{"id":35163,"date":"2019-01-31T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T00:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=35163"},"modified":"2019-01-31T00:00:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T00:00:29","slug":"aoc-makes-an-immediate-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=35163","title":{"rendered":"‘AOC’ makes an immediate impression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There once was a time when rookie members of Congress languished in the shadows. They weren’t to be taken seriously by their colleagues. They weren’t to be held up for praise by their friends or condemnation by their critics.<\/p>\n

They needed to learn the location of the restrooms on Capitol Hill. Then they could be taken seriously, or so it used to go.<\/p>\n

Then came social media. Rookie members of Congress are able to become immediate superstars.<\/p>\n

One of them has rocketed to the top of the public relations totem pole. Her name is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a newly minted Democrat from New York City.<\/p>\n

She is so famous, in fact, that she now is being referred to as “AOC.” Yep, she’s up there with JFK, RFK, MLK, LBJ, FDR. This young woman, all of 29 years of age, has held public office for less than one whole month.<\/p>\n

Here she is. She is the talk of D.C. She is in huge demand on TV and radio talk shows. She is a self-proclaimed socialist. She wants to tax the wealthy, redistribute wealth around the country; she favors Medicare for All and single-payer health insurance.<\/p>\n

Why do you suppose she commands all the attention? Forgive me for mentioning this, but AOC is, shall we say, quite “telegenic,”<\/em> which is a politically correct<\/em> way of alluding to her physical attractiveness. Yes, she is well-educated and speaks well, too.<\/p>\n

I am inclined — given my own political leaning — to listen to what she has to say. However, I am in serious head-scratching mode about AOC.\u00a0How in the name of political seniority does a rookie member of Congress such as this one command everyone’s attention?<\/p>\n

She has angered not just Republicans but also “establishment” Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is thought to be miffed that she occasionally challenges the elders within the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Her faces shows up as a social media meme. I get these posts on my Facebook news feed from conservative friends who delight in ridiculing her occasional misstatements.<\/p>\n

She is one of 435 members of the House of Representatives. I don’t believe she represents a serious threat to establishment politicians of both parties . . . at least not yet. She needs some serious seasoning. AOC needs to get a firmer grasp on how the system works on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

I am just puzzled at how this young politician has thrust herself onto the center of a large and crowded political stage.<\/p>\n\n

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There once was a time when rookie members of Congress languished in the shadows. They weren’t to be taken seriously by their colleagues. They weren’t to be held up for praise by their friends or condemnation by their critics. They needed to learn the location of the restrooms on Capitol Hill. Then they could be … Continue reading ‘AOC’ makes an immediate impression<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[8255,1112,1343,1695,1941,2460,2751,3107,3178,3930,5045],"class_list":["post-35163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-news","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-congress","tag-democrats","tag-fdr","tag-gop","tag-jfk","tag-lbj","tag-mlk","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-rfk","tag-us-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35163"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35166,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35163\/revisions\/35166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}