this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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AOC for president, what a breath of fresh air
Can you explain what she's done since she's been in office? All I see is her virtue signaling on social media. I wasn't a fan of her faked border pictures of her crying at a fence when it was proven there was nothing on the other side and she just did it for publicity. I've never seen her argue anything of actual substance and research beyond the usual Democratic dog whistles.
Please at least explain to me why you like her if you're gonna downvote me. Please be specific. Most people that like her just seem to like her because she's a Democrat but then she acts super sketch like when it came down to force the vote and her not voting in the direction that her supporters and constituents wanted. She just seems more like a typical neo-lib.
What is "virtue signaling" in this case? Proposing and advocating for progressive legislation? Refusing to vote on controversial policies that are endorsed by the party? Using her bully pulpit to try and push issues?
Voting no on the debt ceiling bill was not very "neoliberal". But I guess that "doesn't count" since it passed anyway?
Seems to me that "virtue signaling" is just a disingenuous way to discredit someone doing the job of being an elected legislator. Don't vote for her if you don't like her, but try to have an actual specific reason for it.
It didn't bother you that she went to the border and took photos fake crying about immigrants that weren't actually there? It's super phony and it's exactly the kind of trash that fires up her base on social media. She's an instigator and has some super naive views about the economy and fiscal policies that sound nice in theory but wouldn't play out properly in practice because she doesn't seem to understand even simple math. You can't just keep promising people free money. Our country is already 10s of trillions in debt. It's my biggest issue with progressives... Endless ideas but no feasible way of paying for it. Look at the homeless problem in California. It spawned a multi-million dollar industry that only continues to survive as they get more funding that is overwhelmingly soaked up by the administration itself.
It's why people like me are resistant to progressive ideas they all sound nice on paper and the default is just "tax the rich" when in reality, you can't keep this kind of spending going even if you taxed the top 1% at 90%. The Covid stimulus cost taxpayers nearly 1 trillion dollars. That's a one-time payment and again, with money we don't have. Please make it make sense and not with idealistic hand waving and just insisting that richest people could (or would) be able to fix our gross debt and out of control spending. The bubble has to pop at some point. Republicans are just as much to blame for the debt. Trust me, I'm not Republican, I just can't stand the politicians that just call everyone else names and label them awful things for simply asking questions or having a different point of view.
Basically, if a progressive advocates for a policy position, that's virtue signaling and bad. If a rep doesn't have all the answers and hasn't already passed all the legislation they shouldn't be taken seriously. I guess you don't vote often.
So long as the GDP raises faster than the debt payments you can continue raising the debt infinitely. This isn't a radical Progressive Theory it's basic macroeconomics. I agree, it's a bubble that will eventually pop. The bubble called capitalism. When your entire economic system can only function on the principle of growth it cannot be maintained forever. So we better be preparing right now for what comes after capitalism. One of the best things we can do is invest now in building the things we need built to survive it, not just as a nation but as a planet. I bet you don't have any helpful ideas for that, though.
To be clear though, Republicans/conservatives are certainly not "just as much to blame". They're much much more responsible. They refuse to do the policies that are maintenance of society and instead push off those payments until there's an economic catastrophe that requires huge spending bills to address.
Go join Strong Towns. That's what it looks like when a conservative actually tries to solve problems around financial sustainability. They have the kind of answers you're looking for. The fact that most conservatives label that organization as far left really tells you the state of American conservatism in general though.
And next time you want to talk about how bad AOC is just keep the framing to how dangerous hero worship in general is. People aren't going to disagree with you there. Don't whip out all these disingenuous Reddit-style argument strategies. Say the thing you actually care about instead of making up bullshit.
Well said.