Leonard Pitts Jr: Face it, Repubs, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is way smarter than you guys

[babylonsister]

https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article229480349.html?fbclid=IwAR3HfKw7B1B_NMqugf4oUMHpsLbG1e6sISGUZnOMnY4NmyzZzlLGo5OlWhk


Face it, Repubs, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is way smarter than you guys | Opinion
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
April 19, 2019 05:42 PM, Updated April 20, 2019 07:05 PM

Memo to the Republican Party:

You might want to stop messing with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She’s a freshman congresswoman with no significant legislative achievements, so it makes little sense that you spend so much time and energy on her. Besides, every time you do, you end up getting pantsed.

You’d think you’d learn. Yet, like Charlie Brown trying to kick that football, you keep coming back for more.

The latest example began when one of your rank-and-file, Rep. Sean Duffy, took aim at the Green New Deal, Ocasio-Cortez’s wish list of social, economic and policy goals to stem the impact of climate change. He called it “elitist.”

She responded forcefully. “You want to tell people that their concern and their desire for clean air and clean water is elitist?” she said. “Tell that to the kids in the South Bronx, which are suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Tell that to the families in Flint, whose kids have their blood ascending in lead levels. … Call them elitist.”

That speech prompted another of your members, Rep. Andy Barr, to issue a dare disguised as an invitation: “Come to Eastern Kentucky where thousands of coal miners no longer have paychecks,” he said. “… Go underground with me and meet the men and women who do heroic work to empower the American economy.”

Whereupon Ocasio-Cortez did what Barr never expected: She accepted, noting that the Green New Deal envisions fully funding miners’ pensions “because we want a just transition to make sure we are investing in jobs” in mining communities.

His bluff called, Barr backtracked. He withdrew the invitation, claiming Ocasio-Cortez had to first apologize for an unrelated Twitter spat about a different issue with another legislator.

snip//

Not to treat her like the Second Coming — she is, again, just a neophyte lawmaker — but in her passion, her preparedness and her pugnacity, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is conducting a master class on the power of light and air, using the notoriety you gave her to do so. A new generation of progressive leaders is surely taking notes.

So a smart party would up its game, would quit manufacturing demons and start manufacturing ideas. Start manufacturing hope. It would be nice to believe that’s what you’ll do. On the other hand, Charlie Brown always said he wasn’t going to let Lucy trick him again.

It would have been nice to believe that, too.

[malaise]

1. They know

That's why they go after her

[rampartc]

2. i'm glad she is on our side

[lordsummerisle]

3. k&r n/t

[SWBTATTReg]

4. She's like the tiger in your gas tank or the battery in your electric car! ...

AOC is no slouch when it comes down to dealing with issues and getting down to business, whereas all of these republican nobodies come up w/ absolutely worthless reasons (insult politics) to oppose her ideas in the Green New Deal. Congressman Barr and Duffy have simply proven that they aren't concerned seriously with the issues of climate change (despite overwhelming evidence) and are obviously too tied up w/ the fossil fuel industry to be impartial about issues and really get to the heart of fixing problems. They are more interested in getting reelected instead of dealing w/ the problems of the day.

Where are Congressmen's Duffy and Barr's alternate suggestions and thoughts to the Green New Deal on fixing or addressing the very real issues of climate change? I am open to their ideas and thoughts. So far, all I've heard is deny that climate change is happening. This is far scary than them being considered just plain stupid. It's like the 'earth is flat' movement. Despite the overwhelming evidence, they still think the world is flat.

Attacking AOC's character (and all other democratic legislators) is all they can do. That's because there is no evidence to back up their claims that AOC's suggestions are nonsense. What's really interesting is that the marketplace itself has turned away from coal and other fossil fuels (except maybe natural gas) in order to generate power. The marketplace continues to develop wind and solar panel complexes because in some states the public utility commissions have mandated that power companies do so (based upon their consumer's demand for cleaner sources of energy).

Seems like to me that the two republican Congressmen are damaged goods themselves, and won't address one of the most pressing issues of the day, since the clock is running down on when as humans, we can turn back the clock of reversing the very real impact of damaging climate impacts due to out of control carbon dioxide (and other gases too) emissions. I'd like to see how these two act, when more historic flooding occurs in their districts (as a result of climate change) or more damaging forest fires (as a result of climate change), plus all of the other climate change events that we're not even aware of yet, start to happen.

[Scarsdale]

5. I wonder when the last time

Barr went to speak to his constituents? Is he related to William "Low" Barr, the AG? He is likely too afraid to go to his district, especially with a young lady who can out think him, outsmart him, and would make him look like dog meat in front of "his" people. All talk, they back down easily, don't they?

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a product of political evolution

Our party has had to produce intelligent, thoughtful, charismatic politicians. So what has Club Pachyderm come up with?

Laura ingraham, Sarah Sanders, and Ann Coulter

[yuiyoshida]

7. Smart as a whip...