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I supported AOC as ranking leader for oversight. What was the opposing argument? [1]

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Date: 2025-01-03

As Brian Tyler Cohen has been clear, this is a new media environment. This is one of several reasons why we supported Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be the Democratic Party leader on the Oversight Committee. I wanted her to be the highest ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee. However, I think I understand (even if I don't agree with) the argument for Representative Gerry Connolly.

The Republican Party identifies Democrats in Congress, especially those in leadership roles, whom they choose to run against. When you're a US Representative, then your constituent base of support is even smaller than those who are elected to statewide office. The Republicans choose Democrats, mostly in Congress, whom they believe are too 'liberal' and out of step with the American people, people out of what they view as mainstream. The Republicans especially love to target female Democrats who they feel they can represent as 'too liberal', especially those on the coasts whether it be on the East Coast or San Francisco and California generally.

There is no justification for voting for Donald Trump and not voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and this is a binary choice. Tactically, upon reflection, we needed President Biden to not run for reelection. He could do the job well, but he has more than one communication deficit. Age is a big deficit. It became harder for him to get a hearing from voters generally and younger Democrats. He also can no longer enunciate words clearly. People can almost always understand him, but we all hear him fail to enunciate words clearly. This made it easier to falsely identify him as senile and out of touch.

Vice President Kamala Harris needed to be able to run in a primary with the same positions she put forward in the general election to gain credibility and purchase with low information voters, tactically speaking. It put her in a far worse position with low information voters to run a very centrist campaign with centrist positions after having more progressive policies she was running on in the 2020 Democratic Party primary. It doesn't justify not voting for her and instead voting for Donald Trump, at all. However, it made it easier for the Republican Party to question her moderate/centrist bonafide. They could ask if she really held these positions and would really govern as a moderate when she ran with more progressive policies in the 2020 Democratic Party primary. They identified her to low information voters as a San Francisco California liberal who didn't hold traditional American values and was out of the mainstream. I know it's bullshit and it's a binary choice and whatever minor "problems" people might make out of that pale in comparison to Donald Trump's record of attempting a coup and inciting an armed insurrection and so much more. Nevertheless, tactically it made it easier for them to stereotype her as really a San Francisco and California 'liberal'. It would have helped her immensely to have run on these policies and as a moderate in a Democratic Party primary and to have won that Democratic Party primary as a moderate.

[In this environment with her talented general election staff, I suspect that they would have realized from their own polling that she would need to run the same campaign in the primary and I believe that she would have done so and governed the same way. ]

The Republican Party ran against Hillary Clinton as a female liberal outside of mainstream American thought. They have run against Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a long time as an out of touch, liberal San Francisco California woman. Over the last four to six years, the Republican Party has run nationally against 'The Squad's and against Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a liberal on the coast who is outside of traditionally [bigoted] American values. Her constituents within her district knows her well and are happy with her. Activists and younger people who are engaged in politics on the left love her. However, a massive amount of Republicans and low information voters have seen her through this lens that Republicans have presented over and over. Every Republican running runs against her, labeling her this way. Moderate and conservative democrats and Democrats who aren't engaged in politics aren't as invested in supporting her to any great extent. Republicans have conditioned their own voters and low information voters to fear her as an out of touch liberal.

If we win back control of the House of Representatives, then the Oversight Committee will be a major factor in our politics as we pursue holding Donald Trump accountable. The argument, I suspect, is that it would be easier for Republicans to dismiss the messaging from the Oversight Committee if Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the Chairwoman of it than if Representative Gerry Connolly, a center left Democrat, is the face of the Committee.

Articulating an argument contrary to my own position doesn't mean I agree with or embrace the argument nor am I saying (obviously) that there aren't good answers to this argument. However, I am saying that it's a reasonable argument and I can understand why it might be persuasive to some. I feel that the advantages that she has in her social media reach and her relative youth and her other advantages in communication outweigh this.

I continue to disagree with this decision, but portraying former Speaker Pelosi as out of touch because she disagrees with us about this might be considered the height of irony by former Speaker Pelosi and she could be right. Are we really saying that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is identified by most voters as centrist and mainstream? Do we think that people in the middle of the country see Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as centrist? It is probably far more difficult for Republicans to label Representative Gerry Connolly as an out of touch liberal than for them to go down a path that is already well-known and well-trodden. It would be more difficult for Republicans to dismiss the messaging from Representative Gerry Connolly's Oversight Committee than one headed up by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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