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(From a FB friend who prefers to remain anonymous.)
I am reading all I can of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's interviews.
I would say that this is not being done in the Left's debate on strategy
around her election.
Last week on Democracy Now, she said that she wants to "Abolish ICE" but
she does NOT support open borders. She does not call for amnesty,
legality, citizenship for all undocumented immigrants. She objects to
ICE being particularly brutal and cruel and to child kidnapping and to
ICE being under Homeland Security and not under the Dept of Justice. But
she does NOT object to COURTS deporting un-authorized immigrants. She
comments that Border Patrol is a different agency and then says that
whether Border Patrol should exist is a matter for debate.
At the same time, she urges continuation, preparation, and escalation of
the tactics of mass protests to be able to embarrass disrupt and
delegitimize the local offices of ICE.
(Similarly she criticizes Israel but has now (on 2 occasions) refused to
call it a structurally racist and oppressing system of rule, or to call
for the overturn of any of its elements, even saying she needs to confer
and think before calling it "occupation")
What does this mean?
I would say it means she expresses some of the radicalization of the
country and sometimes concretely urges militant action, but this is the
MINORITY OF the cases and opportunities and only when she is certain
that it will be a case where it will cost nothing and on balance gain
support for the Democratic Party.
But, at the same time, in sweeping ways, she refuses and in fact
actually opposes fundamental liberatory / Left demands. Thus she has a
border where she opposes, literally taking action to urge and foster
further socialist consciousness
She explains the reason for this openly:
1. She says she considers it a primary and overriding objective to
ensure that the Democratic party wins more than 50% of the House
congressional seats in November
2. She considers the Democratic party "we" and believes that its
conservative political stance is a mistake because it causes them to
lose elections and that they can be persuaded to alter it
3. Mainly by persuading "10 to 30" members of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus Democrats to form a bloc demanding reforms and more
desirable goals.
4. Meanwhile she rejects admitting in public that the Left has reason to
oppose Nancy Pelosi.
This is the issue.
I am not saying that this is my opinion, in as much as each of my points
are explicitly stated in her interviews:
NBC 1 July
Jacobin 11 July
PBS 13 July
Democracy Now 16 July
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