speaks common sense and calls out absurdity

Yes, the bar is that low.

yes. anyone who's 35+ years of age should notice this.

while shitty things used to happen or fly under the radar, mass media used to act as cultural checks and balances to keep the insanity at arms length. but it's all been monopolized--it's all controlled by the crazy people. you have independent journalism but few americans read it, and most online magazines are read by out-of-touch, overeducated yuppies and aren't nearly as biting as they used to be or should be.

but this bullshit should be obvious to anyone because the rest of culture needs to adjust to the insanity, to normalize it. how hard is it to differentiate between parody/satire and reality these days?

it's impossible IMO. when i watch most newer films i assume they're parody because they're so fucking stupid.

We absolutely do, it's just that none of us ever seem to get elected to the US Congress, so when someone does, yeah, it is kind of a big deal.

She makes insecure people panic without screaming or playing into games.

Imo good leadership traits and reminds me a lot about Obama. She handles pressure smoothly, one can say even more pressure than Obama.

"In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king."

But being serious: AOC and politicians like her ARE us "doing it for ourselves." For a very long time, the vast majority of politicians elected in the US have gotten there by getting the backing of wealthy capitalists. They don't say "common sense things" because those things aren't good for the people who helped them get elected. If they did say those things, those capitalists would not only stop funding them, but fund their opposition more. The result is a government comprised of politicians who very rationally don't represent us. (That's not to say some of them aren't crazy on their own, but them being there is a rational outcome of self-interested actors.)

In order to get a politician who does and says things that are good for people, you need an absolutely massive grass roots effort to win an election against the might of rich donors. AOC was one of the notable times when we managed to do that. But this shows the limitations of that strategy within our current electoral system. For every AOC, Illhan Omar, or Mamdani, there are literally hundreds of more races which are still dominated by big money. It took not only a massive on the ground organizing effort locally, but also a lot of support from engaged people across the nation. And it's way more costly for the average person to contribute to a campaign than it is for a billionaire. So even if a lot of us want this, it's going to be really difficult to get a critical mass of wins to actually make an impact.

So that's why they're a big deal. They might be basic social democrats in some less corrupt countries, but here they are the few who are unbought. What they say is less relevant than the fact that they are able to say it at all.

Any politician that actually speaks common sense is a big deal.

There’s no such thing as common sense.

Must be a blissful experience not observing any official political discourse at all. It's all disingenuous rhetoricizing because the 'conservative' right only has a policy of extraction and enriching the insanely affluent, and they know that's not popular, so they simply force the conversation away from practical topics of governing, often with distractions and moarlizing non-issues. The liberal 'left' are happy to descend to that arena because they're also funded by the same insanely rich, and their alleged beliefs and goals conflict with those interests. So it is currently unusual when a politician sidesteps that whole dynamic and just addresses the actual issues living perople everywhere on the political spectrum can identify with in their lived experience. AOC is a pretty good example of someone who is consistently trying to drag the conversation into the practical realm, which the establishment hates because it draws attention to the fact that they have nothing to offer of value to better the lives of the majority of their constituents, and no intention to do so, in fact.

So yes, as crazy as it is, we are just so far off the rails that simple and practical reform and adressing obvious problems seems outlandish and impossible, but that's not an accident; It's what the donor class has paid both sides for. It is a good sign that more political actors are wading into that conversation, and an indicator of the eventual expiry date on corrupting the body politics with bribes.

How many other politicians are doing that? When a mechanic doesn't try to scam you, you tell very person that will listen.

For those here who remember AOC being a monitor company and not some politician, OP is talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is one of the representatives of the state of New York in the House of the Congress of the USA.

I think it's at least partially because everyone else sucks so bad. She's not a great speaker but she gets a lot of coverage from left-wing influencers because there's no one else to promote. She also positions herself just far enough on the left to get their support but she's also close enough to the center to still get coverage in the mainstream media. So she's the face of progressive movent and gets attacked by Fox a lot. So she's everywhere even though she's kind of bland in my opinion (compared with European left at least).

Disinformation is so widespread, largely because of O&G marketing firms, that speaking common sense has become a big deal.

It might not look like much, but the really impressive part about their journey is how they avoid being dragged into a political sport between the liberal/conservative/MAGA cesspool, and instead drag our attention towards the meaningful.

Its a dreamers game, and those who captures the imagination of the people are the winners.

At the same time, Washington politics is a money game, and Sanders wing have been able to keep up with them only with money from small donors.

Well at least thats my takaway from following us politics between 2015 to 2021.

There is a really excellent documentary called Knock Down the House. It followed four progressive women launching grassroots campaigns against powerful political figures. 

If memory serves AOC is the only one of the four who won her race.

You see MAGA love to hate women. That is one of the reasons why they hate Nancy Pelosi so much.

It is the Howard Stern effect, where people who liked his show listened to about half of it, people who really had no opinion on Stern didn’t listen to any of his show. People who hated Howard Stern listened to every minute of his show. AOC is the same way.

MAGA’s hatred has made her a household name and it is awesome, because I love her. She is just excellent. She is what MAGAs wish Donald Trump was.

we went off the rails in the 1980s dude. Carter and Nixon were the last presidents that remote had any grounding in reality, and they were both loathed by the public for it. 1970s were a shitshow and instead of fixing shit we decided to just start mortgaging the country for the next 50 years.

we have been riding them every since, no feet on the ground.

We have had like a handful of pols who wanted to like fix shit in this country, but they are not widely popular and the establishment totally hates them, so they are portrayed as radicals.

It's america. It's because she is easy on the eyes. Don't overthink it.

Read all the posts here. Most of them are correct in some way.

• She threatens populism from the economic side forcing the corrupt MAGA politicians to care about 'fake news' like 'affordability'
• She threatens insecure dudes by being smart, attractive and speaking spanish
• She threatens the political republicans because she actually interacted wth the public instead of going to an ivyleague college and being taught to speak folksy by a speech trainer
• Won't somebody think of the lusty christian men?

So she's like perfect ragebait for every right winger

Most politicians at that level (maybe all levels) appear to be bought and paid for, are not genuine, and just say whatever the polls and their campaign managers tell them. She seems to be more genuine, competent, charismatic, and a threat to the status quo.

Because a lot of you are cowards and hid away instead of helping to shape public opinion. When these leaders like AOC and others do not have people creating content on popular platforms then it leaves a runway for the opposition to create any narrative they want. It's a numbers game at this point. The opposition convinced supporters to run away and hide and they did willingly.

Look up the "overton window"

Like it or not, people need political leaders to follow.

Also, AOC has the advantage of representing a district in New York City, the media capital of the world. She probably wouldn't be as well known if she was the Congressmember from Topeka

She's an attractive latina. This shouldn't matter. The reason it does is because the right hates her for being liberal, but they hate even more that they could never have her. One thing to understand about the typical "alpha male" hyper^toxic^-masculine right wing narcissistic douche is they view themselves as hunters. They can't or won't acknowledge (or maybe they don't understand) that they are in fact trophy hunters. When it comes to women, some of the biggest "trophies" are the strong, independent ones. Add in the latina flavor and top it with being liberal (that they would view as needing to be educated) and she's one of the biggest trophies in their world. The fact that they have absolutely no chance with her pisses them off to no end. So she becomes the target of their ire. Then they try to trash her every chance they get. For this she has gotten a lot more air time and publicity than others.