AOC: The idea that politicians can control activist messaging doesn't make sense.

[melman]

Link to tweet

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. She is still a Democratic politician, right?

I think that is a fucking horrible thing to say here on DU.

[Me.]

5. No It Isn't

If she is going to spend the day tweeting

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. There are, or used to be, rules against making post derogatory of Democratic politicians

Maybe that doesn't exist anymore. Comparing one of OUR Democratic politicians "like tRump" is just wrong.

[maxsolomon]

2. Right on AOC. I've been trying to communicate this point on DU, to little avail.

BLM is not the Democratic Party, and they're not the strategic-messaging hive-mind of DU. Neither are the authors and academics who coined the phrase.

I guess if I wasn't such a dick I might have made some headway...

[Dem4Life1102]

4. She has been making good points about messaging

and tactics. Too bad too many are blinded by their personal dislike of her to see it.

[Bettie]

8. This right here

Seriously, some people are obsessed with their hatred of her.

She could say "I don't like pickles" and there would be a huge outcry over her anti-pickle stance and how it would hurt us in some pro-pickle right wing counties.

[AmericanCanuck]

7. A bit tone deaf

Communities differ geographically across the country.

Not every district, locality or state is like NY-14. Painting all politicians with a broad brush (some of whom have been practising the craft for decades) and lecturing them after just two years in office from a deep blue district is bad optics.

This kind of divisive rhetoric must stop. AOC has ample opportunity to discuss and debate things within the caucus unless the goal is to rule the news cycle on twitter.

[maxsolomon]

9. Not quite sure you read the OP.

Are you saying that Dem Politicians CAN control activist messaging?

[AmericanCanuck]

11. Yes they can.

BLM is a largely Democratic group and there is a symbiotic relationship between Democratic politicians and the activists. They can certainly work together to hone the messaging.

Look at the rethug activist groups - they never do anything that would hurt their party. The rethugs work with their terrorists and vice versa.

[bdtrppr6]

12. i've been involved with protests here in PDX

and am following many in the community. you could say they are democrats to an extent, but the search is on for another alternative. 2 party system completely blows and some real representation of all the various identity groups who are working together for true change is sought. mostly young and motivated to shake shit up. the mutual aid that has occurred here has been a beautiful thing to see and will only expand. BLM as an org may be Dem but the marchers are a big question mark.

get the big money out of our politics and there would be a groundswell of young forward thinkers running and changing our society for the better.

[AmericanCanuck]

13. Fringe or single issue parties rarely go anywhere.

BLM can get more of its agenda through by working with Democrats because their positions are synergistic to the Democratic party.

They could also message more effectively by taking advice from a large party's media section.

"Reform the police" would have had broad support. "Defund the police" was scary to many and we may have lost independents because of that slogan. I grant you that in the heat of passion, that slogan was a great catharsis. However, if Democrats don't win, BLM will have little power to effect change. Activism should have pragmatic goals of achieving most of the agenda and not insist on all of it at once.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. K&R!

[lapucelle]

14. Policians who adopt activist slogans are responsible for that part of their own messaging.

When politicians do not develop a message beyond sloganeering and then amplify the slogan with Steinese redundancy by way of explanation, it is the politician who owns the failure.