cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17779126

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has issued a dire warning to her party about the chaos that could ensue if they succeed in pushing President Joe Biden off the ticket. And she criticized Democrats who’ve given off-the-record quotes that suggest the party has resigned itself to a second Trump term.

In an Instagram Live video on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez warned liberals that a brokered convention could lead to chaos, in part because she says some of the Democratic “elites” who want Biden out also don’t want Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee in his place.

“If you think that is going to be an easy transition, I’m here to tell you that a huge amount of the donor class and these elites who are pushing for the president not to be the nominee also do not want to see the VP be the nominee,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez claimed none of the people she’s spoken with who are calling on Biden to drop out — including lawmakers and legal experts — have articulated a plan to swap out the nominee without minimizing the serious legal and procedural challenges that are likely to ensue.

Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted the racial, ethnic and class divisions that appear to have formed between the majority of those pining to blow up the ticket — led mostly by white Democrats and media pundits — and those elected officials who feel they and their constituents have too much at stake to upend the process at this point and so are willing to do the work to re-elect Biden-Harris. She alluded to this cultural divide in her video when she spoke out against anonymous sources expressing a sense of fatalism on behalf of Democrats about what might happen if Biden remains on the ticket:

What I will say is what upsets me is [Democrats] saying we will lose. For me, to a certain extent, I don’t care what name is on there. We are not losing. I don’t know about you, but my community does not have the option to lose. My community does not have the luxury of accepting loss in July of an election year. My people are the first ones deported. They’re the first ones put in Rikers. They’re the first ones whose families are killed by war.

  • @magiccupcake
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    154 months ago

    I don’t think this has aged like milk yet

    Aoc’s take was a strategic and pragmatic one, and she hasn’t been definitively proven wrong yet. Harris appears to be the current frontrunner for the convention, but that seems to be based on donations? The delegates could still pick whoever they want.

    I do think she will be the democratic nominee, but if she loses in November, Aoc’s comment would have been accurate.

    • @Linkerbaan
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      02 months ago

      They picked Harris so AOC was wrong

      but if she loses in November, Aoc’s comment would have been accurate.

      This implies that Biden would 100% win if they did not swap Harris out.

      By now most people who advocated for Biden realized that keeping him was a losing move. Though the same people still advocate for Harris implementing all the Biden policies as if that’s what voters actually want.