Politics of AOC
- AOC = Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Discussion
"If 2018 was the year of Jordan Peterson, then perhaps 2019 will be the year of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. With the breakthrough of AOC, the Culture War has entered a new phase. The collapse of the Blue Church is going to lead to a level of “cultural flux” that will make the 1960’s look like the Eisenhower administration. As the Church falls away, the “children of Blue” will emerge in a Cambrian explosion and reach out to engage in all out culture war with the still nascent Red Religion.
To my mind, AOC is the first major example of a “child of Blue”.
For clarity, I would contrast her with Tulsi Gabbard who might be considered the ‘last great hope of the Blue Church.’ While AOC and Gabbard might both resonate (more or less) with the content of the Blue Faith, Gabbard appears to be functionally operating within the mind/media type of the Blue Church. AOC’s mode of collective intelligence, by contrast, is decisively new media.
The Congresswoman from the Bronx is not a culture warrior trained by and for the broadcast television wars of the 90’s. AOC is an Achilles dipped up to the heel in the Styx of decentralized media. Her style of communication is fluid, continuous and direct. She does not stand above and outside of the conversation, attempting to influence it with authoritative ‘good opinion’. Rather, she is in it — sensing and responding to a “social” that is always present and that is coextensive with her identity.
In this crucial sense, she vastly more like the Insurgents than the elder Democrats that happen to be sitting next to her in the Congress.
AOC will likely behave very differently from the waves of idealistic young Boomer congressmen and women who came to Washington in the 70's through 90’s with big ideas — only to melt into the party machinery. Her power is connected to an entirely different source then the Churchly powers of the DNC. As she experiments with and demonstrates this new power, she will be showing precisely how few clothes the Emperor is wearing.
I expect 2019 to be a year where the struggle for the heart of Blue becomes a central part of the story."
(https://medium.com/deep-code/situational-assessment-2019-aoc-edition-b6e31897f35c)