind a whole lot more if they want results.
And let's be frank, AOC is head and shoulders above the rest of the squad, and by aligning herself with them, AOC has done far more to marginalize herself than any combination of Pelosi and Fox News.
Please AOC, study Obama.
56
This nation’s future is on the brink. The number one objective is Trump’s defeat and retaking the Senate. You think it’s bad now, picture 5 more years, and the loss of RBG and Breyer. The Dems can’t afford a circular firing squad. This fight is for the electoral college and they have to maintain the same type of fight that brought them the congressional blue wave. Bipartisanship is on life support, so you not only won’t get done if you don’t score big, you will watch it all continue to slide backward, ESPECIALLY if SCOTUS goes 7-2. If Trump wins, knowing its his last term, he will become totally unhinged because he’s got nothing to lose. Dems must deal with REALITY first, before staking everything on one roll of the dice for things like “Medicare for all”.
69
I rarely agree with Maureen Dowd or certainly Rahm Emanuel. I must agree completely with them today.
I just hope AOC and her fellow travelers don’t take their good advice. Because that might make a second term for Mr Trump more difficult to secure. And that would be a shame.
So, please, Ms Tlaib, Cortez, et al: keep the circular firing squad going. Republicans sincerely appreciate your assistance.
48
I do think AOC is playing the race card upside down a bit. If what you and your forebears in marginalized groups have been fighting for is equal treatment and respect... well, congratulations, you have earned the opportunity to be marginalized, dismissed, intimidated and told to fall in line by party leadership, just as freshman congresswomen and (mostly) -men have been for generations. Welcome to Congress. If you think power politicking is reserved toward any particular group, you haven't been around very long.
59
Notice that this rant contains not a single word, not even one about the issues dividing AOC and Pelosi. It all about politics and personalities, areas where there is little data, only opinions.
I wonder why that is.
40
The hard left lives for the fight, nothing more. They would rather go down in glorious flames than surrender their philosophical purity for the chance to move forward even one inch. If they can’t have it all, right now, then it all must burn. This is why Bernie Sanders has accomplished nothing for his 60 years of rage.
82
Thanks for this column.
My message to AOC:
~ You can't win if you don't get the votes.
~ If you don't care about winning, please defer to someone who wants he make real progress in this country.....even if it's at a pace you don't approve of.
~ The rest of us are not interested in listening to you "make a point" if that point capsizes the kind of progressive actions Mrs. Pelosi has made over many, many years.
84
Nailed it, Maureen.
I anticipate four more years of Trump, because the Dems are crippled by their idiotic struggles, and are incapable of uniting behind a "moderately progressive" platform.
These United States are in the grip of Future Shock--that disorientation that Alvin Toffler made into a cliche--as cultural and technological change occur at blinding pace.
The young don't understand it, and won't make accommodation to it (and Bernie, still an adolescent at heart, won't modulate either). This is not to get into a Blame Game--but it's a fact. If we keep our foot on the accelerator, Trump is in, with no doubt at all.
The dreadful thing is that True Believers (as Eric Hoffer described them) won't back down, even as the speeding car they're in approaches the cliff. The fall will be fatal to them, and to the rest of us in the back seat, too.
55
Love you MD.....always make a great deal of sense...in your witty way. However, you are forgetting that it was the DNC, with Pelosi & company's help, that undermined Bernie in 2016...that basically lost it's way in an unprecedented effort to elect HC.
If Pelosi's leadership is in question, it's because the leadership of the DNC is also in question. Leading to maintain the status quo is not the way. The Squad knows this; Pelosi doesn't seem to get it.
23
Grim said, “The greatest threat to mankind is the cowardice of the Democratic Party."
No, Mr. grim, the greatest threat to mankind is nuclear holocaust and the people who would perpetrate it (not the Democratic Party) and global warming and the chemicals that contribute to it and those of us all who use/release them and the conditions we all created and continue to create (not just members of the Democratic Party).
Obviously, Mr. Grim is enjoying his "1st-world" non-genocided privilidge when he claims that bystanders are worse than actual perpetrators. My people were genocided at least once and "ethnically-cleansed" numerous times throughout history, including from our own homeland, and my family members were murdered in race riots and death camps in the 20th Century. My family members have been ethnically-attacked and bullied, verbally and physically, in America in the past decade(s). But even I don't place the primary blame on the bystanders who may or may not be standing by due to cowardice. Just like how I don't claim that actual rapists and sexual harassers are less of a danger than people who may not have adequately intervened to stop or speak out against them. And I certainly don't blame the victim-survivors.
Take a good look in the mirror, Mr. Grim, for that is exactly what you are doing.
Let's keep some perspective, people.
15
The prospect of identity-obsessed, sanctimonious wokester millennials dictating the future of our country is infinitely more terrifying than Donald Trump.
Do you dream of living in an overpopulated, culturally divisive, economically impoverished, increasingly volatile third world country...without leaving home? If so, the so-called ‘progressive’ faction will be more than happy to grant your wish in exchange for your vote.
69
They cannot possibly be as smart as they are being credited with if they actually believe that a freshman Congressperson or 4 is allowed to attack their entire caucus with accusations of moral turpitude and expect not to be admonished by their superiors.
Maybe now they can see what the point of all that unnecessary focus on them by conservative propaganda outlets was really about? They just pumped up the childish balloons in their heads and these mooks just let em. And now they have popped.
That is a personal failing and lack of maturity, flattery of any kind does not influence intelligent people this way. These remarks are do to an undue and unearned sense of their own standing and influence. A standing which does not exist outside the GOP propaganda bubble.
44
Brava Ms. Dowd! We have our "potent feminist partnership" in you and the Speaker.
13
Pelosi knows best! She and Obama knew that Hillary Clinton should be the nominee, with all of her tired baggage. When the kids were saying Bernie. Thanks a lot Nancy!
28
Every member of “The Squad” won in an absolutely safe Democratic Party-voting Congressional district. Not one of them flipped a Republican-voting Congressional district. Pelosi is trying to save the 40 moderate Democrats who DID flip Republican districts, and who are in fact the people who GAVE us the Democratic majority in the House. They get little media attention. Why focus on the vicious Rashida Tlaib when the hugely-accomplished Donna Shalala is also a Palestinian-American woman now elected to Congress—who gets hardly any press?
The purism and bitter antagonism of the squad of Justice Democrats towards anyone who disagrees with them (including throwing around irresponsible charges of “racism”)—constantly gaining them media headlines—constitutes a real danger to these moderates. Historically, if a flipped district RE-elects the new Representative the first time, that person is relatively safe. But if Trump wins in 2020 by underlining the extremism of “the Squad” as the face of the Democratic Party, many of the 40 new but moderate Democrats from swing districts could well lose their seats.
And we would still have “The Squad”. Because they have safe Democratic districts.
99
The Progressive wing of the Democratic Party understands something that you and Speaker Pelosi do not. We are out of time. Last year the IPCC issued a report that we had only 12 years to drastically reduce our global greenhouse emissions. If we fail, we face an ever more dystopian future. Sadly, the report is probably overly optimistic since it is a “consensus” report. Already we are discovering new “tipping points” and measurements that indicate we may seriously understate what we face – and when.
I’m sure that AOC, Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, Haaland, Jayapal, Khanna, Pocan, Grijalva and others wish that we had more time. But we don’t. And most of their constituents understand that, as do Greta Thunberg and the youth of the world. Like Jamie Margolin who wrote an article in Friday’s The Guardian entitled, “We were already over 350 ppm when I was born”, it’s time that you and Nancy wake up and realize what we really face.
26
Bravo Ms. Dowd. However, you journalists, including the New York Times, are contributing to it a subtle way. We all remember that during the two year lead-up to the 2018 election every day on the front page there was a picture of Donald Trump, usually with a story about "the Donald" and his latest tweet outrage. He said crazy things and has a strange appearance, so he got free publicity for his brand, not only from the NYT but other legitimate journalistic media as well. I thought at the time that this was irresponsible journalism and indeed that behavior was generally recognized as such many months after the damage had been done.
Now, we have A.O.C., who is also photogenic, and her crew, with similarly outrageous posts and who is no less naive and dangerous. She seems to get her picture and her social media quotes prominently displayed in the NYT and other journalistic media, including this Op Ed piece, ,thus promoting her image and "brand". As you note, she and her group seem to be as dangerous as our president for liberal (in the old sense) democracy.
Does the NYT management realize what it is doing? Is the NYT actively trying to promote her?
50
So the socialist is playing identity politics.
Am I supposed to be surprised?
35
What a shame it is that A.O.C.is willing to fragment the Democratic Party to get her message front and center. That's more than egotism--it seems to be fanaticism versus intelligent and strategic thinking. To know the parameters of your ignorance is crucial to success, and I certainly hope that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez learns her shortcomings quickly.
55
Chakrabarti on the left=Stephen Miller on the right. Both are “snot-nosed punks” to quote Rahm Emanuel. Wish the press would ignore the extremists who haven’t lived long enough to understand compromise and have lived entitled lives. (that doesn’t mean financially entitled either). One can be entitled and poor too.....this generational group of millennials are all acting entitled to something. SO over them all, as they are a product of bad, lazy and uncritical thinking parenting.
44
PS: Best column title ever.
22
The Republicans represent White people who want to go back to the 1950s.
The Democratic leadership represents White people who want to go back to the 1990s.
Only the "squad" represents nonWhites and people who want to move forward.
28
Have the 20-30 y.o. American progressives (which some of us used to call ourselves) so lost their minds and humanity that they, like Mr. Grim as quoted in the article, would excuse actual perpetrators of violence and other forms of misanthropy in favor of laying the heaviest blame on others who may not have known or had courage to do what was needed to stop the attack?
If an Islander's fan is assailed by a Ranger's fan, who is the real, the most serious threat to the Islander fan's health, safety, and welfare -- the Ranger fan who assaulted her; the other Ranger fans who cheer him on and maybe even cleared a path for his attack and gave him a pair of knuckle rings; the other Islander fans who tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent or stop the assault? Or, perhaps, the assailed person herself?
Personally. I'll place responsibility first with the Ranger fan who actually did the assailing. Mr. Grim, with the unfortunate name, and his gang seem to want to lay the full or at least primary responsibility at the feet of the Islander fans who tried to help stop the assault and may have been working behind the scene for years to reduce the chances of such attacks and mitigate their impact when they do happen.
Whatever your hockey team preferences, lets all try to keep things in at least some degree of perspective and lay blame for harm first and foremost on the people perpetrating the harm, not blame the victim or those around her, and thus ourselves clear the path for the actual perp
5
That's right Maureen let's get the same people who gave us Hillary to give us another candidate for Trump to defeat all over again. What a brilliant idea.
28
AOC is a professional victim who uses the school yard taunt I'm rubber and you are glue it is her churlish go to strategy.
The failure to make meaningful compromise and advance the ball leaves the squad writing checks they can never cash. They are immature children like Bernie Sanders they stomp their feet and clear off in a huff.
Sanders has used this do nothing strategy his entire career. You can never be accused of failing if you advance dogma with no support. Blame capitalism, racism, billionaires and millionaires or any other vague bogey man they have hiding under the bed. Real leadership advances the vote.
AOC is just any of her customers a ranting drunk sitting on a bar stool yelling at the Television.
41
No one in these comments contemplates the idea that *maybe* Pelosi’s strategy is wrong. AOC is a far better communicator than Pelosi. She is working hard to expand the Overton window of what issues are acceptable to discuss and fight for and along the way she picks up new converts. Pelosi does very little communicating but she’s a good tactician. Shutting down such an effective communicator just gives rise the suspicion that Pelosi is more loyal to the status quo than to the ideas and ideals that she professes to believe. In other words, she gives the impression that she’s a swampy, crafty pol and that is not good for the party. One thing we need more of in the party is effective communicators. I hope AOC is not ruffled by this stupid blowback she’s getting from timid older voters who came of age in the era when appeasing Rs was the only (now proven failed) strategy.
22
You have to give AOC credit for having the guts to actually try to push a progressive agenda then just trying to be Republican lite and stay in office. Before she went on record saying the rich might have to pay a 70 percent top rate, everyone was talking only about lower. Now you have some 1 presenters saying maybe something higher is necessary. I'm so sick of the Democrats platform being vote for us, we're better then them. How about a progressive vs conservative shoot out and letting the clips fall where they may.
Also, Nancy is no fool. She can manage these young newcomers without killing there souls.
20
Pelosi is wrong, dead wrong about impeachment and AOC is right. A failure to deal with the issue will make the Democrats look weak, make Trump look strong and almost certainly give Trump another four years in the White House. Pelosi's position is based on moral cowardice.
24
Thank you for this column. I have been stewing all week about the brat Chakrabarti. He is the far left version of Bannon, with all of the disrespect and evil planning, but without the experience or cunning (though I suppose he's working on the latter). My hope is that his lack of experience means he gets the Washington boot even faster.
This "squad" are blatant ageists. Anyone arrogant enough to ignore experience or to think they have some insider knowledge because they say so borders on being a fool. And I wonder if they would be attacking Pelosi if she were a person of color but with the exact same positions? I bet not. I can't call them progressive, even, because their anger and goals are just small-minded and backward. Maybe they should read McCollough's book, You are NOT Special. Oh wait, he's an older white guy...
I won't support the Democrats if they allow themselves to be as hateful as the Republicans, and from my perspective, that's the only vibe coming from that small faction led by AOC.
45
I could not agree more with Maureen. Quiet down A.O.C/Chakabarti! I was once a fan of yours, but no longer. How about this: "We want Trump out of the White House." Hang a sign on your office walls with that declaration, and perhaps it will remind you to get out of the way and let the grown-ups lead. Shame on you, A.O.C., Shame!
33
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is electrifying. She's the future.
Nancy Pelosi is old...perhaps wise, but she's the ancient past.
Enough said.
15
As a huge fan of “Brokeback Mountain” I take umbrage of using the likeness of AOC in this sacred vein...she deserves something more in line with “Down and Out in Washington, DC.”
15
Only in right wing fox world is Pelosi a far left liberal. In reality she is center to center right at best.
15
Dowd: "A.O.C. should consider the possibility that people who disagree with her do not disagree with her color."
Taking the above concept to it's logical conclusion:
"Democrats should consider the possibility that people who disagree with them are not racists, fascists, sexists or bigots."
But I don't believe Democrats will consider the above possibility...as it is the only play in the Democrat playbook.
A.O.C. just happened to have deployed it against her own party.
22
"The progressives act as though anyone who dares disagree with them is bad. Not wrong, but bad, guilty of some human failing, some impurity that is a moral evil that justifies their venom."
In the words of Bruce Willis, "Welcome to the party, pal!"
Where have you been for the past three years? In a coma? This is the new "normal" - disagree with the Left and get smeared, deplatformed, cracked over the head with a bike lock.
This will end badly. For everyone.
20
Such nonsense. Its time for Pelosi to gracefully go off into the sunset and let Dem's like AOC and the squad ascend to leadership positions. They have a far better pulse on the mood of the electorate and what they want. Nancy is the enemy as long as she is Speaker of the House
10
AOC and her squad are the future of America and the Democratic Party. When Pelosi disrespects them, she shows everyday of her 79 years. Like Biden, Feinstein, Hoyer and the rest of the old has beens, step aside and let youth and energy take over.
At least AOC knows how to fight back, if it wasn't for the Clintons and all the others who fouled things up, we wouldn't have Trump or McConnell.
I'd rather lose fighting than continually get made a fool and played like a sucker which is the 25 year track record of the Democratic Party.
22
You have no idea who I am. The fact that DJT is in the White House is a mystery to me, well maybe not. Watching "my" people trying to defeat DJT, it is already over before it even has started. SAD, VERY, SAD.
6
If Trump is still in office in November 2020, then Putin will again decide who the president of the USA will be. The only way that the Democrats could remove Trump from office would if he defies a Supreme court ruling regarding documents or allowing testimony. Thus, the Democrats best hope would be to hold off on enacting any articles of impeachment until the court battles are over. Just proving collusion and obstruction won't sway any Republicans.
Trump said "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any votes". That is now "Trump could be caught handing America’s top military secrets to Russia and still not have any Republican votes for impeachment".
Whatever evidence and proof of criminal acts that Mueller could have come up with, it is certain that such evidence and proof could not be as powerful an indication of wrongdoing as the evidence in the public record that Bret Kavanaugh was lying in the senate hearings.
Once Ford’s account included three people she said were there AND his calendar had them all at Tim Gaudette’s house on July 1, 1982, AND Ford’s description of the interior of Gaudette’s house in Rockville, MD exactly matches that of the actual house, which still exists: the only way that Kavanaugh was not lying is either: Ford somehow obtained access to his 1982 diary/calendar, or Ford has a time machine or Ford stalked Kavanaugh in 1982 and planned for this if he was nominated to the Supreme Court..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4216597
6
We're in a very bad place since this article needs to be written at all. This is what identity politics has brought us. America will never be the same.
21
Pelosi is supposed to be the mature one and should have made her comments to the squad in private. She embarrassed them and almost made it necessary for them to answer. Nancy has to up her game and show them why they should work with her.
18
The Speaker needs to admit - she got skunked by Republicans (and McConnell) - AGAIN. That's what this is really about.
The younger crowd is just calling her out on one more loss for Democrats afraid to stand up to Republicans.
The better article on this entire issue is found over at the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2019/07/05/feature/haunted-by-the-reagan-era
13
Excellent piece! AOC & The Squad are essentially pulling a McConnell - unable to compromise or even listen to reason that disagrees with them. I hope it's just the exuberance of youth & they learn to share their toys quickly.
17
AOC and the other squaddles are immature. They see no difference between mainstream Dems and Trump. So it’s okay to burn down the House. And if they succeed in re-electing Trump, they will feel oh so very pure, when in fact they are just narcissistic.
34
OK, Nancy Pelosi has been a historic force for good. What about the merits of the appropriation passed by the "Problem Solver Caucus" with the aquiescence of contemporary Pelosi?
4
Consider this: some Democrats are not interested in replacing one kind of narcissism and arrogance (Trump) with another (litmus test, small tent Democrats). Pelosi has paid her dues. She has demonstrated an ability to get inside Trump's skin. This is her time.
22
Where's Joe Crowley when you need him!
12
Pelosi is in it for the country. AOC is in it for AOC.
34
"If A.O.C. and her Pygmalions and acolytes decide that burning down the House is more important than deposing Trump, they will be left with a racist backward president and the emotional satisfaction of their own purity."
Correct. And Heaven help us from what the rest of us will be left with, if we survive at all.
24
What really matters now? Donald J. Trump must be defeated.
Memo to Democrats: Do not allow an internal feud to distract from the nation's top priority. The corrupt, crude and clueless Trump represents a clear and present danger to our democracy and to the world. Put differences aside and unite to defeat the worst president in history.
17
excuse me maureen, but a.o.c. didn't deliver us trump. that was done by past their prime conventional democrats that only differ from republicons in being slightly more socially liberal. the democratic party rots from the head down beginning with obama, hillary, nancy, chuck, debbie, rahm, et al.
23
But, Maureen, you kind of set the stage and fanned a flame with the way you decided to approach the original article.
In my opinion, you bear a part of the responsibility.
There should have been more of the current article in the original one. Sometime you are simply too clever for your, or our, own good.
10
The policies of the center, the Washington consensus, the Neo-liberal dream are founded on dismantled assumptions. From the Great Recession to Picketty's Capital, we know that those who make the largest claims of wealth and power do not deserve it. We also see how Washington fails to do anything that has broad national support- Medicare for all, demilitarization, school reform, debt alleviation. We get nothing from Washington's entrenched power brokers. Our bodies and our lives are what lies broken in their compromise with corporate power. Along come young voices to cry against the dwindling light of our hope for the human enterprise. And where do you stand? What common cause do you hold up as something greater than yourself? Practicality? Compromise? You have fooled yourself entirely that there is any future in that. The power elites are in blitz mode, their fascist tendencies are being bared for all the world to see. How many lives will be lost in a game where one side plays for fairness and balance and compromise while the other plays to hold the world in their hand? The answer is, we lose everything. Under a banner of a return to a status quo that no one desires, they will ride our corpses into Armageddon.
10
She’s not a legislator, she’s barely a politician. She’s an attention seeker/grabber -much like DJT. It’s clear she’s strategizing to monetize/capitalize/exploit her daily moments of incredulousness.
if someone isn’t already writing the screenplay/book for the Squad, it will be soon.
I’d like to see laws that prevent using the IP of public service for personal profit. All monies should go back to the government and distributed to constituents.
13
“Not wrong, but bad”
As a moderate Democrat, this is my real problem with so-called progressives. We are not enemies to be vanquished. We are allies to be persuaded.
26
McGovern 1972 vs. Hillary Clinton 2016.
That's the decision for the Democrats I see coming, and it's reflected in this Congressional dustup.
I lived through both Presidential elections, respectively as a tweener and then a voter. Both were losses, which is where I am right now on which path to take: at a complete loss.
Certainty comes at me from both sides: from my dwindling pool of elders, the need for moderation, Pelosi's careful strategy, trying to win back voters who wanted to through a wrench in the works but realized they jammed the gears, in a word, Biden; and then from my juniors, fresh from college, who "couldn't" vote for Hillary and threaten to sit out the next one if the man they consider HRC II, Joe Biden, is nominated. AOC represents not only her district, but those voters.
I just want the current corrupt regime of Individual-1 and the current GOP leadership voted out.
So what to we do? AOC was elected via a primary challenge from the left, so is she supposed to abandon the philosophy behind that, now that she's in office? Nancy Pelosi presided over the passage of the ACA, enough said (or maybe not; I need to remind some that the ACA saved lives.).
What do we do?
8
So well written Maureen.
The motto of "the squad" is, indeed, "Move Fast and Break Things." Unfortunately, it is the democratic party that is being broken.
"...when Pelosi and other Democratic mandarins try to keep the image of the party centrist, they are crouching in “the defensive posture” they’ve been in since the Reagan revolution."
Umm, no. The "mandarins" are reflecting the opinion of most of the democrats. Which is, after all, the principle of representative government.
In politics as in Buddhism, it is the middle road that is most difficult...and most desirable.
15
The USA is suffering the constraints of being a two party system. In this time of intense change there are overlapping but distinct progressive priorities people don’t want to surrender without recognition.
In most other democracies, the Dems would be spread across several parties- Liberal, Labour, Green, Social Dems - and be so elected and then form a coalition in government.
Fighting this out in one party continues to weaken the progressive direction held by the majority in different versions.
5
Wokeback is gay bashing? or what? i don’t get it.
10
This isn’t “fit to print.”
10
I disagree.
Bravo, Ms. Dowd and NYT.
11
Ms Dowd calls out the 'suicide squad'. Forget about the Evil Russians this group will hand 45 another four years. Best weapon for Republicans to exploit outside NY,MA and CA
thank you Maureen
17
Maureen we need your help not causing more division. Thanks.
12
dowd wishes aoc would join her peloton class. umm, home girl is too busy spending time with imprisoned children. #priorities
14
Perfect.
8
Yay, Maureen!!! Four cheers! Or more!
6
American liberals, the Neville Chamberlains' of our time. Once upon a time in the postwar, liberals would lecture us on appeasement and fascism, but no more. All forgotten.
A "Democratic majority" is useless when it is contingent upon appeasement of a political movement, Trumpism, that clearly wants to take the road to US-style fascism. Liberal appeasement enablers are merely butlers holding the doors open to that road.
There is no true majority for the defense of democratic and human rights in Congress. Please, let's drop the false paradigms and recognize that right now the advocates of democracy are a small minority in the deeply undemocratic US political system. Fortunately we are only at the beginning of the "fascist road" and there is still time to defeat Trumpism once and for all. But mind that even if Trump is unelected in 2020, Trumpism - representing ~15% of the (voting & nonvoting) adult population, enabled by another ~15% of supporters for conservative Democrats such as Biden - will keep up its offensive from now on. They see the end of capitalism on the horizon, they have no choice.
Moving off the road to US fascism requires the political destruction of Trumpism and the political structures that enable it. That includes the commercial media monopoly over political discourse that enabled Trump, and continues to enable Trump. Anything less will result in a fascist USA spiraling down into climate hell. Not a legacy to leave our children and progeny.
5
Good column Ms Dowd.
5
AOC is a gifted politician, an intelligent person with real world experience as a working stiff who could become a Pelosi like figure decades from now. Chakrabarti is an arrogant spoiled-brat tech bro with the stratospheric self esteem and naivety about the real world typical of many Harvard graduates. She should get rid of him ASAP. I think he is holding her back.
13
Looking at the firestorm his nibs ignited this morning with his racist tweets about how the Squad should go back to their own countries (when three of the four were born here), and aligning himself with Pelosi against them, I want to get all the Dems—leadership and progressives and yes, moderates—to sit down and shut up. This is exactly what he wants, what McConnell and McCarthy want, what Putin and Xi and Kim want: a Democratic party at war with itself.
Let his vile comments clarify the truth. Infighting only strengthens our adversaries, domestic and otherwise. The Democratic party has to find a way to encompass and honor both moderates and progressives. We need to understand that various interests want us at each other's throats. Let's use that knowledge to bring us together and remember our common cause: defeating him, taking back the senate, keeping the House, and taking more governorships and state assemblies and senates so we can beat back partisan gerrymandering and minority governance.
We don't need Dowd to weigh in. It's time for everybody to refuse to be sucked into this nonsense. Dowd, as usual, isn't helping by playing up the conflict.
Take a moment and remember what we're fighting. And when you feel sucked into a fight, take a step back and ask yourself, who benefits from this?
16
Dear Ms Dowd, You and your chum Nancy are way off base. AOC takes the fight to Trump, while you have tea and crumpets.
15
Maureen, this is an unfortunate opinion piece. Nancy Pelosi started this spat with a seriously unprofessional characterization of the Fab Four with her incredibly dismissive words and tone. Then, you took that ball and rolled with it. Now, DJT is using this in his latest twitter storm. Please stop.
18
Come-on Maureen. You didn't help when, a few years ago, you wrote about Tr**mp as if he were fascinating, and you're not helping now. I'm older, I'm a critical thinker, I'm engaged and enraged. I feel like the DNC and old operatives are weighing down possible reform & healing. Pelosi and Schumer -- and in this case, Rahm Emanuel (never thought much of his political persona) are frozen in cognitive dissonance. They are unable to act--there are no liberal battle scars to be gained with SCOTUS turned and McConnell in power. AOC and The Squad have my head and my heart.
17
AOC has brought an energy into the 2020 election, which was sorely lacking. Personally, I would not be as excited as I am about 2020 without her spunk and energy. I was almost indifferent about it all. Now, I am very excited about seeing our President re-elected. Thank you, for showing me how important it is to be involved and to get out the vote. You are an inspiration.
11
Citing Rahm Emanuel as a "moderate" seems to prove the point that Dems have lost their way as he is the perfect example of a Dem who does GOP bidding locally. Your tone also confirms the opinion that moderates have lost the fight as every achievement is currently being undone in record time. If you think a centrist attitude can correct that in less than 25 years good luck with that.
12
The sad truth is that before you can produce change in our system -- let alone, sweeping changes -- you've got to win elections first. Lots of elections, at lots of levels, and win them again and again. Right-wing activists learned that in 1964, and they show no sign of forgetting that lesson.
We Dems seem transfixed by a few glittering personalities at the top, by winning the White House while letting our Congressional and state/local bases deteriorate, and yet somehow expect to enact Big Ideas while controlling just one half of one branch of the federal government, and while struggling to be competitive in many states.
Let's get better at the politics, folks, and then the big ideas will have their day...
9
While I credit Nancy Pelosi enormously for her political skill and fortitude, I have to reject Ms. Dowd's overall argument as just another reflection of Washington's lack of contact with the issues facing average Americans. The "squad" is the first manifestation of the kind of new fighting Democratic Party that some of us have been awaiting for over 30 years. For all the apparent success of Pelosi-style coaltion-building in order to "win back Congress," one notes that those coalitions have never been durable and, indeed, collapsed in 2016 as many former Obama voters chose Trump with no more loyalty to party than if they had changed brands of toothpaste. The Democratic Party has to find its way to credible, disciplined action on behalf of the country's left-behind working population outside the big cities in order to truly overcome the cynical blight of Trumpism. The old strategies of appeasing corporate America at every step while making mostly symbolic appeals to minority progress and inclusion won't work anymore because everyone has seen this show in repeats since 1992. Whatever excesses the new Democrats will be accused of, appeasement of a clear moral rot in the whole sweep of our oligarchic, pay-for-play political system won't be one of them.
17
Jesus and I call on him fervently, I am glad that this is just an opinion. I resent the fact that those who assume themselves to be the arbitrators are given such a stage.
But then again it's not really about anything but revenues.
Pelosi is an issue, there is no doubt about it along with the rest of the Washington elite who have approved of atrocious wars, the multitudes of civilian deaths caused by American military adventurism as well as a complete lack of domestic policy.
Those of you who are not isolated know that a guy who pays $80 for a hair cut and a $1000 for a pair of glasses has got nothing to say we want to hear.
8
I just watched Speaker Pelosi reading to those endangered by the Ice raids.
She is telling them right up front what their legal rights are! That my fellow readers does take LEADERSHIP AND GUTS!
She is opening herself to tremendous criticism but it is very important and very smart to underscore that in the House of Representatives legality is supreme and humanity counts.
No fanfare, no screaming from the steps of the Capital, just steady, smart information to those who need it. The “Squad” should take notice!
11
"Moderate" Democrats came to power with Bill Clinton. Since that time, economic inequality has soared, with working class voters being left behind.
What do Pelosi and Dowd propose to do to fix this problem? Nothing. According to them, shifting public sentiment to address economic inequality is impossible. Instead, the Democrats must run candidates who think like Republicans so that Pelosi can keep her job while paying lip service to liberal values.
11
To those who claim to be ‘progressive at heart, but pragmatic about elections’, especially those who are aging, you have deluded yourselves. If you are reluctant to stand by your ‘progressive’ views at this very early stage of 2020 elections, then you have chosen to defend the status quo.
The 2020 election is not about Trump - it is about the future. And, without very significant social & economic disruption, that future looks bleak & very warm, at best.
About fifty years ago, in a country divided by the U.S. War of Aggression & Occupation of Vietnam, the Democratic Party chose a preeminent liberal - Hubert Humphrey - as candidate for President. But Humphrey’s support for LBJ’s Vietnam War betrayed the youth of this country, betrayed the future, and lost that election.
Today, the Cult of Centrism, Caution, and Incremental Change - the religion of experienced pundits & the corporate media - is pulling out the stops to protect & propel its candidates. But, let’s get real: centrism is the political platform of slow change, or no change at all; moderation in all things protects inequality & injustice; balancing the use (or misuse) of fossil fuels to mitigate economic disruption is a superhighway to global climate catastrophe. It is betrayal of the youth.
Instead of bragging about the wisdom of experience, perhaps some of my age-peers (70) could reflect on how our generation has failed to produce a better world for our children & grandchildren.
10
AOC took her 15 minutes of fame too much for granted. And while I completely understand the simmering need for racial equality — my family fought for it since the 1820s — the also forgot what is at stake in the immediate term and how that will affect the entire country and the world if Trump wins reelection.
12
A pristine environment, universal health care, genderless equality, are laudable political goals. The congress accounts for political opinion by representation and votes and polling. Liberals, myself included, will have to accommodate the oppo, and the oppo will have to accommodate the progressives. There is no absolute chartered course, more of a meander through imperfection. The oppo has its interests and perceptions, which also become part of the resulting laws legislated. As in life there is no perfection. Every political decision, i.e. law, harms the interest of some and favors others, and is neutral for many.
Such as universal health care. Would the health care workers then be government employees? Would it really be more efficient, or is this just a progressive's promise? Would current health related employees take a pay cut, or loose there job? Would pensions who hold health care stock and bonds have to reduce benefits? Would we taxpayers have to buy out the health care companies stock? How much would our taxes increase? Should gov't health care pay a million dollars to keep me alive for an extra month? Who's going to decide how long and at what expense to keep us going? Maybe for equality sake, we could just say no more care after 67, to hold down the cost in a budget emergency. Maybe we could require everyone over 65 to spend their family savings and kid's inheritance before the gov starts paying. Maybe we would have to submit proof of no assets.
2
The moderates didn’t give the House to Democrats any more than the left did. It takes all the voters, all the representatives, and a party leadership that only goes after the left is at a peril of not representing it as part of the party. If it is a coalition of the left leaning, all matter.
Is is troubling that the only 16 bills of Congress to go into law since the Democrats took the House have been Republican bills that started in the Senate. The House Democratic leadership or the Democrats in the Senate have not fought for their own bills, and have been satisfied with Republican ones.
The Senate has refused to even bring up House Bills for debate or vote with no repercussions from Democratic leadership.
A leadership that only fights. In the end for Republican bills, is as good as Republicans themselves.
There has been no real oversight, no real holding the President to account or Responsibility. No all the Democratic leadership wants is an Ad for moderation that continues to work with, and for, Republicans not the left half of the Democratic “coalition”.
If I wanted Republican policy, I would have voted for it. I want Democratic policy, a coalition of the left. But if the moderates continue to call the left “crazy” as Joe Biden does, or socialists more of a threat as Hickenlooper does, this is not a coalition of the left.
I am not a Republican and I won’t support a party that supports Republican laws. Which is what we’re getting.
9
Maureen Dowd has hit the nail squarely on its head. And Donal Trump confirms it.
Nancy Pelosi’s wisdom is steering the right course. If Americans truly want to make a course correction to avoid the loss of what’s left of our democracy, we need to elect a Democratic President, hold the House, and flip the Senate. We sadly watched Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan do everything in their power to hamstring Barrack Obama, including McConnell’s successful efforts to swing the Supreme Court far to the right for another generation.
AOC and her three compatriots (Ilhan Omer, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley) can continue to push progressive ideas, but they better wake up soon to the realities of an American public that isn’t nearly as left-leaning as the constituents in their respective Congressional districts. If they are truly as smart as they imagine themselves to be, thy need to be far more nuanced and figure out a way to collaborate with Nancy Pelosi and the moderates in the House. Politics is all about compromise. Their seemingly loud voice is turning out to be not much more than a whimper. So far they’re on track to become Donald Trump and the Trumpian party’s number one recruiting tool.
23
Maybe we really do need to have a multi-party system.
The ideology that Pelosi - and Clinton and Obama - represent doesn't reflect all liberal voters; there's a real case to be made that what liberal voters share today is not only more cultural than economic AND that some who might be moderately conservative could potentially move to a moderate party were it to "awaken."
Ms. Dowd is apt to write race isn't Pelosi's problem with the Fab Four; on the other hand, it is equally true that many who agree with them are not Millenials.
What sometimes seems to be ignored in discussions of liberal ideology is the nuances between liberal and neoliberal: Biden, Obama, Clinton, and Rahm Emanual who sang Pelosi's praises today on This Week are neoliberals, seemingly perfectly happy to work with the corporations to slow the cost increases of necessities like healthcare and education. They're willing to consider a "grand bargain" to begin gutting Social Security and Medicare and the VA even as they defend cultural perceptions.
Here's the curiosity about our culture - shouldn't we all defend it? Is there any good reason to ascribe to prejudice? I understand we all have biases, but if I am not gay and my faith limits the freedoms of gays should my country allow citizens to do the same?
I'm a Baby Boomer and my political needs depend on both the continued waking to true equality and the end of the plutocracy we have become. Those needs are what I want Pelosi to defend, enable, enrich.
10
The minimum age requirement for elected office should be raised...as should the voting age. We have people barely out of their teens dictating national policy?
16
I moved to Texas nearly half a century ago and watched it turn very red and now less so. This was recently accomplished by moderate politicians being elected and not by the fringe. AOC might be safe in Brooklyn but wouldn't stand a chance in 90% of the rest of the country. This country was built by those willing to work hard in the left, center and right and no extremists, including 45, can claim sole ownership of that characteristic. Those of us who have endured the red wave in Texas are clawing our way back one seat in Congress after another. AOC and her gang should not be the poster children of the right as it sets to further demonize Democrats.
19
To overcome trump AND mcconnell, the Democratic Party needs all their members and independents...that must be the primary goal.
While people admire the energy and idealism of the “Squad”, the reality is, they are in danger of becoming overexposed, being seen too much, being too combative, is a turn off. It is trumpian and in reality not a good strategy!. To become obnoxious is not smart.
Check out the focused, directed behavior of Katie Porter and Katie Hill both newcomers. That is where winning starts!
10
They are young. They act more like college age advocates and not experienced adults.
They can learn by listening to people like Pelosi or they can learn by losing control of the House. Their choice.
It’s clear the “squad” has not spent a lot of time outside their immediate districts and social groups. They suffer the same insular thinking that a lot of conservative rural whites do.
The country is bigger than SW Detroit, Queens or Minneapolis.
26
“...I don’t think you are a racist, but...”
Is a phrase that should immediately disqualify a person from being taken seriously in Democratic politics. It is am absurdly insulting thing to say and it is a cheap debating trick at best.
Both the women who have said this to gain political advantage should be ashamed.
30
I’m hung up on “ensorcelled” and “Democratic mandarins.” Epaulets of elitism they are, a finishing flourish on your uniform as lieutenant of the old guard. Shoulder pads are so ‘80s.
7
Excellent column, Ms. Dowd. I hope it falls on receptive ears.
10
I continue to strongly suspect that half the people shouting at Pelosi and Dowd didn’t vote, aren’t going to vote or will write in Jill Stein, and are mostly shouting in order to perfect their alibis. And that half the rest are vewy, vewy clever bots or Trumpists.
I think this because with the assiduousness of your basic Trumpist, they mostly just keep repeating the same slogans, attacks, and fake facts. Oh, and because they can’t even keep themselves confined to just shouting at Pelosi and Dowd, so Hillary Clinton gets a full dollop of the same absurd treatment.
12
The GOP sold out its ideological purity to the extreme right wing in order to WIN, which it did. Would letting the young progressive left taking over the party yield the same result? Donald Trump is a dangerous one to make that bet over. I would love to see all student debt wiped out, and universal medical coverage; but the GOP would label that Socialism, meaning a synonym for Communism, and bring us back to moderates voting for Trump again because they sure couldn’t bring themselves to vote for THAT. Let the young Turks take over when the possibility of their defeat doesn’t get us four more years of a heartless, lying jerk.
8
Way to go,Freshman Squad! You have managed to divide Democrats so that you look spunky. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin that I disagree with you often. It has to do with your inexperience and lack of knowledge of issues and processes. Please save us from another Trump victory and work with your colleagues and party. I think you four are more interested in your headlines than the issues at hand. Speaker Pelosi, America knows you are not a racist.
22
I like that after multiple decades of partisan gridlock, Democrats still trumpet the "experience" of old politicians like Pelosi. Sure, she has plenty of experience ceding political control to moneyed interests, enabling horrendously destructive military campaigns, and generally failing to tackle any of the era's defining social and economic problems.
I'm 29, and the I've spent my entire life watching my government play games while the world literally burns. I don't want to hear one more opinionated baby boomer tell someone from my generation to cool it down. Wake up and see the absurdity of the mainstream Democratic position. "Our democracy has ceased to function and the world is on the verge of environmental collapse, but the only way to fix it is to keep doing all the same things that got us into this mess! Trust us!"
Dowd's generation has had chance after chance create a more equitable and sustainable world, but instead they have shown a reliable preference for short-term material wealth and juvenile power struggles. Time and again they exhibit zero signs of having the moral fortitude to lead the nation forward. Time and again they have obfuscated their ethical failings with illusory notions of "realism". Baby boomers: You. Blew. It. There is a political revolution going on, and we're going to bring Pelosi and her supporters along kicking and screaming if that's what it takes.
13
@Tom Ryan - I'm 68 and I've seen how a divided Democratic Party leads to Republican wins.
In 1968 a lot of young people who were against the war refused to vote for Hubert Humphrey, even though he was a great champion of working people. Nixon won.
in 1972 McGovern, whom I voted for was so far to the left, we lost not only to Nixon but many blue-collar voters as well.
In 1980, Kennedy launched a bitter challenge to Carter and Reagan won.
In 2000 Ralph Nader, the grandfather of the progressive movement, said that Al Gore was no different than George W. Bush, and the rest you know. There would have been no war with Iraq, no tax cuts for the rich and our environment would be cleaner. Oh, and Gore lost the election by 500+ votes.
24
I think it may be time for the "squad" to lose their committee seats, which would allow them to focus on their social media campaigns, paid speeches and finding new ways to hide Mr. Chakrabarti's income from being disclosed.
19
Two issues stand out here--first, what would have been the result had Pelosi stood up for the original House version of the border funding bill, and second, wherein lies the future of the Democratic party.
Let me approach the second issue first. Is the future of the Democratic party to recover the people lost to the Trump party in the 2016 election (the economically deprived voters who were convinced that someone else was responsible for their woes) or to excite people among the 38% of the eligible population who didn't vote because they don't care enough or because they were turned into cynics by the Trump/Russian campaign. Pelosi is seeking to recover the first group and the "Squad" is seeking to bring in the latter. Certainly, this non-voter group is the larger group and includes young people, people of color, and women who were intimidated by their husbands or other men.
Regarding the first issue, the question is whether the Republicans and the Senate would have given in, or would the ensuing deadlock been blamed on one of the parties, to their detrement. The "Squad" believed the outcome was worth the effort, while Pelosi believed the Republicans with the benefit of the President's bully pulpit had a significant chance of winning the debate.
4
@Blandis - The original border bill, which was superior to the one which passed would have been shot down by the Republican Senate and vetoed by Trump.
2
I'm 65 and having spent many years wondering why Dems are not in power and it comes down to "moderates" being the problem, or a better word complicit Dems, as my favorite blogger, @rudepundit says.
"Pelosi could have said something like "There's room in our party for all positions" or "Every member should vote her conscience." Then do whatever she wants behind the scenes (including, you know, mentoring the 1st-term Dems). She didn't. She attacked. This is on her."
14
Thank you, Ms. Dowd. It is inspiring to see Ms. Ocasio-Cortez' enthusiasm, but disappointing to see her apparently conflating it with dogmatism.
True, the slow progress of the Congress is frustrating to the point of distraction at times, but the "Squad's" energy could be better spent in trying to convince moderate Dems to move forward a little faster than in castigating them as old fogeys.
Blowing things up may be fun, but in the end all you've got is rubble.
16
I simply don’t agree, Maureen. Pelosi should have begun the impeachment process long ago. Considering the income disparity in the country, like in France, before the revolution, I think radical action is called for. I don’t mean The Terror, of course, but Pelosi’s baby steps won’t cut it anymore.
10
@Anonymous...Well, of course, The Terror is not called for. Measured radical action is what is called for. Reasoned radical action will do the trick. No baby steps, but no jack boots, either. No French Revolution. No Russian Revolution. Peaceful revolution. That will work in the 21st Century. But, if it doesn't....
2
I actually don't have a problem with Democrats fighting amongst themselves in a healthy kind of way. I prefer that to the cultish facades you find with the Republican faithful. I do feel discouraged though, as I see Trump's tweets about the four women and going back to where they came from. And Pence standing in front of a cage filled with brown men being held in subhuman conditions. We're appalled and we render our garments but it's red meat for Trump's base. This thought depresses me. It worked last time and he just needs a couple off hundred votes are and there in this state and that one. This kind of imagery and tweet-ery works wonders. The base sees that stuff and they'd do anything for him. Vote certainly, when they otherwise might not.
6
Agree. The AOC "squad" and their advisers will also be left with the wrath of the electorate come 2020. Pelosi has decades of political bruises from fights to get legislation passed that has helped us. How many bills as the "squad" gotten through Congress? Winning presidential elections is evidence that the Dems changed enough hearts and minds at the ballot box to bring in victory. AOC and her colleagues need to study this and learn from it before assuming a self-righteous posture and becoming fodder for Trump's reelection campaign.
20
Passion for social justice and change is one thing but in order to be taken seriously, AOC needs to focus more on the practical side of governing. She may be woke but she's also unrealistic.
AOC and her allies, lash out at not only Trump and the Republicans when they don't get their way, to the extent that they're causing havoc, instead of being helpful.
AOC had no experience in law or governing when she won her seat, but never the less, she believes in her righteousness, regardless of how off extreme her ideas are. She doesn't understand compromise, she comes across as desperate for attention, and she doesn't know how government works. For example, she believes that abolishing ICE and the DHS will solve Trump's inhumane practices at the border, even though she has no concept of what DHS is, a department with approx. 240,000 employees that include multiple agencies, including FEMA. She's reactive, shallow, and at times belligerent to members of her own party. She threatened to primary those who don't agree with her almost as soon as she was elected. She's narcissistic and lives in a castle in the air.
21
A.O.C. and her Squad just don't get it. Democrats regained control of the House because of Moderate Democrats, She wants the Party to Vier far left, then what happens? Democrats loose the House. A.O.C. is insulated she doesn't have to worry about a real Republican threat at the pols, but others in Congress Do!
14
She may not have to worry about Republicans but my gut tells me that even in her safe district she will not get a second term unless she wakes up fast.
10
~Now those 'kids' are old enough to vote. And for the first time in history, there's more of them than older voters.~
This may be true, Maryann, but you've forgotten one very important thing: The 'kids' don't vote.
13
The American people are watching. "The people" are divided; about half could vote for Trump again. Maybe the "progressives" in the Democratic party will think about "the people", and not the party. What is their message to "the people"? So what if the Democratic party is cleansed of the old guard? What next? The House is barely in Democrats' hands; the Senate is likely to have strong GOP presence. What next?
9
29 year old AOC is as competent and experienced politician as a 29 year old doctor one year out of medical school, or a 29 year dentist one year our of dental school or a 29 year old attorney one year out of law school or even a 20 something in his/her first sales job.
But AOC is not even any of those. She is a Bartender.
19
@AL - It's one thing to be green. Those doctors and dentists when through rigorous training to get their degrees. They also learned that opinions are different from facts. In medicine, knowledge, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail matters. AOC has none of that going for her. Instead, she has heartfelt passion but even though she has no idea what the DHS is, she thinks it should be abolished. Or that in order to get a bill passed the Republicans have to vote for it, too.
10
I never thought I would see this day: 2620 commenters so far, and 2250 liberals - including myself - recommend Gemli's post agreeing with Maureen Dowd, including me. In the New York Times. It gives me a teeny, tiny glimmer of hope for 2020, that it might be salvaged after all.
17
Who anointed Nancy Pelosi the dear leader of the Democratic party? She has made a career out of capitulating. She doesn't lead on progressive ideas. She has shown more anger over being challenged from within the party than she has shown toward the cancerous malignity that is the modern Republican party. She is the one with the ego problem.
15
Wo anointed her? The rest of the Democratic representatives in congress. Perhaps you were not paying attention.
10
She was elected House Leader by a majority of Democratic Representatives
8
AOC and crew should keep attacking Pelosi and get her out of the way for the new regime:
Democratic Socialists of America will rule!
7
Thank you, Maureen, for another great column!
4
My great fear regarding 2020 is that the Democrats think that it is necessary to go too far to the left only to find that the majority of voters are moderates. I think that one of the main reasons they lost in 2016 was because they were so enamored with the idea of having the first woman president that they forgot to find out what the voters were concerned about.
The young progressives have a lot of ideas about how this country should be run. However, to me, they are showing their immaturity when claiming that their way is the only way. Experience teaches, or should, that other people have equally valid reasons for disagreeing. I wonder when, if ever, they will learn this and will it be in time to heal the breach in the Democratic Party?
13
Just this morning, when Trump really did hit AOC and her team with ugly racist tweets, Nancy Pelosi called him out for having done just that. Ms. Pelosi deserves an apology for any insinuation that she targets anyone for their color.
26
@NM...Except when she targets old, white men. And, white women who voted for Trump. And any gender of any color who don't toe her line. Except for that, Nancy is as colorblind as the day is long.
7
As if Trump needs a fractured Democratic party to win reelection in this sick country.
3
As a black man I find it insulting that having taken on the Speaker and other Democratic House veterans, A.O.C. and friends want to play the race card when the pushback comes.
Sometimes people aren't talking to your color, they're just talking to you. When you get to the big table, this happens all the time.
47
The speaker was not “ slimed”.
AOC was correct.
Pelosi is worried about the elite donor class.
You are biased
13
Amen !! Well said.
2
Calling someone "not a racist but" should be a last resort and not an opening salvo.
7
The “snot-nosed punk” is yet another reminder that a Harvard degree doesn’t automatically grant a person wisdom. Hubris, yeah.
19
SIX went to Boston University
AOC has given the appearance that she is ostentatious in her choice of clothing, even if high dollar spending is not involved. To project the proper message to the left, she should dress simply & cheaply, not give the impression that her politics is based on turning the plutocratic model upside down. Are we all in this together or is it merely trading one set of bosses for a new one.
5
What accomplishments of The moderates is Dowd defending? After years of capitulating and offering compromised positions, we are living under the disastrous regime of Trump and his conservative Supreme Court.
Since Reagan, conservatives have successfully pushed the center of public dialogue to the hard right. Thanks to Sanders and a new crop of progressives, Medicare for All went from a ridiculed position to one that is gaining steam and being adopted by others. So Dowd, if you want to talk about the long road of hard work, let’s talk about moving public opinion through education and persuasion, rather than simply occupying the center of the rightward drifting debate.
12
Bravo Maureen Dowd. "You climb the mountain to see the world. You don’t climb the mountain so the world can see you."
When AOC and her supporters can harness their intelligence and energy to work with the existing (broken, frustrating slowwwwww) system and her fellow democrats - we will have a change to defeat Trump. The common goal I assume.
12
I think it was LBJ that said, it better to have them inside the tent peeing out, than outside the tent peeing in. Nancy had better figure out how to get them inside the tent pretty quickly or she will be hustling cannabis like Boehner.
8
Having both of these women in leadership at the same critical hour is a godsend. AOCs appeal to young progressive voters, Pelosi's formidable smarts and experience, and the fact that both are WOMEN for a change. If they manage to turn this into a liability rather than the start of an insurgency, I give up.
4
Frankly Maureen, I do not really understand the significance of your title, unless it is simply one more exhibitionistic testament to your fondness for popular culture. AOC would have been only fifteen when “Brokeback Mountain” came out.
At least you could “do lunch” with one or more members of the Squad and parse their feelings before siding with Nancy, a woman whom I adore and respect. If you do, spare us your thoughts on AOC’s attire or Ilhan’s headwear or Ayanna’s hairdo or Rashida’s choice of shoes.
To wit: AOC is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, the first member of her family to dabble in politics. Ilhan is a Somalian refugee. Rashida is the eldest of fourteen children of Palestinian immigrants. Ayanna attended an exclusive girls’ school, but her household might be described as mostly single parent.
Nancy is the daughter of a congressman and mayor of Baltimore who hobnobbed with JFK. One of her brothers also became mayor of Baltimore. In the ’60s she interned for Maryland’s Senator Brewster alongside Steny Hoyer and quickly gained the support of San Francisco’s Democratic elite after her move. She is a multi-millionaire.
Over time, progressives have a habit of becoming absorbed by the establishment. Nancy is as much establishment as any other current member of the Democratic Party. She knows how to network, how to fundraise, and how to survive in politics.
By the way, Maureen, do you, too, own a pair of Manolos, or do you merely aspire to a pair?
17
I don't totally disagree with Ms. Dowd's column. However, the reaction here makes me want to know how many of the liberal writers are from the same generation as Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. The most popular letters seem pretty preachy! Someone even cited the "LBJ brand of politics" as a better leadership model. The president who brought us the Vietnam War is supposed to be a model for aspiring leaders in 2019 who are under age 30??? Seriously?....
(OK, since he brought us Medicare and Medicaid maybe, and the Civil Rights Act, I agree just a bit and yes, Washington-centric real-politics sometimes do rule the day. )
But in 50 years won't many of the real-politics have been defined by millenials too? Trump will have long since been dead and his memory likely deeply scorned. The youngsters can play the long game and they know it, just as the Tea Party had figured out - except that millenials have far greater numbers. I do not think Ms. Dowd sees that as fully.
Yes, they can learn to communicate within Congress differently. But these are some of the same young folks who just forced the mighty Amazon to abandon a HQ project in NYC that taxpayers would have flatly paid huge bills for. They have already thus slain goliaths.... Those of us who are older than them...we condescend to these young leaders at our peril....even if our counsel itself be wise. Style is important.
And again I say even that as a huge fan of Nancy Pelosi whose life's work may indeed have saved our nation.
3
Legislating is different than revolution. Historical perspective tells us you need revolutionaries to push and mold and break, but time and again we find that revolutionaries don't govern very well. There was a big difference between Samuel Adams and John Adams, the French Revolutionaries ate their own as well as others, and let's not start on the less benign revolutionaries elsewhere in the world.
4
I kinda look at Nancy like MLK and AOC like Malcolm X. People passionately agreed or disagreed with the tactics of each, but in the end, we needed them both to move things forward. Like you can have the reasonable dude talking about peace, or the violent sounding crazy one behind door number two. Enough people got worried about door number two that they were willing to accept MLK. I think AOC will actually solidify the rest of the party around Nancy because they know if that the Gang takes over they are effectively done. They are eve drawing fire away from Nancy on a wider scale, which is good. Nancy needs space to work her magic. BTW I think MKL and X were far more complex than the tropes popular media at the time reduced them to, but you get the point.
39
I’m beginning to see Pelosi like Neville Chamberlain and AOC like Winston Churchill.
9
@K .AOC is no Malcolm X.
6
@K So agree with you!!!!!!!
2
I don't think any of these women deserve the treatment they're getting. But if Ms. Dowd and others insist on infantilizing AOC and "the squad," it's Pelosi they should be taking to task. All Pelosi has to do is not condescend or belittle her junior colleagues. If she's the better statesman, she could act like it. And for those concerned with political ramifications....when Pelosi makes a blunder, it's the Republicans who jump in to make it worse. They're weaponizing what otherwise would be a minor fumble into a giant "rift" in the party. And judging by most of the comments, it's working.
9
Your invoking Rahm Emaneul in defense of liberalism, Ms. Dowd? The Rahm who covered up a police officer's murder of an unarmed Black man? The Rahm who endeavored to privatize the public school system in Chicago? The Rahm who closed down half of Chicago's public mental health clinics? Who eliminated Chicago's Department of Environment? Who consistently pushed through subsidies to real estate developers over the protests of community groups? Give me a break.
12
Once you decide to purge your party of those not as pure as you, you will end up purging your entire base of support and be purged by the voters, when they switch sides in the next election. It is Icarus's tale of flying so close to the sun that your wings burn up, and it is a lesson each newly ascendant faction in Washington has to learn for itself.
3
Maureen Dowd is spot on!
10
All Democrats everywhere need "Eyes on the prize."
4
Ms. Dowd, one of your besr columns...
9
I like AOC but she’s young and stupid. That’s no knock — we all were at that age. She should really dial it back and learn.
11
MD - I've loved your writing for ages, but on this you are dead wrong as was Pelosi's 4 reps comment.
Don't paint Pelosi as progressive, she is not. When did she EVER champion single-payer healthcare, the model that Hillary Clinton PRIVATELY acknowledged is THE ONLY solution. Btw, that was before her insane plan, or the dems adoption of the REPUBLICAN PLAN now known as Obamacare.
You are smarter than this column, Maureen. Or have you too become another the media mavens like all who predicted Trump's electoral failure? Bernie could have beat him, btw, had the mediagiven him equal coverage.
12
Second week in a row where Ms. Dowd delivers a low blow to AOC that will be appreciated and probably tweeted about by a fascist in the Oval Office. Quite sickening...
12
Except... the progressives are right.
Congressional republicans got what they want and they didn't do anything but stop laughing out loud at Trump.
The effect is that the Republicans can cheat in the vote, in judicial confirmations, in taxes for the rich, in gerrymandering and even in winking at pedophilia, and they have a lot to show for it.
But progressives must cooperate, be honorable, not take too big a bite, and play nice.
The ball drops in the court that wins by cajolery and treacle in enough numbers to install decent health care, progressive taxes, environmental protections, civil rights....
And then, voters hand the victory over to Republicans to shred.
8
These fact free columns from Dowd are getting tiresome, almost as tiresome as Pelosi's pretension at standing up to Trump. Let's be realistic Pelosi has done nothing to stand up to Trump and far more bashing the younger more popular more effective part of the DNC.
15
The “squad”? Is this high school?
Will the media just get over their tiresome obsession with these brats...pretty please?
8
More Pelosi sycophantic drivel from Maureen Dowd. At least this time we did not have to suffer through an account of how "she [Pelosi] regarded the little box of chocolates I brought her with delight" - Dowd op-ed, 7-6-19. I feel another intimate and exclusive interview coming very soon.
16
We have children in cages on our border and you chose to stoke an argument between Democrats...a real ‘dog bites man’ story.
You interview the most powerful woman in the Government and all you do is dish on those ‘horrible progressives’ who are actually trying to do something about this atrocity.
Did you bother to ask Pelosi about her plan to fight back? Did you ask Pelosi when she was going to visit the ‘detention camps’?
You have the privilege of having a platform on the nation’s newspaper of record...How about doing a little journalism for a change?
16
I would rather have any one of these progressive women of color in the White House serving as president, than the immoral, corrupt. pathological liar, misogynistic, racist cowardly, sexual abusing white man Donald Trump.
12
Sadly, this is classic Maureen Dowd: attacking people she doesn't like such as Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and now AOC thereby eliciting numerous approving comments from disgruntled Democrats, neo-cons, racists, Russian trolls, all of the above(?). Then, sometimes years later, after the damage is done, whether through guilt or seeing the light, she tries to clean up her mess by belatedly going after the beneficiaries of her attacks, read George W., Donald Trump, Donald Trump again(?).
16
I resent the implication on my liberal bona fide because I disagree with your preferred tactics.
1
Pelosi needs to step down. She is an old fossil who is using institutionalized power to prevent the Democrats from bringing about real change. She is a corporatist who is serving the status quo, because that is what the oligarchs want. She is empowered by the same forces that crammed Hillary down our throats, and that playbook is happening again in real time with the idiot Biden. Welcome to the world of the .1%.
11
Ms. Dowd's column, aside from a coy claim of responsibility for shaking up politicians by denying that was her intent, gets sucked into the vortex of political nonsense.
look, Maureen, it works like this: look at the challenges, determine their magnitude and significance, then work backwards into the politics.
you fail to mention that "the newly elected women of color" (whatever that means) have correctly observed that the problems of climate change, corruption, wealth inequality and injustice have grown severe, are nation threatening, demand immediate action.
oh, wait. you have the "conventional politics" slide rule.
sorry. the "conventional politics" slide rule cannot calculate climate change and the global plutocracy. you need the "revolutionary change" slide rule -- there ... see how it all works out?
so my advice to you, maureen, once you get off your video enabled solitary exercising device (quirky feint to both trendiness and obedience, that), is: look around you.
look around. do you really think things as they are can go on forever. your answer won't tell me anything about who you are, whether you're smart or stupid. but it will tell me about the slide rule that you're using to solve the problem.
"conventional politics" or "revolution"? i think i already know the answer.
8
Is it me or is the Squad the Democrats’ Tea Party?
3
Democrats are more interested in winning battles than winning wars, which is why Republicans have been winning most of those since Reagan. And yet so many commenters here are of the opinion that "Let's just play it safe and not do anything too "radical" and win this next battle".
Dangerously myopic and there's no hope for change on the horizon. The party is lacking the vision and leadership and message to get us through 2020, let alone 2030 and 2040.
7
There is, I am told, a chemical that is injected through the body when the emotions of righteousness and indignation combine. It is a kind of drug, and a lot of people love to experience its effects.
Holier than thou is not a political solution. It's indulgent and counter-productive.
6
I love Maureen Dowd but this article is way off base.
I have to agree with the criticism of Nancy Pelosi. She is part of a broken system, and out of touch with younger voters. I fear she and her "don't rock the boat" peers will continue to do the same things over and over and over and in the end, Donald Trump is going to be president again.
Hilary Clinton is the reason Donald Trump is president. Democrats can't seem to grasp this basic truth. Worst possible candidate at the worst possible time ever. And now you think Joe Biden is going to change that? The Democratic party is completely out of touch, and stuck in the past.
How can anyone ask Donald Trump to release his tax returns when Nancy Pelosi refuses to release hers? Show us your tax returns Ms Pelosi, you make a mockery of the fight against Trump, and all that he stands for, when you don't lead by example. If you are unable to release your tax returns Ms. Pelosi you are definitely the WRONG person in a leadership role the Democratic party so desperately needs.
The Democrats need new energy to combat Trump, and sadly, obviously, painfully, Pelosi is not that energy. There is absolutely nothing new about her.
15
I greatly admire AOC and any young person who steps forward to serve, but at this particular moment in time the Democrats need to be in lockstep behind Pelosi vis-à-vis the unprecedented threat Trump and Trumpism pose to American democracy. Anything other than unified message discipline and a united front invites four more years of Trump, and then it may be too late for democratic remedies. Chakabarti is exactly the wrong person to be exerting any influence at this moment of time. Talk about not being able to see the big picture and shooting oneself in the foot!
6
Right on Maureen. It’s been interesting to see people and the media be it fashion magazines etc clamor to have AOC in their pages. She’s the new it girl without even an ounce of skill or track record but this is usually how this crowd responds. It’s like high school and most have no idea why she may be right or wrong they just like her tweets and think she’s cool. Sound familiar?
The sooner people realize this is all about her the better off they will be. AOC, you definitely don’t speak for all of us so please give it a rest.
6
Based upon many comments here it seems Trump will win again. Gore (lost), Kerry (lost), Clinton (lost), Pelosi (presiding over 100s of lost races). Obama would have lost too had he not campaigned on “far left” promises (it’s what citizens “hope” for), and lost a great deal of respect by moving back to the incrementalist center, generating massive disappointment. What is so difficult to understand here folks? Pass the torch already to those who are not afraid to fight.
9
"A.O.C. should consider the possibility that people who disagree with her do not disagree with her color."
And Speaker Pelosi should consider the possibility that chatting with a prominent columnist about the types of privilege more commonly associated with Republicans -- summering on one's Napa vineyard, sporting $1,000 Manolo pumps, etc. -- while simultaneously dissing her party's decidedly less-affluent, working-class-born freshmen representatives was a spectacularly ill-advised notion from the get-go.
10
Ms. Dowd,
You are a very good writer. I wish that you would write about the immorality, theft, abuse of power, the Senate majority leader and a President with his enablers who are stealing children from their parents at or borders, starving the poor and pushing middle class Americans into poverty.
Why write about the AOC and Nancy. Yes, Ms. Pelosi is an outstanding Speaker but she was wrong to take a private disagreement public.
Yes, our energy needs to be focused on defeating Trump, but the Democratic Party is losing my vote if they continue to refuse to begin impeachment proceedings against the most corrupt President in our history.
5
Working together, they will down the beast. Publicly taking each other on publicly is no a prescription for success. Hope they can get it right. On another note, isn't it great that this story is about powerful women!!
In the current immigration crisis, existing detention facilities have been overwhelmed with a flood of immigrants well in excess of what they were initially designed to accommodate. The resulting abhorrent conditions were unanticipated.and the response was chaotic and under-resourced. Yet AOC calls this "setting up concentration camps", as if the US government had a persecutory intent from the start. No less than Trump, AOC is a demagogue, using the same techniques. There is no better motivator than anger, and no better target of anger than demons, and the demagogue exploits this ruthlessly by demonizing groups of people and feeding their constituencies with the feeling that they are being abused or taken advantage of by those demons. Different demons, different victims, same platform. My demos are the demagogues. The polarization in America has been driven into fever by these types. Let's replace them with people whose agenda is constructive, recognizing that all people are imperfect, and that differences should be resolved by reasoned debate, not rhetorical pitchforks.
5
AOC and Pelosi are both wrong to have played out this drama in public.
Pelosi started it, and AOC took the bait.
5
“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good” is realpolitik for a reason.
4
@Terry
... and every success includes the seeds for failure.
Avoid watering them.
1
@Terry
There's another side of that coin. Don't let mediocrity be the enemy of the good.
1
To begin with. Someone needs to SERIOUSLY talk to Saikat Chakrabarti who seems to be following his own particular agenda at the expense of getting everything wrong. Especially when he starts attacking Nancy Pelosi and throws around accusations of racism when people merely disagree with him.
That said. A.O.C. had better get her act together when blithely going along with whatever he says, because she's doing nothing more than splitting the party and handing the election to Donald Trump.
I never thought I'd ever agree with Rahm Emanuel on anything -- but he's on the money this time.
9
A pattern is emerging of legislators and candidates of color striving for advantage by attacking white peers by accusing them directly or by innuendo of racism. From Harris to AOC, its the same. In other words: playing the race card. There are many ways to play the race card. Trump plays it one way, Harris and the AOC play it another way. Both ways hold the promise that the ugly tactic will be a permanent feature of our politics. I for one am sickened by it.
11
Our so-called president tweeted this morning that the squad needs to back to countries they came from. And the worse of it is he’s going to be re-elected.
3
Did Jill Stein and the Greens really think Donald Trump would be better for the country than Hillary Clinton? By fielding a third party candidacy that had no chance of winning, they succeeded in splitting the left and essentially helped Trump win.
That’s the problem with these idealists - their only concern is their moral superiority and they never bother with the practical outcomes of their actions.
The four members of “The Squad”, plus Pramila Jayapal, Congresswoman from Seattle, are foul, immature and narcissistic. They do not reflect well on their constituents.
13
Republicans should be giving to AOC's re-election campaign. She is the best thing that has happened to the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan! She is the gift that keeps on giving.
The Democrats are trying to silence this strong, powerful woman, who has a shinning Progressive Vision for America.
Let her speak.
Stop oppressing AOC and her proud followers. They need to be heard.
FOX News should dedicate at least an hour a day to AOC.
6
I have not read all the comments below...so pardon me if this is redundant. I am a liberal but not a ideolog. Ralf Nader is an ideolog and got Bush Elected. Jill Stein, along with the Russians, may have gotten Trump elected. Wise governance requires masterful strategy and political savvy. Although I agree with AOC's goals, her strategy to get us to these goals is less than artful, in fact, amateurish. Successful leaders keep the long view in mind. After all, the definition of maturity is the ability to delay gratification.
3
So you think Nancy is the champion of women? Well, not of women who may someday challenge her throne. She's of the generation where women in power under cut and undermined other rising women rather then supporting them, as if they believed only 1 women would be allowed in the boys club.
Nancy is hardly liberal, let alone progressive.
8
Go Mo. I am third generation FDR Dem and on verge of starting a "stop AOC" movement. The media craving AOC acolytes need to read some history books and learn about the long grind since Selma and Rosa Parks. To let Trump stay in the White House due to inflexible ideology will wreak havoc on all of the Dem's progressive gains since Herbert Hoover.
7
Chakrabarti reminds me of a left-wing version of Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. He clearly thinks he's the smartest person in the room and AOC is just his "instrument," as Bannon said he sees Trump.
God, there are an awful to of people who think they're the smartest person in the room.
5
Politics, racism, and ageism aside for just a moment...
...I hope Maureen is getting "high-fives" all around the Times today, because this is her best headline ever!
Seriously, hilariously funny and rife with meaning, "scaling back wokeback mountain" truly captures the moment.
Are we woke...at the expense of wisdom? At the expense of respect? At the cost of working toward consensus, unity and community?
Are we woke at the expense of the lessons of history and the value of genuine life experience?
Are we woke at the cost...of our humanity? At the cost of our sisterhood?
This article also shines a bright light on the dark reality of how women treat other women. It's time we start having one another's backs...if only out of respect for our own selves and our shared gender.
1
They are strong. They are invincible. They are women. And almost fifty years since Helen Reddy invited them to roar, they are roaring.
As a man, I say good for you ladies. Roar!
It’s about time someone shakes up our ossified Democratic Party. We(men) have not exactly done a good job at it.
5
Trump won by being a disrupter. AOC is a disrupter too—she is just disrupting in a different (and better) direction. Pelosi doesn't want to rock any boats. She'll stay as still as possible even if her ship is sinking.
4
Ashes are the playground of Men like Reagan, Lee Atwater, Gingrech, McConnell. The question is, does the Squad really want to burn the House Down.
1
Maureen Dowd, you are not heeding the advice you ask AOC to follow. Why not act as a bridge instead of a divider--you're definitely getting lots of attention as the latter, but if there's one thing AOC and the youngsters are right about it is that these times we're in are urgent and call for different and extreme measures. Compare yesterday's photos of the camp Pence visited to the Bosnian death camps of the 1990s. Not exactly the same, but very parallel. This morning, the so-called liberal cities cower in fear of ICE Raids. What country are we living in? Nancy Pelosi needs your advice now, not AOC, and that advice must be: Speaker Pilosi, now is the time to act not with the political savvy you've used in the past but rather, as if your life depended on it.
4
If AOC and her friends were European politicians she would have been tought the hard way what party discipline and what a "whip", particularly a "three line whip", is all about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_(politics)
sub "UK"
Anyone who contravenes will be punished including suspension or termination without regard to the person. This principle that in ensuring the operability of a party as an instrument of power against strong opposition is more important than any individual. In continental political systems it´s the same.
In US Tea Party, Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump have implemented this "party discipline" system in GOP.
Particularly Mr. Trump was very succesful by getting rid of those GOP candidates in 2018 who voted against him or his initiatives as members of the house before so there is a united front of GOP representatives in both houses. Tax reform is the best example for the succesful use of this essential instrument of power by GOP. If it weren´t so it would have failed as Trumpcare did before. RW has openly learned from this failure. But AOC and her squad seem to be unwilling to learn so there is no chance against a newly united front of opponents.
Her brother in spirit here, Mr. Kühnert, showed just similar behavior in SPD. SPD lost 3-4 percentage points nationwide. Now he is suspiciously quiet... But much too late. This disaster must have taught Ms. Pelosi to intervene as soon as possible in the similar case of AOC and squad.
My guess: It did.
2
Wow, so the blue dog Democrats who made the ACA so much worse as well as many other issues are A-okay, even with "Gemli" from Boston. Here's the thing; you people of a certain age, with plenty of money and good investments don't really seem to understand what is happening to our country, what has happened already to our country.
May I just remind "Gemli" and the rest that Nancy Pelosi also called "The Green Revolution" the "Green Dream or whatever". I guess she hasn't read the latest UN Report of on climate disaster. I wonder how the air was in San Francisco last year when California had the worst forest fires in recorded history.
This is an old story, the Greeks wrote about it well. At 78 Nancy Pelosi is never going to live long enough to really feel the worst of climate change, nor will she be much affected should Trump take over the USA in the next election.
Speaking of which, how about that Impeachment that never happened? If we lose the next election, it will be Pelosi and the old people in Congress who are to blame, not AOC and the rest of the Quad Squad.
2
Well said - thank you Maureen! I’ve not been a huge Pelosi fan but she has the courage of her convictions and she does not deserve to be smeared in this way. To unseat this fool, we’ve all got to pull together - PLEASE— our country depends upon it. (Loved the quote from Rahm!)
5
A first-rate piece of opinion journalism, at an appropriate time.
It recognizes that the recent denigration of the leadership of the Democratic Party is an attempt at radical usurpation and domination, coupled with a jejune jumble of non-tenable “programs”. It is not focused on the need to restrain the pseudo conservative ad hoc agenda promoted inchoately by President Trump.
This situation will persist if he is again marginally elected through the unique vagaries of the Constitutional electoral system, again facilitated through the Democratic Party’s neglect of populational varieties, realities, and regional needs.
4
It is very important that AOC and her cadre focus in on the hate, and racism they are experiencing from their party.
This should give them the strength to move forward.
These poor women are being silenced by powerful forces.
They are oppressed.
The leaders of the Democratic Party are trying to put these strong women in cages, not unlike the cages we see at the border.
AOC and her cadre should look at the words and practices of a great leader like Che Guevara during these oppressive times.
Long live the Revolution.
2
Pelosi's comments gave Trump the opening he needed. Trump's tweets today prove what a disaster Pelosi's dismissive comments were. She's helping Trump divide not just the Democratic party but the whole country along racial lines. Great work, Nancy.
3
So sadly ironic that women claiming to care are stuck in their own egos and hyper-personalized views.
W/ each decade, people even slightly introspective realize that much wisdom comes with age and experience. AOC does not have much of either and to me, if she continues like this, I hope that she is challenged and edged out on the basis that in larger battles for important issues she must think of her colleagues (their districts) as well. She must at least consider their views w/out calling them names or insinuating such ideas.
I don't know if she realizes how angry and predictable she always is (or seems). Further, it is false for her not to realize a lot of the attention she gets is b/c she is young, which brings a degree of attractiveness - how she dresses and presents herself - for young women this is an advantage. This is the truth we all know. She uses this, as she should, but then she cannot criticize others as if she is perfect. She is not, at at all.
We need to fight for a fairer, more just, and better America but AOC now is helping trump. AOC - if you continue w/ your silly ego-squad, he will win. Many Americans loathe you now b/c you are all being careless, self-centered, and disrespectful. You turn off people like me, a white, blond female b/c you seem to imply that what I look like limits who I am. In community service, bet I beat you on hours. I care about all God's children w/out special interest or personal motives. Justice is colorblind for me.
4
Trump said something that badly needed saying. If you don't like it in our country, getting out of it is the option, not converting everyone to your point of view—so you can more comfortably stay in it.
2
A message to other commenters:
Whenever you find yourself █ suddenly █ agreeing with someone you've long disagreed with, examine the situation more closely.
1
As usual, not a word about policy, issues, law-making, committee investigations, or any other aspects of debating Democratic values, political convictions, and the actual work of governing.
Instead, this is Maureen Dowd, bleak satirist, theatre critic, and political soap-opera re-capper in her most trivially Caesar Flickerman at the Hunger Games mode. But addressing the current deadly-serious national crisis by elevating the childish role-playing of celebrity melodrama and spat-mongering as the central focus is a fatal distraction, just as Ms. Dowd’s unwise and unserious pre-2017 framing of Donald Trump as and entertaining comic rake and buffoon will forever discredit her judgement and trustworthiness.
If you accept Donald Trump’s professional-wrestling kayfabe feuding and petty insults as the level where political discourse is conducted, you’re doing Donald Trump’s debased, concern-trolling work for him.
4
Well, Boehner didn't take the Tea Party Congresspeople seriously and look where it go him. The times they are a'changing and it's hard for someone who's nearly 80 to keep up.
1
I'm an immigrant and a Conservative but I really like the way this article is written.
The only thing is that all Democrats, not just AOC, should heed the advice given:
"A.O.C. should consider the possibility that people who disagree with her do not disagree with her color."
You see, not everyone who voted for Trump is a racist, misogynist homophobe.
Believe it or not it's possible to want to clamp down on illegal border crossings and still have kindness and compassion for your fellow human being.
It's also possible to want the US to hold on to its strong economy and military to allow it to remain a place where refugees can find a better life through.
I came to the US to be part of the American dream. When I see people like AOC and Omar trash this beautiful country I wonder why they don't see what the rest of us do.
I do admire their willingness to change what they see as as injustices but their impetuousness works against them. Of course, that's what makes this country so great, the fact that they can trash it from a position of power and not fear retaliation.
8
Pelosi has made 150 million dollars since she has been in Congress. Of coarse she thinks everything is going just great.
Corporate owned democrats beware. The progressives are here and we will not sit down and shut up for anyone ever again. See what happens if you rig the primaries again.
7
@gene
Oh please. Reducing everything to dollars and cents while vilifying everyone who disagrees with you is the surest way to get four more years of Trump.
Democrats have got to find a way to stand together or that's just what we'll get.
What are your priorities?
Thank you! This needed to be said.
2
For those NYT readers who can think conceptually, AOC is the Dem's, Michelle Bachman. Like Bachman, she has a small but vocal following, an extreme belief system born of narrow life experience, and the ability to make outrageous remarks, give ill-informed opinions and divide members of her own party. Like Michelle Bachman, she will self destruct.
7
If there isn't a Pulitzer for column titles, there should be, and this one should win it.
1
Since the moderates voted like Republicans, why should their constitutes reelect them? Mind as well send a real Republican
back to Congress.
Bernie easily would have beaten Trump and he did it by being aggressive with a modern day progressive policies.
3
As a liberal democrat, I can only say amen!
2
Nancy was raised in a political family. She’s been an insider all her life. Nancy deposed someone to get where she is. What democrat preceded Nancy as speaker? Sooner or later someone will replace her.
1
I like rabblerousers, people who shake things up, and the Democratic Party definitely needs its head examined if it coronates Joe Biden, a competent albeit Hillary rerun, who has status quo written all over him and is convinced unbelievably that he can work with his Republican brothers in the Senate. It's as if he were in a coma during his own administration. In his defense, the Kamala Harris jab at his busing record was cheap. When you have a record, when you've been through the wars, you're a target for opportunists. Which brings me to AOC. Dowd's purity jab sticks. It's easy to accuse Pelosi of being a moderate, or status quo, or a corporatist, or whatever the newbies in the House think makes her defensive or yesterday's news. Wait until AOC and the rest of the squad have to compromise when they're in power and want to get things done. There'll be another Saikat Chakrabarti waiting in the wings to call her an apostate.
1
Dear Maureen Dowd, an endless THANK YOU for your deeply felt and beautifully articulated writing. You are a gift to all who hear you, feel you, receive you....
2
Would the Ds rather be right or effective?
You have AOC et al.
And you have D presidential candidates going too far as well, opening the door for a re-election.
1
At 29, AOC is a little long in the tooth to believe that the
world started with her arrival. Both on earth and in the
House. Who can tell her anything when she has those things that have served women (badly) forever: great looks and great looks.
A great mind knows what comes in the waiting. In the evolution versus revolution. And if one is seeking revolution one must have the numbers. No one counts numbers like Speaker Pelosi.
AOC has weak situational awareness. If her ideas are so great and good, they will hold long enough for seasoning. This is the time that tried men's souls. And the ONLY thing that brings hope for the democrats at this time -- what
restores, soothes and carries us across the bridge to the next best thing -- is a counter weight. For me it is Joe Biden. No matter the rage and crazed manic fury of everything out of AOC's mouth, the rest of us are in a world that is waiting to just breathe a sigh of relief. The absence of Trump. A country back to level. Or at least close, and trying.
3
The traditionalists have to learn how to sell more equitable policies to the mainstream and to ignore the bait set by provocateurs. I fault both camps, Pelosi and AOC/Chakrabarti. I've heard AOC sound very rational and fair-minded; she's at least as capable as Pelosi. The Democrats know a lot about winning elections but apparently not much about changing hearts and minds. Time to figure it out.
415
@Sarah Well said. The truly outrageous fact is that, in opinion polls, Americans typically favor progressive policies by a broad margin. It's unconscionable how pitifully bad a job Pelosi and her party have done at turning that broad support into political action. Brutally poor leadership mixed with a shocking disrespect for the actual will of the people.
37
Rahm Emmanuel, Nancy Pelosi, Obama and other establishment Democrats managed to lose 1,000 legislative seats to the Republicans from 2010 to 2018. Hillary Clinton lost the presidency to a reality TV star. During the Obama Administration there were compromises that further eroded our already tattered social safety net, continued the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan, put private insurers at the center of the ACA, empowered the greedy pharmaceutical companies, and bailed out the financial institutions that caused the 2008 crash without offering adequate help to the millions of people destroyed by that crash. What a record of success! Pelosi just handed Trump a 4.6 billion dollar blank check for “border security” without requiring protection for the poor people crowded in appalling conditions in the detention centers, which is the source of the current conflict between Pelosi and “Squad,” and contrary to this column, many others who voted against the border security bill. And even though this lawless president has clearly committed many “high crimes and misdemeanors,” Pelosi refuses to start impeachment hearings against him. But the problem according to Dowd is that these fierce young public servants are not respectful enough of the Democratic “leadership.” This would be laughable if the consequences of this way of thinking were not so tragic.
6
It’s perfectly reasonable to disagree with that Border Security bill, Obamacare, or anything else under the sun.
It’s not reasonable at all to “disagree,” by shouting slogans that simply aren’t true.
For openers, that Border bill was not a “blank check.” You may think its protectiona weren’t sufficient; the claim that none are there is ridiculous.
4
Democrats mostly controlled both houses of Congress for 70 years, from 1931 to 2001, because they managed a coalition of rust belt blue collar workers, Northern big city autocrats, and Southerners of all stripes who hated Yankees in general and Republicans in particular.
LBJ blew up the Democratic Party for most Southern Whites, so now about the only elected Democrats to be found in the South are in majority-minority areas and in places where Yankees have moved in in large numbers or that are beholden to big government like the Virginia-DC suburbs.
When Nancy Pelosi is considered a moderate you have to know that the party extremists inhabit some leftist reality entirely off the planet.
1
Last time I checked, AOC is not a candidate for anything. She’s not on the debates either. Her image only grows if the press ( including Maureen) and other Democrats keep mentioning her. Anyone who votes for Trump in 2020 because of her is looking for an excuse to not vote democratic.
3
Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has accomplished more in her first year in than most. She has rallied the nation around climate change. She and the much-derided “squad” brought our attention to the inhumane conditions at the detention camps on our nation’s border. Where was Ms. Pelosi at the time? Sharing chocolates with Maureen Dowd? Flying on her jet back to her vineyard in California?
Here’s the thing. AOC is bright, passionate and, unlike the vast majority of Washington, is truly un-bought. Few, if any, politicians of Pelosi’s age and “experience” ever ran a successful campaign based on single-voter donations and grassroots organizing. That is what AOC represents to millennials and the others who support her: integrity. A forward-looking candidate who has lived and worked in the real world. Not Manolo Blahniks and vineyards in California. Not cronyism and dark money. Honesty and the willingness to take a stand in the calcified, entrenched, always-on-the-defensive Democratic Party.
Also, Is AOC really asking for all of this press and attention? There was a time when the Wall Street Journal published 2-3 articles per day about whatever AOC said or wore or tweeted. She is a beautiful woman, articulate, and sharp. There will always be people deeply threatened by those qualities and lash out in response. Sadly, this whole episode is just another depressing reminder that there is no greater threat to a young woman’s career than an aging woman.
17
@Marathoner
yea because no one helped right? There was no system of people who do errands and research for Congress members before her right?
1
Oh, spare me.
Pelosi doesn’t HAVE a jet, and If AOC “rallied the nation,” there sure doesn’t seem to be any evidence of it.
6
@Marathoner OMG. “There is no greater threat to a young woman’s career than an aging woman.”
How about the white, male, 60+, wealthy establishment that has several tools to diminish the young woman’s message, including the Wall Street Journal. If you think Nancy is the enemy, you’ve just sentenced your cause and its messenger to the trash heap of history.
4
Maureen gently rolled the hand grenade under the barroom doors and Pelosi threw herself on it. There was no reason in the world for Pelosi to put down "the squad."
While Pelosi is busy tying our Joan of Arc to the stake, Donald Tump, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News, are rushing in with wood and gasoline.
Nancy, Maureen is too smart for you.
7
Racist accusatory tropes aside,Trump has lifted the economic condition of all, especially minorities,more than all Democrat condescending decisive talk in 20yrs. Projecting the Democrat partys long history of real racial decisiveness upon Republicans seems to be their core platform.
That the white Ms. Dowd engages in apologetics defending the white Speaker Pelosi from AOC's accusation exemplifies hollow Democrat party moral underpinnings.
6
can I quote from the article: (I do so for A.O.C. is so important to me as to what can be done):
Rahm Emanuel told me Chakrabarti is “a snot-nosed punk” who has no idea about the battle scars Pelosi bears from the liberal fights she has led.
2
This is the time for bravery against tyranny. This is the time to speak unequivocal truth. Pelosi is catering to a group of prophecy driven psychopaths who aren’t going to stop until made to. Stay strong AOC
7
@Gumaeliusart
The issue is not your bravery; it’s how to preserve the planet, and how to get a sexual-assaulter and budding demagogue out of the presidency.
3
"You know how topsy-turvy the fight is when the biggest defenders of Pelosi, who has endured being a caricature of extreme liberalism for decades, are Trump and the Wall Street Journal editorial board."
WRONG!!!!! What you know from this is that grass-roots progressivism has finally succeeded in moving the "Center" a smidgen back toward the actual center.
8
@Frank F They can move the center of the party all the want, but if they continue to pander to coastal elites over mainstream Americans then the Democrats will lose. That's simply a fact. Tip O Neill knew that the economy drives politics and right now most people are doing well. That must be the case or so many ILLEGAL immigrants wouldn't be clamoring to enter the country-claiming asylum, but in reality seeking jobs. Most of the actions claimed by the Left are alien to the majority of voters. Even AOC's own constituents aren't really very happy with what appears to be political grandstanding. AOC would also be wise to note that you don't stay long in DC without knowing the ropes. Even an old dragon like Pelosi has far more real power than it appears.
2
Margaret Mead said it best:
“The young, free to act on their initiative, can lead their elders in the direction of the unknown.The children, the young, must ask the questions that we would never think to ask, but enough trust must be re-established so that the elders will be permitted to work with them on the answers.”
The young Congresswoman and the elder Speaker should take these words to heart. Otherwise, Ms. Dowd’s conclusion is correct: The re-election of the current President will be inevitable.
15
Before criticizing AOC, One has to understand the sensibilities of minorities. We sense very keenly and are more aware than others when we are in danger. Although Nancy has fought the fight, she has not walked in the shoes of minorities. Nancy has the political experience for dealing with politicians. But we are not presently dealing with all politicians. The Squad knows who and what we are dealing with and they know the extent of opposition that’s required to fight the battle.
10
An important column that expresses my concerns exactly. “Move fast and break things” hasn’t worked out too well for Facebook recently. and that same mantra has been terrible for all the failed Silicon Valley startups that failed and are now forgotten. It certainly won’t win Democratic majorities in most states.
6
Theirs is a new, fresh perspective on a host of old problems. They have a point of view that’s definitely worth listening to. And, one day, their ideas could make a difference in the way America operates. Now is not their time. Our country is now caught between what used to be taken for normal and the Netflix series, Stranger Things. The first order of business is a restoration of order, followed by the rebuilding of relationships and the salving over of hurt feelings. The “squads” revolution will only have a chance once the country has been halted from moving backward. That will take some time. Hopefully, there will be something left to move forward. 478 days is a long time...
9
Sidelining Dem moderates may be a bad idea, or not. Centrists and moderates are hardly inspiring figures at this late stage, given their instrumental role collaborating in the 50-year decline of the middle class.
On the other hand, the problem with AOC and her crowd is that, yes, they're inspiring in some ways (Green New Deal, free college, single-payer medical care) but also repulsive to too many Americans with an open-borders, abortions-on-demand agenda.
What's the answer? Since Jimmy Carter we've had too many Dems who bill themselves as socially progressive but fiscally conservative. Maybe we need the opposite combination: Socially conservative but fiscally willing to spend whatever it takes to reverse a half-century of economic rot.
You won't find that anywhere in the Democratic Party today. But there were inauthentic but nonetheless widely noted hand waves at this combination in the Trump campaign, and if you watch a few nights of Tucker Carlson, you'll see it there as well (note Carlson's recent extended praise for much of Elizabeth Warren's agenda).
Do you really want the Republicans to, possibly at some point, be the ones to seize this open ground?
4
Time for the Centrists on both Left and Right to spontaneously create a viable third party and instigate ranked choice voting pending development of a slate of centrist candidates. That's the kind of "burn it all down" creativity this pragmatist can live support.
6
There are a vast number of people on the left flank of the Democratic Party who believe the Party has too long failed to live up to its promises because it has been conflicted and unassertive on important issues, especially on issues of racial and economic equality. To win going forward, they claim, the Party must move to the left. The young legislators known as "The Squad" have been chosen to lead the way.
This is a misreading of history. Hillary lost not because she was not liberal enough—read her platform—but because she was not inclusive enough in her thinking or her campaigning. A few more weeks of campaigning in the battleground states, where all those "deplorables" lived, could have changed history.
When I was a child, FDR was president, and the Democrats were the party of the people, especially the working class. In the 60s and 70s, newly affluent liberal Democrats, having little memory of the war, or the depression that preceded it, turned their backs on the working class to embrace neoliberalism and identity politics. They abandoned the workers and their unions in their hour of greatest need. Treating them as the enemy on the grounds of racism, they spent the next 40 years trying to squeeze them out of the liberal consensus. They succeeded all too well, and now we have Trump.
The Democratic Party is finally restoring its traditional big tent, which it needs not only to win, but also to govern. These "enfants terribles" cannot be allowed to tear it down again.
15
@Ron Cohen You are correct. The Squad should read up on the 1972 Election. Also, the 1984 Election.
6
@Ron Cohen
I'm confused. You seem to understand how far right the Democratic Party has moved and how they've abandoned their traditional liberal base, yet you don't think the party needs to move back to where they used to be, to the left of our current Republican-lite.
You also seem to espouse the "big tent," except that is shouldn't be so big as to include progressives like AOC.
I don't get it.
5
@J.C.
You are misreading me. I didn’t say the Democrats abandoned their "liberal base," rather that they abandoned the working class, a different proposition altogether. To understand American politics, you have to go beyond left-right litmus tests, and think broadly in socio-economic terms. In the 60s and 70s, the Democrats became an exclusionary party of white, upper-middle-class meritocrats, huddled in urban centers, mostly along the east and west coasts. They lost touch with the rest of America. That is why they have so long been relegated to the political wilderness—not because they moved too far right.
4
Amen. Thank you, Ms. Dowd. It truly seems as if some characters in this story climbed the mountain so others will have a better view of them.
11
Funny that this column is now running alongside Trump telling the freshman congress members to “go back to the countries they came from.”
Dowd and all the other well meaning, spineless centrists are the ones rolling down the slippery slope right into Trump’s lap.
13
Disagree completely. Accusing members of your party of being racists or not Brown or black enough is a sure loser. These four need to get over themselves. They need to work less for their own egos and more for their constituents.
16
@Game Wazny, I suggest that the Squad are not working " for their own egos". Rather they are calling attention to issues that merit serious discussion and action. They are highlighting issues that Democrats and Republicans are unable or unwilling to confront. They are expressing voices seldom heard in politics.
Pelosi and Dowd have found allies in Fox News , Trump and McConnell in disparaging 4 duly elected US Congresswomen. How is that at all helpful ?
2
So much this.
Bravo...as a diehard D with DC experience, I tire of Twitter politics. I am in total agreement with Maureen as anyone who has actual worked in the business of DC politics knows that four green politicians are of little consequence to real policymaking and governing. Their antics during their 15 minutes are only providing fodder for Fox and their racist, misogynist harpies. Grow up! Figure out how to make your point and make a positive impact. Manage your staff, your message and keep your eye on the collective ball of defeating Trump. You are not doing us Ds any good and when he wins (which I unfortunately think he will), I expect you to accept your role in ruining our opportunity to correct the horrors 8 years of Trump will bring.
20
“The progressives act as though anyone who dares disagree with them is bad. Not wrong, but bad, guilty of some human failing, some impurity that is a moral evil that justifies their venom.”
So like our Divider in Chief, the irony of that should be striking — or more likely frightening.
AOC as the face of the Democratic Party, a certain looser in 2020.
Trump must be euphoric.
16
AOC will soon be like the Louie Gohmert of the Democratic Party.
6
@Andy, Good Grief no!. AOC is literate, coherent, relevant, and not meanspirited !
4
A chunk of A.O.C.'s generation only knows how to reflexively lash out and label as X-ist, Z-phobic anyone with whom they sense any disagreement or difference. A.O.C. is trapped in a way of thinking that sees nuance, mutual understanding, and compromise as intolerable.
It attracts the "Cluster B" folks, that is for sure.
Perhaps some basic "growing up" will fix this, but the self-righteousness is so ingrained that it operates strongly to oppose personal and intellectual growth.
12
A necessary op-ed. Thanks, Maureen.
15
If the Dems want to achieve full control in 2020 then these new kids on the block must watch their P's and Q's. It's unacceptable that they waltz into town and start arguments within the party. This accomplishes nothing. Get the lay of the land first and put aside some those ridiculous ideas for changes, they are childish. She ( the Ortez girl ) will ruin everything the Dems are working for to reach success. This one may just as well be a republican.
11
The poignant irony – either Emanuel or Pelosi would be a far stronger 2020 candidate for the Dems than any of the current gaggle of wannabes...
As far as Saikat, he – like Steve Jobs – aspires to make a dent in the universe...
But – as things are now going – only dent he’s going to make is in the AOC campaign bus, as he backs it over his boss by mistake...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/climate/green-new-deal.html
W in the Middle
NY State
Feb. 8
This is a hoot...
For Pelosi, it must be like having one more grandchild...
For clarity, that’s meant as high compliment to them both...
Pelosi’s shot off the charts for me in the past several months, as a sane – and yes, relatively, speaking – centrist presence in the Deep Swamp...
And - there’s nothing in AOC’s GND that isn’t already being tried out in California...
Since starting to take everything she says – like everything Trump says – metaphorically, am totally enjoying the game from up here in the cheap seats...
PS
AOC – or Saikat, actually...
There’s actually a sane path for a good deal of what you folks are trying to do...
Just look at what China’s been doing for the past five years at nation-scale – for any of several topics – and you’ll be thinking in the right general direction...
4
Wow Ms. Dowd. I think you think this song is about you. Stop with the unnecessary vocab SAT words and maybe get on the bandwagon of young(er) women who support smart, sassy winners. Are we trying to win this election or not?
7
@Melissa sorry but AOC is the worst thing to happen to Democrats in like forever. Does that language sound about right? And we’re all woke here too but she lacks common sense.
Let’s see, the green new deal which was so far out there it didn’t make sense all harms what does need to happen however just moves moderates to the right. Seems her and her unqualified crew are trying to sabotage the party to be honest. As far as the rest of the “squad” they’re acting like children.
10
@Jay I understand your point and agree she is not a perfect political animal - more her comrades - but she has opened up politics to so many more people who see themselves in her - and its their first time at bat and feeling strong- i'm suggesting we give them a break and ms Dowd especially needs to back them all instead of instigating- as she writes - "an internecine fight". This is exactly what Trump wants. And his "squad" to use that now denigrating term - javanka, sanders, etc are no well better behaved.
1
For all those who seem so nervous--freaked out even--about the range of differences within the Democratic party and justify their fear by saying that "we must defeat Trump" and so everyone needs to get together:
Whether or not you remember Shirley Chisholm's run for President in 1972 (check out "Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed" if not), plenty of people wouldn't support her, told her to "rein it in," and wanted her to "fall in line" because "Nixon had to go." To say that Chisholm did not ultimately affect that outcome is an understatement. But also, even then plenty of those same people said it "wasn't about race" or that she was a woman. It just wasn't the "right time" to be saying what she said, etc. etc. As if. Did Chisholm understand more about politics than these women? Likely, but doesn't mean these women are wrong or that THEY are the reason Trump could win again.
No--"outliers" and "radicals" aren't the reason Trump could win again. McGovern got slammed even with all the anti-war, anti-hate, anti-Nixon support he had and he was NOT a radical or outlier. So many are basically saying--as they said to Chisholm--that these recently-elected women of color just need to "wait their turn" and "learn the rules" and "play the game." That's what some people working for real change are told when others are scared. Real change. Not wait-your-turn change. Not FIFA/US Soccer-paced change. We gotta think better and differently if beating Trump is the (only??) goal.
6
Even if Pelosi was once successful, it is time she relinquished the reigns of power to a younger generation. I see this in my own line of work.
People who are old enough to collect a well-earned pension are instead leading. They are not playing a role of mentorship, they are implementing their aged vision.
Enough let go.
9
The furies should be focused on voter turnout and helping democrats win elections. Too few millennials vote consistently and that is why policy tends to borrow from the youth.
Get out the vote and stop the infighting. Focus on winning.
14
I agree 100%. The counter to Trump is not extreme policies from the left. The election of Trump should have taught A.O.C. and her followers that America is split ideologically. Extremism will not defeat Trump. The election of Obama should have taught us that a uniter who represents all of the country, and not just his/her base, is the way to victory.
Trump will continue to bribe those other than his base to support him, proposing more tax cuts and the support of American industry over foreign companies. Trump knows that few care about deficits so he will continue to throw money at every problem he can. And he knows that people want to live well now. Trying to ask people to sacrifice for the future is a very hard sell and Trump counts on it. That is why people are not that concerned about global warming, as the worst of it may not impact most Americans in their lifetimes. Trump mines the greed that is a powerful driving force in our capitalistic system.
Feasible plans to help resurrect economically depressed areas of the country while also supporting the rebuild of the infrastructure of the cities would have an advantage over Trump's approach. It would be wrong to try and fight him in the gutter. The key is to stay above his childish impulses and focus on solutions that reach all Americans. Otherwise we will devolve into two lesser nations separated by our ideologies. The Democrat should have the natural advantage of his/her decency, humanism and integrity.
9
AOC and her colleagues need to realize that the electorate as a whole is not equivalent to their Twitter followers. AOC at this point seems more about her own self-aggrandizement and less about doing the hard work of legislating and winning general elections for her party and country. The stakes here are much higher than any of her self-important pronouncements would suggest. She is quickly turning into a not so secret weapon for Trumps’s reelection.
33
When the squad and their supporters prove to me that they understand how their ideas become bills and then laws, I might give them more consideration. They do not seem to understand that as long as the Rs hold a majority in the senate absolutely nothing will get done. If the Rs hold the senate and a Democrat is elected president, there is only so much that can be done by Executive Order. They also seem to be oblivious to who gave the Democrats the majority in the house, the moderate candidates.
23
I have disagreed with you many, many, times, Ms. Dowd, but in this column you have my heartfelt and anguished agreement. And I'm happy to see also that Rahm Emanuel still tells it like is. Thank you for schooling the youngsters - if they will only listen!
22
They won’t. Listening is probably racist or homophobic or something- like eye contact and conversation. So passée!
4
If the goal is to pass progressive legislation then, as another poster accurately pointed out, that job doesnt really get to begin until 2021. In the short term then, the objectives are to unite the party, get out the vote, defeat Trump, and, not so incidently, get yourselves re-elected. Let's go.
16
Democrats bemoan ideological purity while Republicans practice it with elan. The Democratic establishment strives to toe a center that no longer exists. Republicans, for decades, have moved the bar to the right.
Obamacare was a right-wing Republican idea until it suddenly wasn't. What's considered progressive in the U.S. is standard in much of the remaining economically developed world. Racism is driving U.S. politics, and driving out reason. Hillary lost running a centrist campaign, not a progressive one.
Progressive ideas are not wrong; Republicans are just far better at selling dubious or debunked ones. If Democrats keep letting the GOP establish the terms of engagement, they'll keep losing.
12
"Nancy who has shown incredible courage and who has twice returned the Democratic Party to power"
Seems like the American people had some contribution in returning the party to power.
The government "Of the people" had long been the government "Of the politicians." Time for a change, a progressive change.
9
While I love the verve and outspokenness of these legislators they really need some civics and history lessons. But, the Squad are not the only ones who could inadvertently take down the Democratic Party. I worry that progressives who want perfection will vote for a spoiler or will stay home if the nominee and DNC don't meet up to their high standards. I worry about Congressional races too. My moderate-left representative voted for the recent border funding bill. Anger about his decision is palpable (he's a traitor to the kids in detention). This is sad because 2020 is considered a toss up for him. I don't want the Democrats to lose his seat.
I ask the same question that Ms. Dowd asks: what is worse, a moderate executive and legislature that will seek to advance change incrementally through compromise or a radical right-wing executive and legislature that will upend our democracy? The fantasy that the majority of voters in the US are willing to support radical progressive change is dangerous.
The reality is that this country is moderately conservative. But the radical right has the loudest voice and no problem using unethical or illegal methods to give them power. So, which side are you on?
7
Our democracy has been upended by a radical Donald Trump.
3
There will be plenty of time after the election to sort out Democratic party internal power arrangements.
Until then Democrats need to be laser focused on getting rid of Trump.
So, it's not just the "squad" that needs to decide what they want, it the entire Democratic party.
My hope is that after the primaries the Democrats will coalesce into a united party with an effective message and strategy.
My fear is that the Dems will blow it and approach the election divided.
The "spunk" of the younger members is admirable. However, in response to this spunkiness, Pelosi is channeling the words of Lou Grant ( a dated cultural reference unfamiliar to many ), "I hate spunk!"
6
It is interesting to read Ms Dowd’ s declaration of what is stupid. Perhaps she is closer to Pelosi on views and experiences, the sharing of experiences and events over time does make for better understanding of a point of view.
AOC is neither right nor wrong because of her age, nor Ms Pelosi. Trump won precisely because of the failure of establishment Democratic leadership (donor class representatives)to comprehend the perspective of people with whom they do not share experiences and the arrogance to think certain people will always vote Democratic. More of the same myopia and arrogance will once again have voters throwing up their hands in exasperation or choosing to once again sit on their hands and not vote.
Everyone needs to vote for what they want and to resist both parties use of wedge issues to manipulate them into voting against their self interest.
3
Everyone has a dark side, problem with AOC is she is displaying too much of hers: strident, intolerant, and quick to pull the race card at the slightest of slights. I like her energy but she lacks self-control and judgement.
21
Leave AOC alone. Let them work it out between themselves.
Yes, everyone knows that time is growing short for making a dent in Global Warming or Climate Change or Climate emergency, but with the republican troglodytes in the Senate nothing will get done.
The 2020 election will decide whether we have a democracy or a fascist dictator ship.
I don't want to live in a fascist country, so please AOC and Pelosi work it out so we get democrats back in power.
11
Maureen Dowd, you go girl!!! Keep reminding us that the real villain is Trump, not Nancy Pelosi. The way to beat him is with a strong unified Democratic juggernaut. Back off AOC. Your time will come.
15
In the wake of Trump’s shockingly racist tweet targeting AOC and Omar this morning I hope that all you angry, senescent “moderates” heaping scorn on the same four Congresspeople many of us look up to most understand that Trump’s tweet is on you, too. Own it. Then stop collaborating with Republicans: they are not your friends and neither is Maureen Dowd. Without progressives’ enthusiastic support you will lose. Signed, everyone who is under 70 years old (and not accepting money from corporate donors.)
8
This just in: you don’t get to give marching orders, Hotspur—although maybe you do, and the question isn’t whether you can call spirits from the vasty deep to your heart’s content, and the question is whether they’ll come when you do call—and I pick my own friends, fella.
1
So nice to see Ms. Dowd back on her game. She's right.
Appreciate the issues raised by the newcomers but they need to realize they're in a party and the idea is to win in 2020. Always fanning the rhetorical flames and having the last word no matter how offensive is not the way to do it. Trent and Chakrabarti haven't been elected to anything.
Make nice and focus on the big picture.
13
Ms. Dowd, as an admirer of your writing for years, I understand that you are making some valid points in what is a complex situation. But to take a hatchet against the so-called Squad and against AOC in particular, struck me as, well, below the waist and disingenuous. These women are taking on a real fight to divert the course we are in. If you haven't noticed, this country is edging closer and closer, day by day, to a breaking point. Consider things such as the impossibly high cost of housing in our major cities, rising income inequity between genders and races, rising racial inequity, rising cost of education combined with often worsening quality of education, worsening climate change conditions, the health care industrial complex which includes Big Pharma, massive third-world style corruption, unprecedented federal land grab by powerful interests, rising oligarchy, and an amoral and unethical president surrounded by his kind and so much more and, well, it does not take a genius to figure out we need "radical" change and fast. It is a daunting task and we seem to be running out of time. These women and others working for our betterment deserve the space and respect to do their bidding on our behalf. And Nancy Pelosi, like Joe Biden, has had her days in the sun. What is in front of us requires no less than new and courageous leadership.
7
@Newoldtimer
I could not agree more. The challenges we face require radical and revolutionary change; incremental change is no longer an option.
3
Literally every generation in human history would love to trade their problems for ours.
1
@J. Shepherd Does not mean our problems are not less real or serious. We are a relatively new nation making your statement profoundly ignorant and disrespectful of much older countries and societies than ours.
1
Thank you, Maureen, for putting this in perspective.
At first, I was excited to see AOC elected. But now I'm tired of her. She seems like she hasn't seen a microphone she doesn't like and to be willing to render an opinion on everything. Of course, it's fodder for the media but also the Republicans.
She and her cohort also forget that they are only a handful among 435 and feel that they are the only ones with legitimate thoughts. However, they are all from urban settings and show they have no idea how the rest of the country lives.
Now that I read about Mr. Chakrabarti, I am more uncomfortable. His guiding principle is to use data and polling to shape the polity to his thinking. He could benefit from doing it the other way around and find out how folks are thinking and then shape the policy.
I think that AOC/Chakrabarti and company will wear on people after a while. Which is a shame, because they do have energy and intelligence. They just need to learn how to use it effectively.
13
Let’s have this argument after Trump is out and we have the Senate, when it could actually make a difference. Having it now just makes it less likely that it ever will.
9
@tim
If we don't have this conversation now, Democrats will never get the Senate -- or the White House.
4
We have to worry about Trump - not changing the world. The world will never change with Trump in there. We have to do first things first.
11
Hey Modo,
Just a note of thanks for providing Nancy a platform to throw the most popular members of her caucus under the bus and kickstart this incredibly stupid news cycle that will take the heat off of ICE raids and concentration camps on our border.
Love you babe,
The Donald
16
First they came for the conservatives...but I was not a conservative, and so did nothing... This is an entirely predictable effect of the "long march through the institutions" that our little leftist Robespierres have perpetrated on this country, most notably in media, entertainment, and academia. Now intellectually warped, petulant children like AOC are emerging from universities with a sense of extreme entitlement, poorly educated but fully indoctrinated, and they are entering political life. And none of them as Republicans. With a President immune to guilt, they are turning their propaganda fire on those who will be most affected by it in their own party. It's telling that "progressives" like Dowd are now bemoaning the fact that these Democrat weapons of choice are as destructive to the wielder as to the target. It was OK with Mo when only the "right" people were being outrageously slimed. Now that the leftist chickens have come home to roost we hear the squealing. They brought this on themselves, and their pain is well-deserved. Schadenfreudelicious.
7
I’m sorry but this does seem racist.
6
@M
Funny. I don't think so ....and I'm in that demographic.
1
@M Disagreeing with someone is not racist. I am tired of this excuse. It's disingenuous and in a way just as racist as saying that these women are incapable of coming up with solid arguments for support. They ran for office and got elected. They shouldn't require special accommodations to make their cases.
2
Sorry Maureen but your ship is sinking. Too many years spent using your mastery of the language to coddle, ridicule, excoriate, bemuse and pontificate while sipping wine in Paris or one of your other worldly haunts. The times they are a changing, especially when we are so weary of the military always getting their huge slice and Trump blovating and thumbing his nose at Congress. Impeach his rear end so at least all his autocratic ways are hung out to dry and he joins Johnson, Nixon and Clinton in the Rogues Gallery. Hats off to AOC for giving this old timer some hope. Nancy, Joe, Bernie need to retire and pass the torch to a new generation.
10
Omar, Tlaib and Cortez are on the Republican payroll. What they say and do is so stupid no moderate will ever vote for them. They must be a GOP plant.
16
This is the problem with utopian fantasies, Ms. Dowd. At least you have the sense to see that yours was a fantasy.
3
So the NYT defends Ms. Pelosi on the accusation of racism by those who disagree with her. Where is Ms. Dowd when it's time to defend conservatives when they are routinely accused as racist for simply having different policy positions? The NYT continues to ooze hypocrisy.
10
Aoc is a joke. She and her anti Semitic pose will insure Trump gets re elected!
13
It comes to this. Youth has seen, and experienced first hand, the end results of all that we have done over the last half century. Youth is angry and had enough. It is hot-headed in its idealism and beyond the point of being placated by the patient murmurings of its elders.
In truth it has ample reason to be so outraged. But being hot-headed most times makes one blind and insensitive to the needs of strategy and tactics. It's all bull in the china shop wanting change.
Youth will be served, it always is for the simple reason that it inherits. Pelosi and her generation are ample example of the logic of this. But it must be smart and cagey about it. This is a long game, a marathon and not a sprint.
To defeat the opposition takes time and positioning...and the game has only just begun. So I suggest to Youth that you cool the hot-head and start thinking thru all you wish to do.
John~
American Net'Zen
8
I dislike this column from its cutesy title and its solipsistic, New Age introduction about Ms. Dowd's spin workout to its unsupported conclusion that progressives prize "purity" over politics and policy.
5
I got news for Rahm: he's a snot-nosed punk too.
11
Yes, he is. Chicagoans agree.
2
@Mixilplix.
You wouldn’t say that to his face. Trust me on that.
2
"A.O.C. Squad voted against the House’s version of the border bill and trashed the moderates — the very people who provided the Democrats the majority — that the Squad was four people with four votes."
"Moderation" rides its sense as 'perfection"--neither too much nor too little--the perfect amount/degree of whatever. And wreaks havoc. This is another glitch in NYT vocabulary/classification of political platforms/ideologies. It's as bad as Left/Right and Populist--whose meaning is user dependent--Humpty-Dumpty-ish (see Lewis Carrol).
1. Evolution is not led by "moderates" as in "middle roaders". It is led by mutants/freaks--contrasted with be past--but progressive genius nevertheless.
2. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
3. Sanders AOC and the Squad well know that pandering to the middle road is compromising with the GOP/Devil.
It took decades of dedicated ideological brainwashing to move the GOP plutocratic lunatic fringe into middle road. Robber Barons now rule. "Trickle Down," "Raise all boats" "Free"--as in "free from government" (=anarchy)! and "Free Markets" --as in "free from law and logic"--permitting snake oil sales as panacea--and now a liar in chief president.
Trump can own a "university"; sell "courses." That perverts academia as Evangelicals pervert "Love thy Neighbors."
"...stupid proposition...Pelosi is the problem" But Pelosi ALWAYS knows best is another one. "AOC slimes Pelosi" slimes AOC.
You've been beguiled.
5
If anyone would know a snot nosed punk ..it's Rahm Emanuel. .. You know the pot calling the kettle black. Not a real good source to quote. Did a great job in Chicago, less than nada, if you know what I mean
11
Nancy needs the AOC Squad to do some heavy lifting.How about sending them on fact finding missons to investigate womens rights under a future Taliban regime in Afghanistan, progress in Iraq with the ongoing peace process between the Sunnis, Kurds And Shiites, to Saudi Arabia to look into dissent suppression and the killing of Kashoggi. An extended trip to China to study the surveillence state and state use of technology to suppress dissent should next be taken. And then run a primary against them if they are still unpriductive jerks hell bent on power grabbing, destroying the party, and ensuring the relelction of Donald J. Trump and Republican majorities in both the Senate and Congress. God help America with this crew in charge.
8
Loud ‘Aunt Nancy’ claps to Maureen Dowd. Still clapping.
3
Maureen Dowd chides AOC for falsely accusing Speaker Pelosi of racism and then she falsely accuses Trump of racism. She - and, I suspect, most NYT readers - don't seem to grasp that by cynically weaponizing false accusations of racism against Trump, they paved the way for Pelosi to suffer the same treatment.
That AOC's chief of staff idolizes a Bengali nationalist who allied himself with Adolf Hitler adds a bizarre element to this situation.
10
Excelleni column Dowd, got it down were i cant disagree.
AOc is bright, outspoken and poised to have a bright future , but need to wait and learn from Madame pelosy.
not everyone in the werld is racist, neither is pelosy.
please dont destroy thr party by being hot headed.
7
Saikat Chakrabarti is obviously a Republican Manchurian Candidate. Who knew these deplorable neanderthals could be so clever?
6
Rahm Emanuel called AOC's chief of staff a "snot nosed punk"? Will wonders never cease!
AOC, who is about as white a Latinx as anyone has ever seen, and who has lived a life of white privilege (such as it is these days), dares to tell Nancy Pelosi, the Mother Superior, about anything?
And the worst performing of all of the Dem presidential candidates, Jay Inslee, as a way to jump start his DOA campaign, says he going to appoint Megan Rapinoe as his Secretary of State. What's next: will he name Colin Kaepernick as his VP?
Message to Democrats: you don't have a problem, you have a terminal meltdown. Best re-tool for 2024.
7
These shrews will make more Republicans out Democrats and Independents that any other thing. Beware of Repupublican dirty tricks and infiltrations of these doozies staffs!!! Sowing dissent among the enemy camp is standard ROP.... Republican Operating Procedure.
4
Yup.
Is Saikat Chakrabarti
a Republican mole?
9
The neo-liberal Rahm Emanuel is calling who a snot nosed punk? Rahm Emanuel who never heard of a bank he didn’t love, a public school he couldn’t close down or replace with a charter school, a group of government employees he couldn’t call undeserving, a law enforcement officer who didn’t shoot in self-defense or a war he and his buddy Obama could end. Oh, so sorry to be so ungrateful as to not appreciate Ms. Pelosi, Ms. Dowd, and the other adults in the room who warn us that if we don’t agree to less than half a loaf we won’t get anything at all.
3
@Jc Funny, but you guys loved him when he pulled the same sort of stunts as Obama's chief of staff.
I usually enjoy Maureen Dowd's editorials, but with this week's and last week's I feel like she is writing about a controversy that she herself played a large role in creating. Would Ocasio-Cortez and Pelosi even be having a public spat if it were not for Maureen Dowd provoking a dig out of Nancy Pelosi and printing it in her last editorial? Maybe so, but it seems to me that Ms. Dowd is egging this on for something dishy to write about.
12
Speak, Maureen!
Et tu Maureen? What is is with NYT columnists whining in follow up columns (I’m looking at you Brett Stephens) when they lecture us and find out how out of touch they are with reality.
7
To go from bartender to Congress person is a pretty big leap. Reaction on social media supports AOC. It makes sense for her to rail against the establishment since that is how she got there.
Does anyone have evidence that the experienced Madame Speaker has put her own ego aside to mentor the 'four trouble makers'? AOC is a lighting rod who can test ideas for Pelosi but shouldn't Pelosi should be the adult in the room?
6
Totally agree. Thank you for writing this excellent piece.
3
A major problem with Pelosi's approach is that every DAY Trump and his Administration undo more environmental protections and place not just the country but the world in more danger with their decimation of already inadequate laws and regulations on behalf of very greedy corporations. Just today n the Times there was a story about the Feds planning to limit the ability of local governments to impose their own environmental rules. We need the Dems to stand up and SHOUT about this, educate and inspire citizens to action.
We don't need endless proceduress which probably bore most voters to bring endless charges through Congress. We need people who will shine strong spotlights on this destruction of our country. If Pelosi would move towards AOC and buddies, we might get this. Other Dems migh very well join them. I'm almost as old as Nancy Pelosi. She IS in a bubble.
4
I'm a lifelong Democrat, and I don't care about any of this. Infighting between Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez? Meaningless. Progressive vs. Centrist? Whatever. I have lived through liberal administrations, centrist administrations and rightist administrations. The policies and infighting that seemed so important in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s by now has just faded into history. I can't really even remember much of what the fighting was about in those years. What I know now is that Trump must be removed from office. So, whether it's a progressive Democrat, a moderate Democrat or a conservative Democrat on the ballot next November, they've got my vote. What else am I going to do? Vote Republican? Ha! Not in this lifetime.
13
It's frustrating to hear this tit-for-tat among the Dems in Congress. Let's be realistic. Four more years of potus will not enable anyone in the party to achieve any of their goals. The only thing to be achieved now is to defeat potus in 2020; put all your energy into this over-riding purpose.
3
This year the AOC squad and their voters will be as destructive to the dems as Bernie and his bros were in 2016. Sad to not learn from such a tragic mistake, with forever consequences.
7
I read this column not long after the current occupant of the White House Tweeted about “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” having the temerity to tell the people of the United States how to run a government. He goes on to say that perhaps Nancy Pelosi would be happy to make travel arrangements for them to return to their home countries.
Way to play into his narrative while defending inside the Beltway potentates, Ms Dowd.
These new representatives may be a bit loud, but they are standing up for the marginalized, the environment, and the working class, while offering up a pretty accurate critique of a Democratic Party which concentrates too much power and money in the hands of a leadership that believes the autocrat in the Oval Office will somehow impeach himself.
7
My late father used the expression, “I rather be right than President”, when someone was stubborn and unwilling to compromise. That applies to AOC.
If only “the squad” had grown up in my home!
1
@joan My father and mother both said "I'd rather be right than President." They meant it literally and said it when Nixon was President.
1
AO-C and her pals are damaging to our chances to beat Trump. He gets that, which is why he just texted about them. He wants to keep this fight going. In fact, he is trying to escalate it and elevate the profile of The Squad. That will help him.
Full marks to MODO for calling out the Squad.
10
To repeat a well worn maxim 'Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good'. Ultimately, those who insist on purity fail.
Politics is the science of the possible, not the desirable. Democracy is frustrating and slow at times, but the alternative is almost always worse.
3
If it were clear the Squad could deliver a game-changing voter block in the districts we need to win i’d support them more strongly but the isn’t clear at all.
Prove you can flip a district. Prove you can read an electoral map. Prove you can marshal support on the house and senate floor, not just on Twitter.
Basically, prove you can deliver a win before you start talking about putting all teh oldz on an ice flow.
3
Bernie Sanders trained the Squad well. Create outrage repetitively, stay ideologically pure, and have no legislative legacy, except for three post office name changes. Wave your arms while yelling any epithet that will maintain the Us vs Them strategy than created nothing, that advanced no structural changes in America, and keep pointing out that all the social and environmental progress over the last 40 years had nothing to do with liberal Americans and their chosen politicians. As Dowd wrote, these people climb the mountain to be seen...certainty not the mountain climb MLK envisioned.
7
And I thought Donald Trump was childish. The far left is the flip side of the far right “tea party.” They are doing a great job of shaking things up. If they don’t learn to compromise Donald Trump will be re-elected and they won’t.
3
When I was young and possessed the arrogance and audacity of youth, I often butted heads with my father. He would never say that he knew better but simply remind me that “I’ve walked in your shoes, you have yet to walk in mine.”
Experience is the one commodity of Life that can not be gained before its time and dismissing it without comprehending its value is the failure of maturity. Nancy has been there. Nancy understands the urgency of youth and the immaturity of AOC and her Twitteristas. If only they would find the wisdom to listen to her and realize that failing to do so will result in the greatest harm: reelecting Trump.
5
This is an exercise of raw political power by the Speaker in the Democratic caucus. The "Group" members should not expect any committee chair seats in the foreseeable future. Welcome to congress!
2
The Squad doesn’t want
to govern but rather
wants to burn the system down. that may play well in Queens or Little Mogadishu and even with many NYT readers but it’s not going
to play well elsewhere.
When Nancy has become the face
of
moderation your party should probably do
some introspection.
3
What is so difficulty for the current political class to comprehend—as well as its media pals—is that personality driven politics are on the way out. To claim that this type of “behavior” within the party will give us four more years of Trump, is just wrong. In case you didn’t realize, Trumpism is here to stay, and the only way to beat it is with movement based politics. And lastly, try not to be so pessimistic, especially when it comes to the people: “I believe that we can win!”
Thank you Maureen (and Rahm)…you old fogies, you!
All of us old fogies don’t possess wisdom, maturity and experience, but a lot of us do.
For one thing, we know that when you use social media as your primary source of communication – rather than real conversation and communication with people - you’re not building consensus or community.
We also know that the world – and especially gov’t. – is as Maureen put it “a place where you work at it and work at it and don’t get everything you want.”
The greatest danger to this nation and our democracy - perhaps the world w/Iran and North Korea looming - right now is President Trump. Let’s vote him out of office and then fight about a progressive agenda. (We also know you get your dessert after you eat your dinner.)
This isn’t just about dysfunctional Dems and ageism…it’s also a stark example of how women operate with other women. It’s time we had each other’s backs, regardless of our differences.
3
I have defended the "squad" multiple times including ignoring all the articles that are sent my way implying that Ilan Omar had some boot camp type of early extremist anti semitic training.
This time however I am frustrated by the petulance and naiveté of these women. Pelosi is a veteran and has fought the fight long enough to have somewhat of a realistic idea of how to strategically beat the opponent for the greater good no less.
Getting POTUS out of office should be the number one priority and we can argue over the minutia at a later date.
10
Perfection is the enemy of progress
Ignoring social media as the powerful tool it is , is equally counterproductive
Come up with a platform you two Stop quibbling like children. That is Donald Trump’s m.o. and achilles heel
Our job is to unseat him not mimic him
2
The Dems on both sides better get in a room and figure this out. Pelosi & Co. better be scared of the Justice Democrats. That’s what put them in power. Right now, they hold the key to taking action. Pelosi can caucus all she wants but the bottom line is the time is now. Act. Impeach. And fight back as one unified force.
1
Sorry, it was the moderates in Trump districts that put the Dems in power.
2
Nancy Pelosi is a life long professional Democratic Party politician. She has never worked in any other industry. Her father was a Congressman, her brother a mayor. During the seventeen(!) terms she has served in Congress, her personal fortune, along with that of her husband's corporate investments, has grown to an estimated 25 to 100 million dollars, including vineyards and extensive real estate holdings. In short, she personifies everything rotten in today's corrupt Democratic Party and why the voters are rejecting them.
8
@RedAllover. I’m with you, though you make it sound like corruption is unique to the Democratic Party. We certainly have a flair for it, but we learned a couple tricks from the GOP.
Nancy Pelosi is emblematic of the phrase: “All power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” She needs to retire.
2
Dear AOC
Rome was not built in a day. Nancy Pelosi speaks with wisdom. It would behoove you to listen. Dumping Trump is the mandate.
6
The fact that main stream media is using terms like "A.O.C. Squad" suggests we have a big problem.
Maybe if we (in particular liberals in Blue areas and Pelosi) started by acknowledging the racist society we live in and the question became how do Democrats beat Trump in that racist reality we could have a better discussion.
Thank you to Nikole Hannah-Jones today for helping me to better fully understand.
1
RE The Squad : “Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under the omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C. S. Lewis
8
This is media melodrama on the liberal left that frankly mirrors the right's own brown-people-are-trouble narrative, only with different chapters. Pelosi is making a big mistake in not offering language about the tent being large for all kinds of ideological differences.
1
Ms Dowd: Consider the possibility that the young Democrats see an entirely different world than their grandparents. Most importantly, they see a world where the President of the United States flaunts his criminal behavior and feckless Democratic leadership does nothing.
9
Sure, first beat Trump. But I don’t think they will as currently composed. We have a clown car of candidates who have no Shepard, no strategy and worse yet...no message. There is not one I see that beat Trump. He’s got them beat on immigration, China and...if it stays good...the economy. This is the DNC’s and Nancy’s mess. No bench, no gravitas, no enthusiasm from the base. This should have been a slam dunk but once again the circular firing squad takes aim Feels like AOV and the squad are the least of Pelosi’s problems.
6
I don’t think you’ve been paying attention. First, this is not a clown car, as there are many serious candidates. Several like Warren, Sanders, have comprehensive published perspectives. You may not like their message, but they’re quite clear where they stand on myriads of complex issues.
Also, don’t forget, Trump emerged from a true clown car of incoherent messages.
Didn't Chakrabarti make $Millions in Silicon Valley?
Doesn't that make him, if not the 1%, then part of the upper 10% in the country - which means that he's part of 'The Elite'?
Hey, if Chakrabarti wants to open his mouth and attack others, he'd better be prepared to be exposed as a Wealthy Exploiter.
I'd actually hoped that AOC, once elected, would settle down and learn to be an effective Congresswoman, which includes making political alliances.
Instead, it seems that she's just a narcissist like many others in power.
9
This is one person's disagreement with Ms. Dowd.
The no votes on Border Relief by these Reps came from a belief humane protections were left out. They worried the detentions and separations would continue. Their view was that the bill would not alleviate the situation in any major way. Especially in this President's hands.
No other than Abe Lincoln excoriated his Congressional colleagues in the Spot Resolutions, defying Polk's assertion that blood was spilt on American soil to start the Mexican-American War. His precience was also vilified.
The second event was Maureen's interview with Pelosi where in a very public way (not confidentially), took the "squad" to task, and used tabula rasa humiliation. Pelosi may have been talking politics, but double entendres can be the bane of our existence.
These Reps are representing their constituents and pursuing an agenda that is actually mainstream. It only looks otherwise because the Congressional makeup is out of tune with public sentiment.
Direction polls and Congressional approval polls have been in the toilet. Voters want change, and particularly the young. They will live many more years under any legislation that is passed. Pelosi was not their target, but vice versa was.
Political strategy is all well and good, but it is a hit on our democracy when Reps closer to voters' wishes are called out because they thought line towing was inadequate. Further the nose count showed it would pass.
2
My hopes of a Demoratic ANYBODY BUT TRUMP victory in 2020 are being hollowed out by the A.O.C. "Mob".
1st.. Radical change shaped from party division with zealot appearing newcomers to Congress WILL "Hillaryize" the presidential election, besmirching Trump alternatives no matter who is the nominee!! Fox News focus on A.O.C and Trump's sudden "support" of Pelosi to stir the controversy will put independents and fence sitting moderates' left leaning vote in jeopardy. Anger and hate, as was the case with Hillary, will trump common sense policy alternatives.
2nd.. The polling numbers to begin with are against the Democrats immigration stance, despite the vicious accounts and pictures of caged families. The non-white faces in Congress are the "Representatives" of change, where slowly but surely the lies, stoked fears, and bombardment of constant tweet, press conference, and distortion adds to A.O.C "mob's" lack of legitimacy.
5
If Pelosi wants unity then she should not be giving interviews to Dowd in which she attacks AOC and the Squad, and then pretends offense when they respond. Unity begins with loyalty from the top down.
5
I am an I dependent and AOC's behavior has deeply disappointed me and almost every moderate we know. if she continues her mindless behavior, Trump will surely be re-elected
10
As a retired taxpayer, I simply can't wait to start paying for free medical care for illegal aliens, no consequences for illegal entry and the forced busing of my grandchildren.
I swear the the Squad is working for Trump's re-election. I guess it's great that the Democrats have so many votes they don't need to do anything to appeal to people like me who hate Trump and would vote against him.
But AOC knows what she's doing. Right?
10
As per Trump's latest Tweets:
What do Trump and Pelosi both have in common?
They both like to denigrate the "Squad".
2
One thing matters: removing Trump. Why? Because whether you are a moderate Democrat or an extremist, your agenda is dead with Trump back in office.
More importantly for the rest of us the Republic and its democratic institutions, which survived one Trump term pretty well, probably would not survive his re-election.
The last thing this country needs is for some self-righteous Savonarola who knows how to tweet but not how to listen to appear at the last minute and throw Trump a lifeline. Please get your priorities straight while there is still time.
3
Serious question: What states will the Democrats take back if they follow what the rookie members are preaching?
4
AOC and people in her corner are simply showing they have no confidence in the old guard and how can you blame them? Eight years of Obama made no fundamental change in the country's direction.
6
So you think being more radical than Obama is a winning formula? What’s more important, personal idealism, or defeating Trump. My assistant voted their conscience in the last election, and wrote in a name. Essential that was equivalent to a vote for Trump.
Keep your idealism. We may not be moving super fast, but (with the exception of the last 2 years), we’ve made significant social and equality progress in the last two generations.
@Garbolity
'' We've made significant social and equality progress''. If this is true please explain Trump to me. If returning to things the way they were pre Trump is the goal then God help us.
2
I have a bad feeling about how all this ends . The Dems are once again proving to be their own worst enemy . As Pogo said,"We have met the enemy and he is us".
2
AOC and others are correct to insist that the racist targeting and horrific abuse of immigrants by this administration must be a clear red line. Further, they are literally putting their lives on the line in this fight. The numerous racist death threats and viscous racist targeting in the right wing press is real. In terms of solidarity, and despite her leadership role, NP has, at best, been unheroic. Pelosi’s multi-million dollar contempt is now clear for all to see. More realistically, she’s cynically (with the MD’s help), assisting the targeting of these gifted women.
5
Until she grows up and acts more mature , AOC should sit at the children’s table.
9
Wow, what a powerful,outstanding rebuke to
AOC Inc.
Thank you Ms Dowd!
3
I had hoped we left this malarkey to dis-inhibited movie star prima donnas like Susan Sarandon (a groovy lesson-learner to have Trump and not Clinton in power?). As someone pointed out, AOC won a primary in a NYC fundamentally durable Dem district. She's crossed the Hudson a few times now, she needs to act like it.
4
Right on Maureen! Beautifully put-thank you.
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” MLK
3
People do not have to be personally motivated by racist thoughts to enable a racist system, and Nancy Pelosi is enabling a racist system with her behavior.
Excerpt: "But Congress is not a place where you achieve radical progress — certainly not in divided government. It’s a place where you work at it and work at it and don’t get everything you want."
Frankly, what a paternalistic - "shush baby-girl!"- statement towards all progressives, including A.O.C. Ya' don't think that people of color, and the younger generation seeking more challenges then ever arern't aware of what the ball game is? Or how that ball game needs to be changed? Or maybe you haven't experienced to the same degree as POC on a first hand basis in life that you don't get everything you want? It is people pulling comments like this that are making people have to "work at it and work at it and work at it even more." I humbly suggest the author get a better education of what the patriarchy is, and how actions, like this patronizing by patriarchal females are holding us down. Maureen, read Bell Hooks, perhaps start with The Will to Change.....so you can better see a clear outline of how the Democratic Seniors are using patriarchal power to hold down the people of color and "junior" class, and perhaps see that a "will to change" requires not behaving as before. Congress is EXACTLY where we need to achieve radical progress, ....the Republicans seem to thinks so anyway.
3
Yeah, I’m sure Dowd and Pelosi both desperately need lectures on how men hold women back and stuff like that. So do we all. I mean, It’s not like we have lives or ever heard of Wollstonecraft or Sanger or deBeauvoir or Daly or Cixous or nothin’.
And I’ve MET bell hooks, okay?
4
More important than being with you in spinning class, I hope A.O.C. and her group read your column today
1
Well, how terribly inconvenient AOC is!
Despite her spanking in this column, voters do not think Washington was intended to be convenient or to teach party discipline or to train lobbyists.
Lets give AOC a little room to break things. That's what kids do. The country was build by kids and run by guys with white hair. Hopefully, that will be Bernie in 2020.
1
AOC is as polarizing as Trump, make her go away please, we hate her here in NY. The Amazon debacle was AOC at her finest, clueless and talking first, thinking later.
10
Two words most voters don't like to hear: "Its complicated"
Look how long most of these comments are - none of them will fit on a tweet. Thats the problem right there.
2
A.O.C. has a decision to make: does she want to follow the road map of Bernie Sanders—fringe agitator who will never be a party leader, or the next Democratic Party rising star—who will continue the work of Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren to strengthen the hand of labor, and solidify a woman’s right to choose, healthcare for all, and re-energize and fund heavily our much needed public schools and nation’s decaying infrastructure. And to her generation that feels betrayed, as many have commented in these responses, you acquire power by demonstrating you can handle it, and once you have it, you can take your vision to the next level.
The Democratic Party is not structured or operates the way the Republican Party does.
3
@Scott
Except that none of that has happened under Pelosi, the supreme court has been stacked so it is likely to wind back right to chose, Affordable Health Care is a ramshackle mess and is being wound back, public schools and infrastructure are decaying, and you didn’t mention it but environmental and worker protection regulations are being wound back by fifty years are more.
2
@Glen. Strongly disagree. When in power she (was a strong player, not solely) got the AHC passed, something Democrats had been unsuccessful in getting for 50 years, and kept Republicans from decimating General Motors after the financial crisis. The AHC passing was a first step, the deal that could be achieved at the moment. You can thank the American electorate for the systematic tearing it apart from Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. For more specifics read Paul Krugman who has written extensively on the subject.
1
How is it that we are all so terribly twisted up by the imagined electoral consequences of four Democratic members of the House pursuing a non-mainstream ideological agenda when that pretty much describes more than half the Republican caucus? In the three months after Obama's re-election in 2012, the Republicans formed a circular firing squad and savaged each other, but then went on to become the nation's super-majority party in 2014. Yet Democratic mandarins are worried about a little snark? Rahm Emmanuel and Pelosi's friends sound just like the old Democratic codgers they displaced from committee chairmanships back in the 70s. And if Nancy is really responsible for winning back the House twice, then she's also responsible for having lost it. Give me a break - the same Mandarins whining about AOC's barbs are the same people who gave us a go-nowhere Obama presidency, a Republican majority in Congress, and the defeat of more than a 1,000 Democratic state legislators. Why would anyone take advice from them?
4
Oh, little things...like we know what Obama’s actual record is, and what dastardly, sell-out corporatist legislation like the PPACA meant to most Americans, what the Paris Accords do, stuff like that.
2
Meh! Youth and inexperience are no match for old age and treachery. First, AOC’s stand cost nothing. The votes weren’t needed so she could afford to take a stand.
Second, AOC is right about one thing. Minority issues almost always get sacrificed early on.
8
Why would one fear speaking the truth Maureen? What's to be gained from walking through life with rose colored glasses? The avoidance of sparking an internecine conflict? How does that serve the party? Do you think that you're the only you have seen and feel this way? That if only we close our eyes and be quiet it will just go away. AOC has the right to speak and put fourth her vision of our country just as much as Nancy Pelosi has done in the past. At one time early in her career I'm sure Nancy was considered a "snot-nosed punk". You get battle scars by going into battle; AOC's doing just that. The Democrats aren't going to win every election and are naive if they think they can. There's a time when the party must retreat, rethink and reorganize. You cull the old warriors and replace them with the new. Internal battles will be fought and political blood will be spilled but that's what it takes to birth the future of the party. Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have served their party well but their time has come to cede power to the next generation.
5
It seems to be the mirror image on the left side to the Tea Party on the right.
3
@TWade My Dad, who was a Truman Democrat until an activist judge replaced him as a representative for Senatorial Convention the year Carter was elected, used to hold political discussions at the dinner table. One of his frequently lofted phrases was (and I think it rings true) "Politics is a pendulum, as far as it swings left it will also swing that far right-always seeking the middle" Trump was a reaction to the many questionable actions of the Obama years. Whoever is elected after Trump will be a reaction to him. But whoever is elected, must seek the vast middle because that is where America truly lives.
The devil is in the details, not the Twitter 280 character count.
AMEN! They are no better than the Tea Party.
1
It might not be the time "to Pass the Torch" right at this moment, but then again...
When is This Time...
Are Democrats doomed to be trapped forever in moderate limbo, that wasn't so "successful" in 2016, where is the statistical prove that it will work this time.
I would put a pause on polls, shmolls
for now...they proved somewhat disastrous last time, and again we cannot resort to complacency this time around.
Women of the World UNITE!!!
3
Chakrabarti is nothing more than AOC's version of Steve Bannon.
And, if you think this former bartender deserves kudos for what she has accomplished, she ain't done nothing.
And she is nothing, and will accomplish nothing, compared to the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court.
She's a former Dealer from Reno, an immigrant's daughter, and, Smart. AOC can't hold a candle to her
6
"This: "stupid proposition than that Nancy Pelosi is the problem," says it just right. Progressives are unable at present to govern, and here is an unknown but central point, because they and Trump are in conflict not just in how they are different, but because they are virtually the same. 'It is all about me' remains the mantra of us all, we who have neglected our duty to bring forth freedom for all, such that our perfect emissary of this, Trump, is now the leader of this country. We all need to own Trump. We need to see that the 30 to 40 hours a week spent on watching tv, could be put to use politically, or culturally, or socially, to secure our freedoms. With Progressives this is hard to see, because it seems as though they are about inclusion of marginalized groups. But they fail to see that to be included means you do your part in securing freedom for all, not just your little corner of the universe. They fail to see that Trump's base is just as marginalized as any other segment of our population. If AOC believes that she can just ignore this base because they are somehow gaining alone in Trump's world, then this belief is just delusional, and not one a elected official could hold, and govern effectively. I say, "YAH FOR NANCY! Let her lead and she will dump the trump card, our president is so skillfully playing still; he is laughing at how really ignorant the Progressive crowd continues in their delusions.
4
@timothy holmes "Progressives are unable at present to govern;" that is precisely what the trump party wants the country to think: the opposition is unable to govern. Thus, one-party rule. Somehow, an "ends justifies the means" value system that supports a parasite whose every move is to benefit himself, with decades of money laundering, tax-fraud, bank fraud, sexual assault, overt racism, is "able to govern," but people with new ideas...not so much. What a "values" system.
2
What this Rahm/Nancy establishment can't abide, and what their big donors can't abide, and what Maureen Dowd can't abide, is the threat of real change. And being told you're irrelevant, that you missed your chance. 40 years ago.
You'd never guess Hillary lost key industrial states in 2016, which formerly went for Obama, and that Rahm was the most hated Chicago mayor in years.
One thing these people can't bear to be told is, your time has passed.
Of course, not standing for anything -- what was exactly Hillary ran on? -- could always have a come back.
5
So what is Maureen saying?
AOC is not the powerful feminist of color she pretends to be. She has a man pulling her strings?
She doesn't have a vision of her own?
She never would have made it without Saikat Chakrabarti telling what to say, what to wear and what to think?
Oh, no AOC isn't the real deal, what are her Twitter followers going to do now?
Safe Place!
3
Maureen Dowd seems quite proud of herself, and the damage she has done to the Democrat party.
So she continues to narrate her own version of the "The Real Congresswomen of DC", and instigate this feud further.
Describing "the real instigator", (Chakrabarti) as a 'snot- nosed punk is not helpful.
I agree with Corbin Trent: "The greatest threat to mankind is the cowardice of the Democratic Party,” with the older generation “driven by fear” and “unable to lead.”
Of course, at 79 years old, Pelosi is just reaching her 'prime years'.
It look like we will have to wait 46 more years for younger member to gain any real power.
When confronting Trump, and McConnell, Speaker Pelosi remains timid, and fearful.
To counter that perception, Pelosi attacks her own party relentlessly, ('glass of of water', 'public, ....whatever", snot-nosed punk'). Ms Dowd, & Bret Stephens have been eager to carry that message in order to discourage progressive turnout in 2020. Great strategy.
Shouldn't the Speaker of the House be focusing her attention on impeaching Trump, or something like that?
The Democrats have re-established themselves as a more timid version of the GOP. That worked so well in 2016.
We almost won.
yeah, go team purple
4
People lose all credibility when they state "as a Trump voter" as one writer stated. Supporting this man at best could be described as misguided and more likely as nativist and delusional. This is a person with no experience except grifting and talk about race baiting, you've got to be kidding.
Hey Maureen, please let me know when Pelosi has been so dismissive of any white Democrat or black Democrat that has stood by Saint Nancy? This reminds me of Bill Clinton's cynical attack on Sister Souljah. It may not sound like it but I support Nancy Pelosi and many of her achievements but we must remember that she has had her rear end handed to her in every one her elections as Speaker. What about this cavalier attitude about not supporting the impeachment process to rid our nation of our Criminal in Chief? She should be questioned on this and other issues. If we don't beat Donald Trump in 2020, believe me it will be more about Pelosi's mismanagement and bad judgement than 4 new Congresswomen of color.
4
This is how fundamentalist religion works.
You purify your tribe, reserving your worst vitriol for those in your own group who dare to engage the infidels. The infidels are incidental. The enemy is found in your own people.
That’s how you arrive at extremism.
Karen Armstrong’s The Battle For God describes it well, for Christianity, Islam and Judaism. It applies to politics as well.
In a pluralistic society, it is disastrous. Heck, it brought us (the US) Donald Trump, reason enough to find another way. AOC’s tactics don’t offer that way.
2
Ah, political advice from a woman on a $2,500 bicycle, who can't follow the instructions on an edibles wrapper...
4
YouTube "Why America is not the greatest country in the world anymore." In the video, Jeff Daniels' character from HBO's "The Newsroom," asks and answers, "You know why people don't like liberals? It's because they lose." I think they lose because people gravitate toward strength and liberals are weak. They are weak in the sense they don't stand up for what is right.
You don't have to be Hercules to stand up to the big bully who is beating up the skinny gay kid in the schoolyard. You just have to man up and do what's right. Is it easy? No! It's hard. The bully will turn on you. It takes guts. It takes integrity. It takes courage. It's what great leaders are made of.
The biggest names in the Democratic Party: Biden, Clinton, Kerry, Lieberman, and Schumer all voted for the Iraq War. Why? Because it was the right thing to do? No! Because it was the politically expedient thing to do.
Today we watch Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi running out the clock - making political calculations. We watch helplessly as the most powerful bully in the world, struts and preens, ignoring the Constitution and usurping the law with impunity.
Democracy is crying out for a David or a Joan of Arc. Nancy, "In the name of God , do your duty!"
The deminishment of unions, the middle class, and the gross inequality of wealth didn't happen by itself. Republicans were successful because the Democrats are cowards; calculating, and complicit.
They are trying to tie AOC to the stake.
4
I find it very difficult to separate the actual “progressives,” yelling at Dowd and Pelosi from the vewy, vewy clever Trumpists pretending to be progressives and yelling at Pelosi and Dowd.
They both exhibit pretty much the same level of snotty misogyny and personal insult, complete ignorance of reality, and cheerful willingness to get Trump re-elected.
Fact is, kids, if you think you’re in any way pure, you’re kidding yourself. We all work for capitalism, and as Americans, we’re all far more privileged than two-thirds of the people on the planet.
If you think there’s no diff between Obama and Trump, or Trump and either Clinton, you’re so disconnected from historical and political reality that you’re effectively insane.
And if you think your bellowing about impeachment, or this or that other leftish plan that maybe a third of Americans actually support (Medicare for All comes immediately to mind...yeah, sure, that’ll fly with the guys I work with) because if AOC or whoever Fares Forth Boldly to Achieve the Will of the People, well, get used to Trump’s smirk.
Because you’ll be seeing it till 2024. And you’ll have just told him, loud and clear, that he can do whatever he wants. Those hacks and sellouts and shills you’re shouting at have been sticking pipes in his tricycle spokes for over two years now, and you oughta send them a nice card for it.
5
Since when is being old and smug a virtue? Telling that most of the comments here dismiss AOC because she is “young” at 29. How old were most of the founding fathers? John F. Kennedy?
Oh wait I forgot—she’s a young woman, and a pretty one at that. Cue the nasty comments from bitter old women...
AOC and the squad were on the frontlines exposing the horrific situation at the border. Where was Pelosi? Shoe shopping with Maureen?
3
Well, we now know where the Times stands on the Progressives in the Democratic Party. Dowd is their instrument for this.
And, Donald Trump will be elected for a second term with Pelosi's Tribe dong nothing as required by the Constitution.
I am fed up with the corrupt Democrats and Republicans. Democrats have abandoned the ordinary. working Americans with all the problems facing us.
I hope with Trump's victory that the DNC will be destroyed, corrupt as it is.
3
I know Maureen...how is it that the great unwashed are allowed to have congressional representatives who care about their issues?...the nerve of some people!
4
hillary lost in 2016 due to her extreme hubris. aoc is embarking on the same path which could result in 'the orange one' winning re-election. if aoc doesn't like working in a pelosi led house, wait till she goes into the minority if the dems lose the house in 2020. aoc, wake up and get practical.
like al davis once said, 'win baby, just win'!!!
1
Grow up kids. Focus, Focus, Focus. DJM
1
Shades of Sarah Palin.....AOC and her squad!
2
Ms Dowd,
You bear some responsibility for fanning the flames of Democratic disunity in your previous column. Why Pelosi thought it a good idea to trash talk her house colleagues in an interview with you, I cannot understand.
6
"To burn with a hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life" (Walter Pater).
At 60-something, these words, grappling with this desire, continues to be one of the biggest challenges I've ever faced. It comes naturally before you step into the arena where it's, well, often raining.
That's the trick of getting older--figuring out, decision by decision, how to keep it going without burning down everything around you--or burning yourself out. I hope AOC comes to see that. Otherwise, her fear of compromising will embitter her.
It’s sad that AOC, who is obviously some kind of genius, can be so hot headed that she, for instance, nukes jobs Amazon wanted to bring to NYC, and makes life easier for those who want to re-elect Trump. The Squad is a very important collective new voice in American politics. There are literally no other politicians who are willing to honestly address some of the important issues the Squad grapples with. But they need to go to political and strategic boot camp if they want to actually effect change.
2
The Democratic Party channels the major players in the Middle East by never passing up the opportunity to pass up an opportunity for progress. I take the point about the young turks of "the squad" getting out over their skis, but:
A) they ARE young, and
B) they represent the aspirations of the very demographic the Party needs to cultivate for its long-term survival.
Notwithstanding the pique of Rahm Emanuel, effective party leadership demands adult supervision. Nancy Pelosi, bless her octogenarian heart, is past her prime.* She shares the major problem that sank Hillary Clinton in 2016. Few progressives under 50 years old are the inspired by her.
Pelosi has behaved like a threatened animal in the face of the more radical Democratic youth, representing a Party that has stubbornly insisted for years on pulling defeat from the jaws of victory by short-circuiting its youth. Just look at today's results.
If the Party insists on letting the cold, icy grip of its gerontocrats snottily snuff out the static of its young firebrands, then it condemns itself to eating its own seed corn on a path toward permanent political oblivion.
The adult in the room should be nurturing the legitimate political ambitions of "the squad" while supporting the more moderate congressional victors of 2018. It's rough, but truly effective leaders can manage it, especially when facing the nation-destroying prospect of another four years of President Trump.
* I am 80 years old; I'm past my prime, too.
8
Maureen: At last!! I agree with your column entirely!!! -- and you held off the snarky comments for a thoughtful, powerful arguement!! Keep up the good work!
6
@Kate S.: I just said that this is the first MD piece I've agreed with wholeheartedly in a while.
2
Keep up the good work AOC....
Putin is counting on you to save the Russian government a lot Rubles in hacking and fake news costs..,,
5
90 Democrats voted against Pelosi's policy. She attacked 4 of them. And AOC's the aggressor? Come on, Maureen.
10
@Liz
Pelosi did not attacknthem. She requested that they refrain from attacking other democrats publicly.
1
Getting to your status quo a little, eh Dowd. I think you are wrong on this one. More than 6 people to deal with here.
6
Calm down, folks...everyone is so afraid of the possibility of the racist-in-chief being re-elected that they are second- and third-guessing themselves. AOC & Nancy Pelosi will not be the reason the Democrats do or don't gain the White House.
4
Message to AOC and her 3 co-conspirators :
You are going after the wrong target. You "freshman " should grow up, grow into your newly elected jobs and work for the Democrats. If you want to turn the people of color you so ardently defend against your own party...just keep up the petty ignorant and small-minded battle....you may get your wish and Trump will get another 4 years.
You weren't elected for this.
8
THANK YOU, MAUREEN!!!!
2
"You climb the mountain to see the world. You don’t climb the mountain so the world can see you."
This may be the best line that Maureen has ever written.
2
It's good to know that one of your sources for deep thoughts is from a digital Peloton instructor. Clearly you didn't understand that these words of wisdom could also apply to Nancy Pelosi.
I'm sure you know this but in Russia, the bureaucrats in charge are called Nomenklatura and our equivalents in Congress are Pelosi, Schumer, and McConnell. Bureaucrats all who understand how the game is played and play it well. That would be fine if Pelosi and Schumer weren't losing.
I am much closer to Pelosi's age than AOC's but I know I am not alone in believing that it will take courage to remove the monster Trump and his gang of grifters from Washington, not a bureaucratic chess match by lifelong members of the US nomenklatura in which the Democrats are afraid to play offense. AOC and the newly elected in Congress should not fall in line, in my view. I love the fire.
Your editorial reads like a fangirl's defense of her heroine, Nancy Pelosi and an attack on AOC. From previous puff-pieces about Pelosi, you seem more infatuated with the fact she wears Manolo heels than her policies. No wonder Pelosi gave you so much of her time to whine about the "youngsters" newly elected to the House.
I was an avid reader of your editorials but none has disappointed me as much as this one. Writing something like this at a time when this country needs heroes, not bureaucrats, who can inspire the young to vote makes you look like what the Nomenklatura call a "useful idiot".
13
We must all on the left, find a credible, reasonable, solution to unite, that suits all factions of the Democrat caucus, for the risk of dividing the vote in the upcoming 2020 elections, is exactly what our current idiot in chief, President Donald J. Trump, is banking on to secure a second term. Our nation and the entire world, is counting on us, to reign him in, for he has demonstrated daily, that he is a clear and present danger to our fragile democracy, and the free world as we all know it.
I even call on all other patriotic Americans to join us, for what has become another crucial moment, of our great countries short two-hundred and forty-three year history. Unite!
2
Every now and then, Maureen Dowd reminds us what an opinion column is all about.
3
Amen, Maureen!
4
Great work Maureen. Brats and entitled in the china closet. Nancy for president.
3
Amen.
3
Ensorcelled? Really?
3
the irony is the real people in power (known as republicans) are the ones that are completely removed from the "needs" of today's country and its citizens except for an ever shrinking group of old, rich, white folks.
the best analogy i can think of is that if we refused to enter World War II because we didn't like political make up of, say France and allowed Hitler to rule Europe.
1
AOC and the rest of the squad seem to have been seduced by the media’s attraction to the next shiny object. They seem to conflate their momentary fame and fan base with legislative power. It is no such thing. Such power comes more readily from what you do behind the scenes than from what you do in front of the cameras. And over time, often a lot of it.
At a time of unprecedented threat to our nation’s unity and power, to our claim of moral leadership, we need all the experience and discipline we can muster to extricate ourselves from the Trump miasma, and begin the work of restoring this country to sanity, to truth, and to the rule of law. I, for one, believe that Democratic victories in 2020 are this country’s last, best hope to purge this insidious infection of lies, hate, and greed (for money, for unfettered power) from our system. We haven’t the luxury of four more years while the newcomers to the people’s House learn the ropes.
6
@Michael Flyn
You can argue that Trump is a good, even excellent president if you don’t follow politics too closely and your belief is that straight talking and tough negotiating is the best way to do business. The economy is strong, unemployment is low and he is getting tough with China and Iran.
Pelosi’s low profile, don’t make waves policy isn’t likely to beat him, or the Republicans. She is like Hillary, friend of the rich and powerful, captured by the system, playing a game, she’s rich and the woes of the poor and downtrodden are largely theoretical.
The only way to be sure to beat Trump is to expose him as a crook and lecher, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Pelosi’s ripostes may count as clever and cutting at a country club but cut no ice in a downtown bar.
1
“Pelosi’s low profile...”? Where’d you get that idea? Same place as the notion that Trump and the GOP have anything to do with the booming but precarious economy they inherited. I seem to recall Republican willingness to let the auto industry go down the tubes in 2008, rather than craft a bailout package which allowed them to restructure and pay back their huge loans with interest.
Not again! The Bernie Bros, so easily played by the Russians, helped throw the election to Trump in 2016, and it seems they’ve learned nothing from what happened. AOC, whom I generally like and respect as an energetic progressive voice in the Democratic Congress, needs to ditch Chakrabarty’s brand of divisive rhetoric and do what she herself has done well until recently: speak for progressive policies without blowing up the party.
8
You hit the nail on the head. I hope AOC is able to read & begin to learn from this. She can either grow into a formidable politician or be remembered as a loose cannon that had a lot of potential & squandered it away.
This is from a former Bernie supporter.
This is the exact same reason I don't blindly support everyone held up by Bold Progressives.
It's just like everyone with the label Democrat doesn't automatically get our support.
I'm glad we have a varied group of voices but I hope the think twice before they speak. This article is dead on there are things that I both appreciate & dislike about the "Progressives".
7
I think you're missing Pelosi's point.They've "only got four votes."The political script is for "the gang of four"to put out new ideas..Medicare for all,fully funded public schools and universities ,the new green deal,immigration reform etc.These are just a few of them and they are popular with the younger voters who stayed home and will be the agenda of the future Democratic party. Meanwhile,back in the House,Pelosi passes more moderate and compromised versions of these ideas.This is exactly what she did when she forced Obamacare through.By turning these different functions into a war,it is the media that will divide Democrats who don't get the whole picture..not Trump.Remember when Elizabeth Warren proposed raising SS benefit in 2010 rather than cutting them?She was considered radical at the time but Republicans quietly slithered away from the fight,realizing that a majority of voters would likely approve of the idea.Pelosi and A.O.C.,together, can get the "radical" ideas out there and then pass legislation that starts moving us toward real solutions to our problems.
In 2010 the Tea Party was considered "radical."It's front line warriors .Pompeo,Pence etc.,ARE the Republican party today.They were able to put together enough angry voters to get Trump elected.Don't let Maureen start a phony war.A.O.C. is actually helping Pelosi enact the legislation many of you think she's always wanted.Don't be so afraid of her...."she's only got four votes" and some good ideas.
6
AOC is a Republican gem.
It is difficult and unpleasant to listen to her but she is part of Trump's re-election parcel. She and her cadre are a means to an end.
A vote for Trump is a vote against AOC and her cadre.
10
@P&L
Oh, it will pass.
@P&L The first time I heard her speak I thought she was doing a parody of an SNL skit. Listen to the voice and watch the mannerisms. Am I not right? https://youtu.be/1unwR68iWxE
1
AOC is just too young and immature to understand a lot of complexities of politics and life. I am not blaming her, it is just how life is. You learn a lot as you grow older.
She needs to be counseled by someone she trusts to cool it down a few notches and stand around and learn.
6
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and many commenting here have not read their Jimmy Breslin, "How The Good Guys Finally Won," his account of the Impeachment of Richard Nixon.
Crucially, Democrats had majorities in both Houses of Congress.
Additionally, not having lived through it, AOC and company don't remember much of the riveting testimony against RMN came in the Senate, an impossibility with the current Congress.
The Death Knell came when the Senate Minority Leader, REPUBLICAN Howard Baker intoned, "What did the President know and when did he know it."
Nixon didn't resign because the Democrats proved their case, he resigned because he realized they had enough votes in the Senate. And the House Judiciary Committee didn't read out the Articles of Impeachment until they knew they had those 67 Senators.
6
God forbid that the Congressional Democratic Leadership should be criticized. It’s done so well over the past eighteen years? Pelosi is a real trooper and she understands how to count votes but her actual victories are few. To be sure, the problem lies every bit as much at the state level which determines the troops Madame Leader has to work with, but the inescapable truth is that she lives in the past and the Republicans continue to dominate the political field of battle.
5
Ruth Ginsburg probably won't survive 4 more years of Trump and more's the pity. The voters of Kentucky will likely return McConnell so he can keep channeling federal dollars to that ungrateful electorate, "We hate big government except when it pays for 60% of our state".
The focus has to be on getting, at the very least, a Democratic president followed by a Democratic Senate. When Republican obstructionism was finally vanquished in California, the "basket case" state took a great leap, improving the lives of the majority of the citizens. There's still work to do but with the Democrats in control, there is a real possibility for truly progressive change.
Calling someone a racist because they don't jump on board for what that person wants should be behind us. It's precisely what the GOP wants to see happen to the Dems.
9
BUSINESS INSIDER, July 13, 2019 -- Several Democratic presidential candidates are actively courting the support of progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
As part of our recurring 2020 primary polling with SurveyMonkey Audience, INSIDER polled 1,105 respondents from July 9 to July 10. Of those, 421 said they would likely participate in their state's Democratic primary or caucus.
INSIDER asked those respondents "Setting aside those already running for the presidency, which of the following figures' endorsement would you most value when it comes to the Democratic primary?"
70% of respondents said they valued former President Barack Obama's endorsement.
28% valued former President Bill Clinton's endorsement.
27% valued former President Jimmy Carter's endorsement.
25% valued Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement.
24% valued former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's endorsement.
22% valued House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's endorsement.
While Ocasio-Cortez has said she isn't planning on endorsing anyone in the primary for quite some time, she indicated that it may come down to either Sen. Bernie Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a recent interview with CNN. --- END QUOTE
Knowing that polls and voter preferences often change, I couldn't help but ask this challenge question:
Can you name the last Democratic candidate nominated by his party's left wing that won the presidency?
1
The Tea Party on the right didn't do much to help the Republican party. Do Democrats want to walk down that same path?
2
Some white women really can’t stand “uppity” women of color speaking their minds, eh? When we don’t act appropriately grateful and kiss the ring, y’all get salty. Whatever. #UppityWomenStayUppity
4
I wouldn’t know. But I do know that I ain’t kissing AOC’s ring, that’s for sure, or anybody’s ring at all. It’s got something to do with disliking getting yelled at by people who think slogans are the same thing as knowledge.
2
I am pleased to see that so many of the posts in this thread recognize, along with Ms. Dowd, the realities of American politics. I am not pleased to see that there are still many ideological purists who are ready to sacrifice even their own future. As for those who believe that a far left candidate has a chance in the next election, I can only ask: what country, indeed what bleeping planet, do they live on? And where do they think they can live in hope or even safety if Trump is reelected?
7
@Realist It does continue to be true that, whatever great ideas a politician may come up with, none will be enacted into law until power is obtained (votes in the House, Senate, and in elections). I think you have to be patient to get things done in Washington .
1
Unless Trump really screws up, or some nuclear-strength crime is made plain as day, Trump has already won 2020.
Democrats are undergoing an internal dialectic in which identity politics is trying to square itself with an idea of "the People." They have not solved that dialectic yet, nor do I expect them to. The squabble is too powerful, too compelling, and to many, about as far as they can see.
Meanwhile, Republicans are collapsing, like an old star, into a sort of white dwarf: compacted yet still energetic, and where identity is not a question due to that compaction itself.
White dwarf for President in 2020? Sadly. But the main sequence is unforgiving; it is up to democrats to prove the fuel is spent, now.
3
This feud has persisted since Pelosi said that a glass of water with a “d” next to it could win AOC’s district. She is right of course...
Since that AOC can only see race discrimination, white privilege, toxic masculinity, and other social injustices as far as her cocked-eyes can see then why not just go somewhere where the life is more pure, prosperous, and different...she is such a nay-bob of negativity and a total downer, I’ll be happy when she is sent home...just so I don’t have to look at her sour mug.
5
It appears you’ve doubled down for Queen P.
You quote Rahm Emanuel? Seriously. And he’s calling someone else a “snot-nosed punk”?
Perhaps you may want to read all those constitutional scholars yawping from the rooftops to initiate impeachment hearings. Then you might want to Peloton down to the border to witness the crimes against humanity.
Once back to your tony Manhattan digs, dial up the Manolo Mob, request a two martini lunch, and inform them how out of touch you’ve all become.
6
Can you add a writer who will explain Maureen Dowd’s column to me?
Somewhere along the way l quit understanding her
1
The written and spoken words of of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) have been downright anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. Now their words are downright racist. Trump et al couldn't be happier.
10
Amen. AOC et all need to pay their dues. Grow up kids. Before you blow it for the rest of us.
6
Oh okay, Ms. Dowd. You don't mind AOC using her false and manipulating racism machine gun to mow down Americans with different ideological opinions than you, you just don't want her using this dishonest approach against your leftist friends.
Why are liberals so hypocritical?
3
How i cringe when anyone refers to Barack Obama as Afro-American. His father was black, his mother white, so that makes him purely bi-racial. Just sayin.
2
Well you might also argue that he is one of the few people to whom the term actually applies. His father was African and his mother was American.
2
@marywho
"Purely bi-racial" ??
What the heck does it matter if Obama is bi-racial?
Does that mean he understands only 1/2 of black experience, or does that mean he's only good to understand 1/2 of white experience?
Last I looked Obama is human first. It's everyone around him who wants to put a label on him.
Sorry but your comment is strange and provocative for no reason.
1
Preach, Dowd. Preach.
1
The progressives act as though anyone who dares disagree with them is bad. Not wrong, but bad, guilty of some human failing, some impurity that is a moral evil that justifies their venom.
I am liberal, but my main concern for our country is not to protect progressive policies, but to protect and nurture free speech and tolerance of diverse viewpoints. The far left and far right are both trying to shut down free speech. This is at great peril to our great country.
18
No matter what happens in the internecine party battles, the Trumpist party will paint the Democrats as socialists, communists, etc., etc. and there is a very good chance if the economy continues to hum along at its current pace, the scare tactics will work and he may well be re-elected.
However, the overall performance of this economy is very scary. We are adding debt at unbelievable levels with a stock market driven by corporations spending money on stock buybacks to boost it up and up further exacerbating income and wealth inequality. This cannot go on forever. At some point things will crash and there will be real pain.
Since the Trumpists care not about the 90% of the country that has to deal with the downsides of our plutocracy, the pain may well exceed the 1930s at some point with few or no policy options to get us out of the mess. You have to take the long view folks.
The ultimate result of this dialectic may be bring progressives to power in 2024 with a full mandate for change. But until this happens, this is all just tactical game playing. Sorry.
4
When they first came on the scene, I was enthusiastic about AOC and her cohort. And I felt for her exposure to attacks.
But the more I watch all of this, the more I believe that this junior house member and her group of 4, are only about her/themselves..."what they have to say and what they think"...and they only, can see correct path.
Isn't it ironic that those who play heart strings on twitter about death threats, also brag about the number of twitter followers they have?
Its like they're staring in a mirror.
8
Former NY Times journalist Chris Hedges has described what is going on here and, as you probably have already guessed, it has nothing to do with beating Trump:
"Politicians like the Clintons, Pelosi and Schumer are creations of Wall Street. That is why they are so virulent about pushing back against the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. Without Wall Street money, they would not hold political power.
The Democratic Party doesn’t actually function as a political party. It’s about perpetual mass mobilization and a hyperventilating public relations arm, all paid for by corporate donors.
The base of the party has no real say in the leadership or the policies of the party, as Bernie Sanders and his followers found out. They are props in the sterile political theater.
These party elites, consumed by greed, myopia and a deep cynicism, have a death grip on the political process. They’re not going to let it go, even if it all implodes."
11
@Kristin lee
Who will plan economies: Financial managers, or democratic governments?
Bonnie Faulkner: If there were pressures to create a New International Economic Order in the 1970s, what was this new order looking to achieve?
Michael Hudson: Other countries wanted to do for their economies what the United States has long done for its own economy: to use their governments’ deficit spending to build up their infrastructure, raise living standards, create housing and promote progressive taxation that would prevent a rentier class, a landlord and financial class from taking over economic management.
In the financial field, they wanted governments to create their own money, to promote their own development, just like the United States does. The role of neoliberalism was the opposite: it was to promote the financial and real estate sector and monopolies to take economic management away from government.
So the real question from the 1980s on was about who would be the basic planning center of society. Would it be the financial sector – the banks and bondholders, whose interest is really the One Percent that own most of the banks’ bonds and stocks?
Or, is it going to be governments trying to subsidize the economy to help the 99 Percent grow and prosper? That was the social democratic view opposed by Thatcherism and Reaganism.
http://www.unz.com/mhudson/de-dollarizing-the-american-financial-empire/
3
An historic number of women were elected to Congress in 2018. But AOC is the one I see most often on the punditry-talk show circuit. As her media darling status grows, how much time is she spending learning her job and doing the work it takes to serve her constituents? Before she becomes "a legend in her own mind," she might consider spending less time prepping for late night TV and more time creating legislation.
7
Yes. Thank you, MD.
1
The arrogant ignorance of this "squad" is terrifying.
7
Politics is the art of the possible. To accomplish anything an ethical politician has to work with others with whom they disagree. Biden was quite right to work with segregationists when it could help him get good work done. After Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Churchill said: "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons." And Britain gave the USSR all the help it could, at the cost of the lives of many British seamen drowned in the icy Arctic waters of the Murmansk Run.
A.O.C. et al. have to decide whether they want to work with others for the good of the country or just enjoy their self-satisfaction that comes with knowing that they are right and everyone else wrong.
3
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are anti-semitic to the core. Do not forget Omar's tweet "May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel".
Do not forget Tlaib's call for 'one state', i.e. the annihilation of Israel, and all her anti-semitic ramblings.
AOC supports them. Because in the so-called progressive's so-called minds, Jews = white = bad, and Muslims = so-called people of color = victims.
First, they came for us.
Sadly, their presence there with their crazy identity politics has secured us another four years of Trump. Sad! Beyond sad.
7
Right on, Maureen!
2
Pelosi is way past her prime. She does nothing as Rome burns. She’s worthless.
6
AOC doesn’t realize Nancy Pelosi was likely getting death threats long before she was born!
6
@Lisa
An how many years ago was that?
If older is wiser, then just wait another 20 years.
Pelosi will be 100 years old, at her prime, and perhaps the wisest Speaker to attempt lifting a 1 pound gabble.
1
Wow! The Liberal Establishment's Big Guns are being hauled out to quell the radical P.C. rebellion. (Just noticed another article in the NYT going after AOC's chief of staff.) As for AOC implying that Speaker Pelosi is a racist, well, live by the sword, die by the sword. I guess AOC thinks that the Speaker just wants to "Make Congress White Again?"
1
Yes, but …
1
200% on the money Maureen.
4
Did you quote Emanuel as an upholder of "liberal" ideals?
And did you just, as a white woman, clear your white woman speaker, of being against freshmen WOC?
Okay Dowd, did you talk to any POC before you said that?
7
No sooner do the Dems win back the House, do they start worrying(!) about "keeping" it - by deferring to him!
Rather passive.
Speaker Pelosi says “no” to impeachment because it will die in the Senate.
In the next breath, she touts dozens of bills she passes in the House... Only to see them die - as expected - in the Senate.
Please stop using that rationale for not impeaching, while your bills keep dying in the Grim Reaper’s Senate.
We're not stupid.
~ • ~
She also says no to impeachment because we don't have the facts.
Wha?
Is she kidding?
What world does she inhabit?
~ • ~
Why can’t impeachment hearings(!) begin? Why not censure Trump?
~ • ~
Trump's whole life... People let him get away with it, and there are dozens of “its.”
Pelosi is doing same – letting him get away with it. The art of fighting-without-fighting is not working, and will not work.
Spurned subpoenas, closed-door hearings, laying off family members…
They're reluctant even to censure Barr.(!)
~ • ~
They're not even playing chicken with Trump; they’re just being chicken.
Deferring to Trump, Barr, et. al. all in the name of "keeping" Red-to-Blue districts defies logic. Those districts turned Red-to-Blue as a rebuke(!) of Trump.
A ham sandwich could beat Trump. But not a chicken sandwich.
11
Nancy Pelosi, alleged master strategist, sought out Maureen Dowd in order to say tacky comments about "the Squad" in the New York Times. I don't see that as racist, but I see it as unproductive and unwise and flat out not smart. But again, I'm not a master strategist like Pelosi. AOC's response wasn't especially smart, either. Now cut it out, all of you. And Maureen, go back and snark about the Clintons and Obama, where you can't be harmful to the future of the country.
8
Thank you, Maureen.
Burn it down.
3
Ms Dowd read this week's column by Andrew Sullivan titled "Hey, Nancy Pelosi: Please Stop Coddling Donald Trump" in New York magazine to find out what Pelosi is doing to undermine Democrats.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/andrew-sullivan-its-time-for-pelosi-to-stop-coddling-trump.html
4
Yes, it is like burning your bra to earn the applause of lecherous men.
2
Finally a column from Ms. Dowd I can wholely agree with. And not one word about how awful Hillary Clinton is.
3
First time I’ve agreed w Dowd in ages.
1
It's always a treat to see the Democrats double standard, this time an avowed anti-Semite, Rep. Omar, playing the race card. It would be funny, if it were not so "deplorable."
7
Amen amen amen amen amen
1
Hm. Shall we presume the leanings of subscriber commentary run about the same as the dutiful NYT reader? That is to say somewhere around 80% of the "progressive base" rejects the childish tantrums of narcissists-cum-congresspersons? Dear, dear. Seems the agnostic vastly outnumber the messianic and yet it's the messianic scarlet letter ALL of them will be laboring under. And that, dear donkeys, will lead to a third party way over on your left. Aside from aging doyennes with their mighty pens, there goes your base. Poof. You can "do the math" from there.
1
@Vivian
If you think the editorial team of the NY Times is progressive, you either haven't been reading this paper for very long or you think anyone to the left of Trump is "progressive".
2
"A.O.C. should consider the possibility that people who disagree with her do not disagree with her color."
Maybe you, MD, should consider that people who disagree with you and your ideas are ALSO NOT necessarily racist. We currently have the best President ever, sitting in the WH, who is tarred and feathered 24/7 by you and your ilk. We are living in a sovereign nation with established laws on the book, PDJT is following the laws and inching his was back to the Constitution that PBO was trying to destroy. MAGA 4 EVER!
1
Amen!
Thank you Maureen.
Send A.O.C. to the R.N.C. C.O.D.
1
Maureen Dowd’s Peloso opinions, defending a system that no longer works and defending cowards like Peloso is why fewer and fewer people trust the mainstream media. Dowd is nothing more than a shill for big business, Wall Street and the status quo , millionaires defending billionaires which they hope to be one day. Nancy Pelosi sits as the head of a group of lawmakers who have not raised the minimum wage in 10 years and she has made no attempt to since regaining the leadership. Yet Maureen thinks she is a true leader, sad and pathetic. Maureen needs to watch “ the Humanist Report and “The Young Turks” to gain some honest perspective and not one driven by status quo organizations.
6
Youth is always in a hurry. You can achieve the results you think are important by working with those who have more experience just as quickly as shouting untruths about Nancy Pelosi.
AOC is right on most of the issues she talks about. Bur she should be shouting at Mitch McConnell and the Republicans. They are the ones who are on the wrong side of the issues she speaks about.
If Nancy would mentor her they would make a great team.
6
For decades the radical republican right wing has framed the political discourse in America. In doing so they have moved the country rightward. There is no longer anything that resembles a leftward leaning constituency. The democratic party has lost its way. They spent the last fifty years being outmaneuvered and compromised. Without a consistent focus and an agenda that benefits all not only the well connected they have ceded the political ground to the right. The only way back is to stand for something that is looking toward the future and progressive. If the moderate Democrats don't get this they are doomed to failure. These young women are the future of the democratic party and the planet. It took the Right 70 years to trash the New Deal that gave Americans Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Jobs programs and a growing Middle Class. We must empower these voices not diminish them. The politics of theSquad and Bernie are not radical at all but are the policies that actually made America great.
3
It's the tone. You can disagree and argue but change the tone and keep it respectful. We need each other.
I like AOC and I think she has great potential as a leader, but who is this staffer. Wealthy silicon valley guy turned activist? I don't trust this and my hunch is it's going to cause her trouble in the long run
5
I tend to agree. If Chakrabarty’s Wikipedia page is correct, this guy graduated Harvard with a BA in 2007, worked on Wall Street for eight years (hey, I thought that was like working for Satan), then went to Silicon Valley (more Satan), then discovered politics with Sanders in 2015 (and didn’t that end up great), and then led the group that wrote the chaotic and sloppy Green New Deal and most recently helped blow up Brooklyn’s big tech deal.
Sorry, not impressed.
3
I would lovesome clarification from Ms. Dowd on "abandoning the party". This line of thinking is exactly what Dowd and the other guardians of the Democratic Orthodoxy have been railing against for years in regards to their Republican counterparts "party over country". I want to see some actual progressive movement being made, not just lip-service to the center-that's-so-far-right-you-can't-even-see-the-actual-center in our modern politics. Pelosi won't be around in 20 years when the results of all of her hand-wringing about centrism come to fruition in our rapidly disintegrating physical environment, but I will and so will my son. The time for action is now...stake a claim for the future and let go of the past. These Boomer relics (Pelosi, Dowd and their ilk) are endangering any sort of future for anyone but the most well-connected.
7
AOC, et al are trying to win a battle but will end up losing the war.
I admire these women for their bravery and their smarts when it comes to congressional investigations, and in their championing those who have been forgotten. However, they lack wisdom in how to maneuver and when best to attack, just as a military commander must learn.
And we are in the battle of our lives that they may be helping us to lose by their pitting the democrats in a battle of us against them.
In the four ensuing years, if we win the presidency, then they can try to prod the party to adopt their policies, which should be adopted.
But if we lose the presidency, then they will accomplish nothing.
2
While I agree with Dowd's sentiments, does AOC and her Squad of three really have the power to prevent Trump's ouster in 2020? Some squabbling among the party is not unusual; that is how the Republicans gave birth to the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus. The real danger is that the leading candidates are taking an extreme left position (one that is endorsed by the Squad, by the way) that will leave Trump with more than enough elbow room to take down whomever is the Democratic candidate.
1
The Tea party and “Freedom” caucus made the first two years of the Trump Idiocracy a no-go zone when it came to legislation . The four women of the apocalypse are smart enough to follow the path of unity which is the only way that the Democrats can function in a divided govt of which they only control half of Congress and have federalist society know-nothing judges looking to bring us back to the bad old days of oppression . There voices are important but it’s essential not to let perfection be the enemy of good enough for now.
1
Great theater
Can't wait for the next round.
5
Very well stated. It seems that many Democrats think that despite alienating the moderates and centrists they will still vote for a candidate and platform in line with the progressive wish list against Trump in 2020. Particularly in swing states it seems to me that there are a large pool of voters who with a strong economy will not take a chance on a Warren or Sanders. Team Trump know it which is why they fear Biden. Things can change to where anyone beats Trump, but that seems to me a very risky strategy which as likely as not will result in a Republican victory.
4
@AVIEL
Hillary Clinton lost to Bernie Sanders in the primaries in swing states Michigan and Wisconsin and then lost to Trump in those states, giving him the victory.
But sure, let's throw another moderate out there. It's sure to work this time.
2
And the under voting population of young people, people of colour and women ( not mutually exclusive) will be alienated enough a la 2016 to not show up at the polls
Let’s reach a consensus folks
This ‘either or’ nonsense has NO place in defeating the worst outbreak of American Fascism in our history
1
Your argument against AOC is pathetic and weak, undemocratic at least and demoralizing at best, exactly what the 4 , our 4 top liberal said to Pelosi who has BLOCKED the impeachment of a dictator, Russian puppet : Donald J. Trump.
You are the one you said who AOC is, and lot of dummies of the Moderates -fake Democrats, true-Republicans, supportive-conservative.
3
Adolescents.
2
Bravo Maureen!! Please save us from AOC and the "quad squad". They are the mirror image of Trump & Co. If you don't agree with them, you're a racist and/or against women of color. How stupid and racist is that statement in itself? It rings the same as when Trump hears something he doesn't like or agree with, he automatically calls it fake news. We would do a lot better without the Trumps and the AOC's of the world. Nancy Pelosi should "suffer fools gladly" and stop sparring with AOC because it only serves to elevate her. She certainly knows very little of Nancy Pelosi, her successes and the adversity she has successfully stood up to in her political career. AOC has much to learn and should speak less and listen more.
7
Really Ms. Dowd, you are such a smart and astute woman. But come on -- Trump is a fool, Trump has a major personality disorder, Trump is ill informed, but please, he is not a racist. Cut the name-calling, sloppy silliness.
3
Who knows.
But as Michael Steele says, “He may not be a racist, but he sure hangs out with them a lot.”
2
Ms. Dowd is correct. The virtue-seeking, self-righteous, woke Left is a menace but make no mistake she and her newspaper are hypocrites. No institution outside of College Campuses has promoted the woke Left and their inane ideas more than the Times in its efforts to increase readership among young college students. But more importantly no one has spent more time making centrists the enemy than Maureen Dowd. Ms. Dowd along with the woke Left spent the last decade trashing first President Obama and then Hilary Clinton, the two politicians who would have saved us from the Far-Right and Trump.
6
Maureen, you may have an establishmentarian bias for Nancy Pelosi. But your column today is overly one-sided.
Nancy Pelosi has been catty about the new cats ever since they came to Washington. She needs to show leadership and find a way to tap the energies of the young entrants.
These snide and provocative remarks she makes about someone young enough to be her granddaughter are not helpful.
Both sides need to respect each other.
8
Rahm Emanuel was and remains “a snot-nosed punk”
10
A.O.C. was gifted seats on the best committees, which freshman Rep.s almost never get... bet Pelosi is regretting that -- plus, now future new Rep.s won't get.. so that is one thing.
And yes, most of us are disappointed in Pelosi not going harder after Trump -- should be impemaybe achment proceedings (which will insure no one blows-off subpeonas, since strict/severe process -- and which does not necessarily have to result in a vote).
Pelosi (& Dems) not doing their job - by being so soft, re: Trump investigations.
But maybe Pelosi knows something we don't -- maybe she knows Epstein has videos of him with children committing sex crimes... and she has cut a deal with McConnell to impeach on JUST THIS (leaving Russia, etc) out of it.. which leaves McConnell's PACs away from potential exposure..
Someone though should help AOC before she flames-out.. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (if she has the time) would be my 1st choice for helping AOC get some fast-tracked seasoning.
Biggest thing AOC: must stick together (at least publicly) in order get the Orangeman out of office (by Congress or election) .. then, once that done.. then.. reshape Dem party, if feel must.
2
The following quote from Maureen Dowd's column should be posted everywhere in the NY Times offices:
"The progressives act as though anyone who dares disagree with them is bad. Not wrong, but bad, guilty of some human failing, some impurity that is a moral evil that justifies their venom."
8
Fine and Dandy, Maureen, except...... The train wreck of the American society outside the beltway - and beyond the exclusive confines of the elites - has events unfolding at a rate that is making a mockery of old entitled protocols. Pelosi is in real danger of becoming the Polish Cavalry officer of 1939, demanding that a gleaming saddle is the key to victory against the Nazi tanks.
American society is breaking down around Nancy's feet, and when the wealth of the 1% gets compressed into .5%, .........when the ocean rises.......when the forests burn.......then the Trumps and the Epsteins and the Clintons and the rest of the rotted amoral "Elite" will have eaten their last $100.00 salad and raped their last 14 year old girl and wrecked their last rust belt town and laundered their last dollar. There won't be an offshore far enough offshore to hide their (or Putin's) money.
Trump golfs and gropes at a million dollars a round while children die in cages. Pelosi got rich on insider trading. Flynn and Manafort are traitors. Spicer and Huckabee are liars. Ross and Kushner are money launderers. Are these the "Ropes" that AOC and her squad have to learn?
Pelosi says that Trump commits an impeachable offense every day. Am I missing something?
7
Please don’t mock the gallant Polish military at the beginning of WWII. Yes, as a relatively small part of their defense,they used cavalry. They used what they had.
Score: Dowd and Pelosi 1, AOC 0
Touché
1
Maureen Dowd advising AOC. Ross Doubthat advising Bernie Sanders. Hilarious.
Old thinking dissipates. All. The. Time. New leaders and ideas are either welcomed or overcome old ones.
Your move Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice-President.
5
Thanks Maureen. It's nice to see your old self back at it. We had to do the gushing Pelosi piece last week so we could get to the AOC bashing this week. Without that middle rock it would have looked too much like you'd just randomly switched your hatred for Hillary to your hatred for AOC. Well played. Your old friends have returned to cheer you on.
3
Rahm Emanuel told me Chakrabarti is “a snot-nosed punk.”
Wow. What a display of a lack of self-awareness. It takes one to know one, Rahm.
7
Another cloying puff piece by Maureen Dowd after a lunch with Pelosi. The speaker got the better of her.
Whatever she might have done in the past, Pelosi has made herself a divisive figure in her own party, especially for young voters. She should resign.
Her $4.6 billion for Trump is really bad optics. She might not be running the concentration camps, but she is now funding them. The Democrats are complicit. She should resign.
7
These four foolish congresswomen have earned themselves four worthy primary oppoents; their ignorance and hateful rhetoric is Trumpian in scope. Hopefully, The Squad members (fools all) will lose. Their District's constituents will all be better off, as will Congress and the Country.
4
I’m sick of the Democratic Party telling me who to vote for, what to think, and to trust them. Corporate Democrats, like Pelosi, who have not begun impeachment procedures despite overwhelming evidence of evil, are enabling the rapist. Extinction is happening. Sure Rasida and company sometimes say stupid stuff, but the Dowd is in bed with the morally weak Pelosi crowd and she is using her keyboard to frighten us into compliance.
6
Why don't they all shut up and device means and a solid plan to defeat the grotesque monster in the WH, take the Senate, and keep House?
4
Whatever merit there may be to AOC’s policy ideas and passion, nothing can justify accusing Pelosi of targeting women of color. The same goes for Chakrabarti accusing centrist Democrats of “doing to black and brown people what the Southern Democrats did.” It’s outrageous, it’s offensive, it’s reprehensible, and more to the point, it’s monstrously, almost comically stupid. They’d better figure out quickly that running around shouting “racist” every time someone doesn’t do what they want is the surest way to guarantee they’ll never accomplish anything. Democrats like me are sick and tired of it.
8
Agreed
1
All time best Dowd column.
3
Maureen’s last column says it all.
1
This is exactly why these people are so unappealing. Everyone is a racist or a representative of some bleak imaginary faction when they happen to disagree with you. Half educated and imbued with the third-hand US college campus brand of Neo-Marxism that never seems quite to die, well of course the AOCs of the world know everything.
8
Thirty-year olds need to earn their stripes. AOC has hardly earned one stripe; her "chief of staff"? who is he again? These thirty-year olds should prove their mettle (e.g. accomplish something, put the cell phone down, and stop tweeting) before they bash an elder who has accomplished a great deal, and has brains and experience. Unite to beat the idiot in the oval.
6
"Pygmalions and acolytes" What a petty condescending putdown. Obviously Maureen Dowd was starstruck and mightily impressed after leisurely sipping wine at her Idol Nancy's Napa Valley Vineyard. I think AOC, merely a former "bartender" to quote Dowd, and one who doesn't hobnob with the rich and powerful, unlike elitist Maureen Dowd, speaks truth to power regarding what most people want from their representatives. For decades they have waited for the likes of Pelosi, Biden or Schumer to actually achieve something for working people and not just their corporate donors. Pelosi is part of the problem, always reaching over the aisle to appease and ultimately capitulate to Republicans. She is a guarantee for the status quo.
6
@HG
Yes HG.
At the very time progressive congresswoman were inspected detention facilities along the border, Dowd, and Pelosi were sipping wine, and eating bon-bon's in Napa.
So sick of these old elitists, acquiring fortunes while pretending to make progress on traditional Democratic values.
1
This author opines "...they will be left with a racist backward president and the emotional satisfaction of their own purity."
Well that's just great. Sort of like the people who put Hills down in 2016. Like this author for instance. Thanks for nothing and never forget it.
1
Bravo!
This is the serious side of Maureen Dowd. Hopefully your advise is heeded.
1
I am a liberal who, when much younger, was really enthusiastic about the candidacy of George McGovern - supported him as the Democratic candidate. I was a child an thought my vote would help change the world. It did. It helped cement the re-election of the person that we thought at the time was the worst we could get in the White House an d all of the change that followed. The problem with the Squad is not that they are women of color, it is that they are children (politically speaking) who have not learned that sometimes patience and hard work accomplish more than tantrums and demands for instant gratification.
12
@Steve Miller
We've had decades of patience as the country has swung right. How long do we have to wait patiently for meaningful change?
Patience is not working.
4
@617to416,We made a lot of progress during the Obama presidency. Maybe not as much of a swing as you would like, but major moves in the right direction. Then, instead of a united party pushing together to keep that going, we squabbled, many on the left sat out the election rather than support Clinton, and almost all of that progress has now been undone. I am not proposing that we wait patiently, but rather that we work to make a change and realize that it is not going to come immediately. The alternative is in the White House now.
@Steve Miller
Actually what happened is that the Republicans and their Tea Party seized the agenda after Obama's first two years, in part by demonizing the ACA. It had nothing to do with Democratic squabbling. It had everything to do with the Republicans capitalizing on the emotions of their extreme right wing to drive the agenda.
2
I am considering the basic issue of whether or not Progressives, the young, the disempowered would really sit out the 2020 election or vote for an Independent Left person given their universal, primal feelings about Trump.
I believe some will but what really engages me is Why they would do so.
Having read many of the Comments here, I anticipate many fevered responses that,of course, given the messed up world we live in, the combined fecklessness and evil of our institutions, not voting or voting third party is a rational choice but I ultimately arrive at only three possibilities -- one rational and two emotional.
Treating the emotional first, there is The Fear. As a human I accept that fear has a place but I have learned that we often choose it and then find facts to support our choice rather than consider whether fear is our best choice given Its closure of creativity and openness to others.
Second, there is Passive Aggression,of which I also have human experience. This is a "tear the house down" approach to "making you feel bad for disregarding me." It is not a discounting of the authenticity of the choice to note that the younger we are the more this avenue is attractive.
Finally the rational reason. This is a "long game"view. Here Trump's winning in 2020 is simply in service of the inevitable
Final Conflict where the righteous will prevail. John Brown in his certainty of the bloody Civil War and his accurate belief in its outcome cared little for his death.
2
What the masses want is not necessarily what the country or the world needs. That's the problem. Trump and Pelosi are both trying to reach the masses because they need votes. Both are trying to sell a vision that will be received well by the masses. Generally, this means telling the masses they are "right" and any problems are the result of someone else being "wrong." In Trump's case, the "someone else" is a collection of non-White groups and liberals. In Pelosi's case, the "someone else" is those who aren't comfortable with the centre-left status quo that combines neoliberal economics with a modest amount of social justice.
The challenge right now—not just in the US but around the world—is that the economic system we've relied on for the past 80 years or so and that has provided immense benefits to us is finally reaching its limits. A lot of us (the masses) want to preserve that system because it has given us a comfortable life. In Trump's worldview we can preserve it by returning to a mythical White-dominated past. In Pelosi's worldview, we can preserve it by returning to a 1990s "End of History" consensus.
In reality, the system is not salvageable. Its environmental costs are too high and its socio-economic consequences too destabilizing. We are facing a potential catastrophic collapse of the way of life that has supported us for decades. The question is whether we sleepwalk into the disaster or see it and adjust in time to avoid it. AOC is at least trying to look ahead.
4
I am thrilled that what Maureen has presented about AOC and The Squad is completely and totally what I have believed but had no way to disseminate it. I live in a town where Progressives target one as bad/evil if one has a difference of opinion. It's all PC here. And in a town meeting the great Congresswoman we have countered my assessment of our town as being in a bubble. Oh no, she said, My people are not in a bubble. Her people (of which only seconds ago, I thought I was one) are in marching step with AOC and her kin. And the govt. of my town welcomes corruption. It is so dangerous to be ignorant of history, to deny the past, and to act on kindergarten-like enthusiasm to get Change right away! There's a reason they're called Snowflakes.
8
This is why Democrats always lose. They play it safe. They’re afraid of offending these mythical centrist voters. They’re afraid of offending their corporate backers. They lack the courage of their convictions. They fail to take a stand on behalf of their natural constituents.
Pelosi should retire. She does nothing. She refuses even to perform her most basic duty of oversight - in a time when oversight is desperately needed.
7
"The best lack all conviction
While the worst are full of passionate intensity."
Yeat's poem, "The Second Coming", was written in the wake of WWI and the Russian Revolution and has been called the world's most "pillaged" poem. Maybe that is because it's so prescient and also so applicable to the way politics and the world works. Young firebrands like AOC and her contingent are nothing new. The ghosts of those just like them echo down the centuries. How many times have they been right? How much turmoil have they caused, and to what end? Glamorous as they may seem, idealistic as they try to seem, in the end it is all a power grab, and the ordinary citizens are the losers. Moderation isn't sexy. But it may be the only salvation for this country.
4
@Judy
"Moderation isn't sexy. But it may be the only salvation for this country."
Look around, Judy. The world is on a collision course with a terrible destiny if we don't stop it today.
Moderation won't be the salvation of this country. It will be the death of it.
2
@J.C.What do you recommend?
Twitter Followers:
Trump 61 Million
AOC 4.7 Million
Omar 1.1 Million
Maureen Dowd 0.7 Million.
Number of persons who might read and recommend this — maybe 10, or 2.
In Minnesota, in 2018, our 1st Dist., Dem. Tim Walz, a moderate, ran for Governor, and won widely. However, his seat was lost by a strong Dem. candidate, Dan Feehan, (teacher, farmer, Iraq veteran) to a GOP empty suit. Why?
Keith Ellison, a Muslim Rep. from Minneapolis, ran for Attorney General. Omar won his Congress seat.
But over in the 1st district, 100 miles away, in rural Minnesota, the GOP ran attack ads showing a picture of Feehan next to Ellison. It worked.
In 2020, I guarantee Omar will single-handedly flip Minnesota red in the Presidential election. This is how Minnesotans send a message. They won’t be able to vote directly against Omar unless they live in her Somali-dense district. But the state is in play — and rural and suburban voters will signal their disgust for Omar.
Omar has already obliterated moderate Senator Amy Klobuchar’s chances of being a VP on the ticket. Which is too bad for America. The GOP will probably also run ads with Omar+DNC Presidential Candidate photos not only in Minnesota, but in Wisconsin and Iowa. And given her anti-Semitism, in Florida too. That is how toxic her reputation is.
AOC will have a similar effect in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Twitter has swollen the egos of Trump, AOC and Omar — all in a similar way.
Biting, snarky, arrogant — but no deep thought.
10
AOC is on track to be the new Ralph Nader: An exceptionally bright person with great potential whose hubris led to the election of Bush II, environmental degradation, and endless war with the spilling of the blood of thousands.
7
Exceptionally bright person? Sure we are talking about the same AOC?
1
@Bob M
Call me old fashioned but I blame Bush for what Bush did, not Ralph Nader.
Really excellent column. Right on the message and wonderfully written. You have crystallized Speaker Pelosi's strength and the folly of narcissist youth.
4
Brilliantly put. AOC won’t last very long if she doesn’t understand how to get things done. Generational impatience and the arrogance of inexperience will sink her ship.
3
These four won districts where a cat could win if listed as the democratic candidate. Give some breathing room and air space to the centrists who won trump districts so the dems have a fighting chance in 2020.
5
Quite remarkable...it is one thing to reengineer the system ...become expert in it and persuade others as to your cause. It is far easier to self aggrandize , posture, bloviate , and be a very empty drum. AOC, with her 11% turnout , does harm to the prospects for change. Nancy Pelosi learned from her father...as Mayor of Baltimore, you eliminate your enemies and curry your friends...AOC is done...marginalized....and so prove to be unable to do more than orchestrate her own distancing from power.
3
@Joel Levine
What exactly has Pelosi re-engineered and what causes is she persuading others to? I must have missed something.
1
If 'genes (political)' skip generations, AOC and NP at 50 years apart ought to be perfectly in sync. Or is it some Bronx vs Philly thing?
Maureen Dowd takes out her light saber and cuts a clear path through the Democratic power struggle in Congress as only she can do. Her ability to at once know the truth and tell the truth is breathtaking, if only more so by how few words she uses to do it. Her compact prose fills up the page with the biggest ideas as well as any opinion writer in the country. Bravo!
4
Self-righteousness is not only a fault of those on the political right.
Bernie-bros have a sort of ‘born to lose’ attitude that would rather feel just, than to actually DO justice.
I’m a few years older, 41, and consider myself a liberal, but AOC and her chief of staff just seem immature.
5
Nancy Pelosi is not running for president.
Nancy Pelosi is not going to impeach Trump
Nancy Pelosi is not going to usher any significant legislation through the House that the Republican Senate doesn't like.
Nancy Pelosi is not the policy maker for the Democratic Party.
Nancy Pelosi will not be the one who selects the next Democratic president.
Nancy Pelosi will not be the one who defines the Democratic presidential nominee's policies.
Nancy Pelosi needs to stop being jealous of the fantastic ability of these 4 new House members to drive a message and get their message out in spectacular fashion.
She's jealous. That's what this whole spat is about. Don't kid yourself. She has her own imperious side.
5
George Will said "the democrats nominated to only biped that Trump could beat." My fear is they will blow the chance again to get this tyrant out of office by scaring the moderates and centrist into thinking the patients are running the asylum. Joe and Elizabeth have their weaknesses and baggage but stand a chance at removing our national embarassment
2
The so called real instigator, Saikat Chakrabarti, got AOC elected. He is quite smart, young, and knows the liberal pulse. On the contrary, Pelosi, Biden, and Obama have mostly caved in, in the name of bipartisanship. Time to STOP all negotiations with republicans and beat them by charging the young, the diverse, the educated, and the women votes.
6
Thank you, Maureen for writing a column that illustrates the real danger the progressive puritans are putting Democrats in. My message to The Squad: Do you want to be woke or do you want to win?
3
well said
Who knew the brilliance of Alex Toussaint!
Thanks for this column ..... you hit all the essential points.
Thanks
1
It must be nerve-wracking when a quartet of women celebrated by the establishment for their exotic diversity turn out to have moral compasses. They shockingly put loyalty to constituents over loyalty to a party whose main function is placating the donor class and avoiding impeachment hearings.
When all you can do is hurl the epithet "purist" at people fighting for social and economic justice for the tens of millions of people who lack even $500 in savings to pay for a household emergency, you display both intellectual and moral bankruptcy.
The vast majority of US citizens can't relieve their own chronic anxiety on spin cycles in a pricey gym. Most live paycheck to paycheck, just one job loss or medical bill away from eviction.
This is not a war of Republicans v. Democrats, or the young v. the old. It's a class war, and AOC and her squad are the latest convenient scapegoats. Inequality is at record levels, and all that tax-averse oligarchs and their media agents can do is rail against those who have no power and no money. The more they rail, the more they betray their own fear and guilt.
The "catfight" narrative being sold by Dowd and others is simply more diversionary identity-politics theater to mask the rot and corruption that helped bring us Trump in the first place. Accusing AOC and others of playing the race card ignores the very scary regular threats to their own lives, based largely on their ethnicities.
But spin till you drop if it makes you feel better.
12
@Karen Garcia
Thank you for a prescient and thoughtful comment. What the Dems need is clear and logical messages. Put their efforts in delivering consistency to our electorate and it will be hard to re-elect the lier and chief. Vote Dems in 2020!
1
"Congress is not a place where you achieve radical progress." Unless you're a Trumper who wants to dismantle everything America has stood for over the last two centuries. The GOP is the real radical party in this country, and being "centrist" or wishy-washy isn't going to stop them.
2
You can't constantly call attention to yourself and then complain that the attention you receive isn't all adoration. AOC is a smart young woman who may have an amazing career in front of herself. But as obviously intelligent and hard working as she is, I fear she may just be too clever by half.
I don't tweet and I don't follow anyone on Twitter except as reported and re-printed in my favorite fake news outlet -- The Times. In the twitterverse AOC and an un-named old man with a bad comb-over seem to share more than one might expect. That isn't a compliment.
BTW, I am an old(72) white man who has voted for Nancy Pelosi ever since I moved to San Francisco. I've also voted for the now retired Barbara Boxer and for our current Senator Kamala Harris. Perhaps, if I live long enough, I will be able to vote for AOC in a national election -- if she can earn my vote.
3
Patience, grasshopper. Learn from a master & then expand.
Saikat Chakrabarti - thanks for pointing out this danger Maureen. Unity is important and so is mutual respect. We are in critical times Alexandria. Please listen as we know you can.