27 Comments
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Binya's avatar

Fantastic interview. Hope to see more like it. Brian's doing a great job advocating for "Do Something Democrats"; it will be wonderful if Off Message helps elevate officials like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez who are putting this into practice; and even better if it can encourage other officials to get on board.

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drholden3's avatar

I watched that part of the Michael Cohen hearing and was very impressed at how deadly on-point AOC's questions and Cohens answers were. Very disappointed that nothing much then followed.

She is also great in other hearings such as thetComer and Jordan poop-fests. She really should have a bigger leadership role by now. She's proven she's more than a curiosity or merely a member of some "squad."

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Hank Hoffman's avatar

She doesn't have a bigger leadership role because Dem leaders like Pelosi prioritize corporate-friendly "centrists" over caucus members like AOC who are on a mission. Instead of promoting members like AOC, they try to push them to the back of the room. AOC is a generational political talent, charismatic, an incredible communicator, and smart as hell.

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Beth M's avatar

I’d just like to note that the house republicans aren’t just “investigating” the guy at the top. They’re harassing guys down the food chain as well. Perhaps if the gloves are going to come off, Senate Dems should look past trump for once and investigate some of the people who are hiding in his enormous shadow. It’s not a one-man show. It’s a syndicate.

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Gary Paudler's avatar

That made waking-up this morning worthwhile.

AOC and Brian did a masterful job of not saying "Chuck Schumer" while discussing the Senate's passivity. Schumer's and Biden's blind adherence to obsolete and thoroughly discredited notions of institutional culture will hand the country to The Heritage Foundation and tortured, anti-democratic, misanthropic interpretations of "originalism".

I would vote for AOC if she ran for president of the world.

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Marycat2021's avatar

Me too. And for vice president I would want my excellent Congressman, Joe Morelle, from NY's 25th district.

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JMG's avatar

Really appreciated this interview - AOC seems to be one of the few Dems who - if not "subscribe" to Brian's aggressive approach to Republican bad faith and bad behavior - is at least willing to practice it to a certain degree.

This is why I think she's such a great communicator - probably the best that we have right now. She's willing to throw a punch and also articulate why and how it benefits her constituencies (both literally and nationally).

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Tommy Lee Bennett's avatar

Fuck collegialism! Play to win or go home and give someone else the chance. MAGA will destroy all the American progress I have seen in 70 years of life. They are more dangerous than any foreign enemy.

Should Dems regain control of our government and not enact the John Lewis Voting Rights Act as their first act, I'll not support nor vote for any member of that Congress again.

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Jacob Crites's avatar

What a wonderful surprise to wake up to! AOC has a tenacity that so many disillusioned voters are hungry for. The despair and doomerism so much of my generation has for Democrats is the sense that they just legitimately don’t care. They don’t fight, they don’t try, and they expect our votes because the other guys are worse. There’s a reason why the faces of the party are people like AOC, Jaimie Raskin, Eric Swalwell, Gavin Newsome, a dozen others—when given a chance, good Dems really lay into Republicans and speak with the righteous indignation we feel when watching the news. The clips of these moments go viral, even cynical lefties love to see it. It’s always exciting and motivating seeing our representatives TRYING. So, yeah. They should try more. AOC in particular is also really good at supporting Biden while also pushing him on issues like Gaza.

Anyway. Really cool conversation!

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John Zorabedian's avatar

THIS!!! Such a good interview. I love Brian and AOC! ❤️

Seriously. Senior democrats, pay attention to how Democratic voters (or would be voters) respond to THIS versus spending countless hours on bipartisan immigration legislation and winding up with egg on your face. Yes, legislating is important, and they have accomplished some good things (early on in the Biden years before the GOP took control of the House). But you can't rely on that to win the day and the election! We need fighters, corruption seeking destroyers, stand up for the people warriors! AOC is one. Who is gonna join her?

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Becky Daiss's avatar

She is a beacon. Pay attention Dems.

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Diana Jacobs's avatar

It’s so frustrating. Republicans constantly make some thing from nothing, and Democrats can’t even make something from something.

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ErinL.'s avatar

Great interview--Thanks Brian for asking thoughtful questions --We need more leaders in government like AOC.

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Bill's avatar

For those of you who are California residents this interview made a great case for who to choose in the Senate race (primary is next Tuesday).

Who do think would be better at turning around the clubby culture of our upper house - Adam Schiff or Katie Porter?

(Me thinks Porter).

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Charles's avatar

Barbara Lee.

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Marycat2021's avatar

Katie Porter. although I also like Schiff.

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Gary Paudler's avatar

It will be Schiff or Porter, though I'll vote for Barbara Lee.

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Lance Khrome's avatar

Current polling has Schiff and R-Garvey as top two...oy vey!

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DJS's avatar

I confess, at several points along the way, I was hoping this conversation made it into video and/or audio format - whether in longform or as clips!

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Bill's avatar

AOC will be 35 this October (per Wikipedia). My mind wanders…what are the chances? Biden drops out, a contested convention chooses her, we get the 21st century version of FDR as the pres….

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Marycat2021's avatar

And Pete Buttigieg was 38 in 2020 but was "too young." AOC lacks experience but she'll have it someday. Be patient.

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David Muccigrosso's avatar

@Brian, There's something important to the "get caught trying" aspect of it.

IMO, elected Democrats are afraid of "getting caught trying" because they know that the reference point on what they'd get praised for "trying" is vastly different between the base and swing voters.

It's not that the two explicitly disagree, though. That'd be too simple, and I think this is where a lot of analysis on our side gets confused. What I mean is, the base and swing voters BOTH want to see Democrats actually give a damn and investigate cases where Republicans undermine America like they have with the Hunter Biden thing, or with the J6 hearings. Most pundits mistakenly think they disagree; but they really *don't*, as AOC demonstrate in this interview.

The thing is, swing voters generally DO respond to these investigations. They SAY they hate them, they hate the partisanship, but they also can't unsee the bad things that get revealed. And unlike Republicans' BS fishing expeditions, ours have the benefit of actually being true.

The difference is, our base does a lot of things that are off-putting to swing voters. As is natural human behavior, we celebrate our petty victories. We also worry and concern-troll our petty victories, because we care more about our own side winning. But these actions signal to the swing voters that even WE don't think we deserve to win, when the truth couldn't be further. It's because we have self-doubt, because we care about not being wrong, that we don't project the same confidence the other side does even when they're more full of shit than us -- it's the classic "nice guy vs. confident asshole" conundrum.

Moreover, the things that the base criticizes are NOT the things swing voters would criticize if they were inclined to. The base criticizes our actions for not going far enough, not being ideologically pure enough. There's the inevitable splash damage, as base voters complain about unrelated gripes that turn off swing voters ("see, we wouldn't have had this if we had... [insert extreme liberal goal]"). This also confuses our elected leaders' moral/political compasses: They can't easily tell what aspects appeal to either group out of any given partisan investigation we carry out.

At the end of the day, the net effect ends up signaling to our elected Dems that all of this stuff falls flat with voters -- it doesn't seem to motivate the base enough, and doesn't seem to move the needle with the swing voters, so let's just focus on "kitchen table issues".

Fundamentally, it's not a *wrong* conclusion on their part -- if the kitchen table issues are the only place we get any real traction, then we need to play to our strengths in the here and now. But we ALSO need to solve the long-term issues of how our base undermines its own goals and our electeds can't tell what's paying off and what isn't.

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Bram's avatar

Every paragraph perfect on both sides of the conversation. Eventually I'd love to see AOC replace one of the NY senators. Honestly I had to look up the other one since I couldn't remember her name - the one who's only accomplishment was to push Franken out of the senate. What a waste of Federal pay and benefits (and donations to the DSCC).

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Marycat2021's avatar

Gillibrand has done a lot for the state, but I'm still fuming over how she screwed over Franken. I have the feeling that someday Al will return to politics.

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