She Thought We Wouldn’t Notice. We Did.

AOC's Political Persona [0:00]

• The speaker challenges the notion of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) as a radical, suggesting her "woke" rhetoric is a facade.
• Marjorie Taylor Greene is cited as understanding AOC early on, labeling her a "fraud" and "partisan hack" rather than a threat to the establishment.
• AOC is presented as a tool to "hijack" and "steer" younger voters into the Democratic Party with a "softer, younger, hipper version."

  "AOC is not a radical. AOC is a fraud. She's a partisan hack. She's there to put a kind of happier face for younger people to commandeer and steer them into the Democratic Party and make them feel as though they're joining a party that isn't really Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden's party or Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton's party."

From Radical to Establishment [0:00]

• The speaker contends that AOC has "nothing in her life remotely that suggests any kind of anti-establishment or radical impulses."
• Her victory against Joe Crowley, a Democratic establishment figure, is attributed to luck and branding, not genuine radicalism.
• AOC is compared to Nancy Pelosi, who was once considered too left but became hawkish on foreign policy and a strong supporter of corporate interests.

  "To me, she already has morphed into Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi used to at one time be considered, you know, far too to the left from San Francisco."

The Left's Foreign Policy Shift [0:00]

• The transcript questions whether DSA-led protests oppose the war with Russia, framing it as a major establishment project that benefits defense contractors.
• The speaker contrasts this with the "old left" and figures like Noam Chomsky, who critiqued intelligence agencies and the military-industrial complex.
• There's a perceived silence from figures like Bernie Sanders and AOC on the "evils of the CIA or the NSA," with endorsements of figures like Abigail Spanberger.

  "When is the last time you heard anybody associated on the left with any kind of platform, like Bernie Sanders or AOC, talk about the evils of the CIA or the NSA."

Co-option and Compromise [0:00]

• The Democratic Party's alignment with the CIA and FBI, fueled by Russiagate, is presented as a reason for their shift.
• An anecdote about Congressman Colin Allred defending CIA censorship illustrates the party's new stance, where censorship is framed as protection.
• The speaker notes that many on the left were quickly convinced to support massive spending on the arms industry due to narratives about Russia.
• While some DSA candidates like Dara Lisa Chevalier initially opposed the NATO war, they often downplay these views due to Ukraine being a "religion on the left."
• The core problem highlighted is that potentially radical individuals or movements are more likely to be "commandeered" and "sucked in" by the Democratic Party than to change its dogma.

  "The problem though, Tucker, you see this with Trump and the MAGA movement, and you've definitely seen it with a lot of these supposedly radical candidates who, who became adjacent to the Democratic Party, is you can think that you're taking over these parties in order to like commandeer them and their power to change their dogma to yours, but infinitely more likely for so many reasons is that it will commandeer you."