It doesn’t take much for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to hop on Instagram and fire up her left-wing base over any number of issues.
But Alex from the Bronx™ jumped all over the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday night like Michael Moore jumping on a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, with a singular, overall message to her legion of lefties: This is a call to arms.
Or as AOC put it: “Let this moment radicalize you.”
In a lengthy, rambling Instagram video, titled “Some thoughts on the evening of RBG’s passing and her final wish,” AOC referred to RBG’s death as an “earth-shattering tipping point,” as she ticked through a litany of “differences this kind of vacancy means.”
Included in AOC’s perceived earth-shattering, tipping-point differences were “whether or not Americans have healthcare” and “us having a future and our climate or not” — whatever that means.
As she continued to riff about the pretend-cataclysmic differences between Donald Trump and Joe Biden filling RBG’s vacant seat, she issued a classic AOC call for radicalization.
“Let this moment radicalize you. Let this moment really put everything into stark focus because this election has always been about the fight of and for our lives. And if anything, tonight is making that more clear to more people than ever before.”
Despite having avidly supported and campaigned for fellow Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders, AOC talked about how much America now needs Biden. Same Biden she referred to in January when we said, “In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party.”
Then again, her comments were not exactly a ringing endorsement.
““We need to focus on voting for Joe Biden. I don’t care if you like him or not. Voting for Joe Biden is not about whether you agree with him. [She doesn’t.] It’s a vote to let our democracy live another day.
“We need to act in solidarity and protection for the most vulnerable people in our society who have already experienced the violent repercussions of this administration.”
At another point that wasn’t exactly a vote of confidence in Biden, AOC said: “No one president is the answer. You are the answer. Mass movements are the answer.”
AOC also took her rallying cry to Twitter. “I want to make one thing clear,” she tweeted. “We can, and must, fight.”
We have lost a giant in the history of our nation with the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
It is heartbreaking that in her final moments she was, as are many others, preoccupied with what would happen after her passing.
I want to make one thing clear: we can, and must, fight. https://t.co/QEDDFtSwmK
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 19, 2020
As AOC talked about RBG’s alleged last words — skepticism abounds here — “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed” — she said: “If Mitch McConnell is not going to honor RBG’s final wish, we will.”
That is a nonsensical statement — which we’ll get to in a minute.
As reported by my RedState colleague Becca Lower on Saturday, both AOC and Sanders demanded that McConnell honor RBG’s “wish.” During her Instagram diatribe, AOC said: “This is a man who does not care about a dying woman’s final wish.” Oh, please.
Anyway, as AOC sees it, “this is the fight of and for our lives” with the “opponents of democracy.”
Our first, no 1 priority is to do everything possible to secure electoral college victory in Nov.
This is the fight of and for our lives. That has always been true, & it becomes more true each day.
Opponents of democracy need your resignation to succeed. Don’t give it to them.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 19, 2020
So, AOC’s declaration/threat: “If Mitch McConnell is not going to honor RBG’s final wish, we will.”
First, with all due respect to recently-departed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, assuming she actually said what she’s being quoted as saying, that’s not how it works. Supreme Court justices aren’t some sort of exalted conclave with the ability to name their successors. Sorry; that right rests with the other two branches of government.
Second, if McConnell doesn’t “honor RBG’s final wish,” there will be nothing for AOC and the Democrats to “we will.”
Speaking of Mitch, in my Saturday piece titled Schumer Says ‘Nothing off the Table’ Next Year if GOP Replaces Ginsburg & Dems Win Senate, I included the following Friday night statement from McConnell, in which he made it crystal clear he has no intention to “honor” RBG’s alleged wish:
“The Senate and the nation mourn the sudden passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the conclusion of her extraordinary American life. In the last midterm election before Justice Scalia’s death in 2016, Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s second term.
“We kept our promise. Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year.”
Nor does Donald Trump, who was also clear.
.@GOP We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2020
Later on Saturday, in response to a question about RBG’s alleged wish, and an irrelevant admonishment from Barack Obama, Trump said:
“That’s called the consequences of losing an election. He lost the election — he didn’t have the votes — when you lose elections sometimes things don’t turn out so well.”
Trump asked about Obama/Garland precedent:
“That’s called the consequences of losing an election. He lost the election he didn’t have the votes, when you lose elections some times things don’t turn out well.”
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) September 19, 2020
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the Democrat Party are in a panic. The unthinkable has happened. We know what they’re thinking, right? Why could Ruth Bader Ginsburg not have held on for another 46 days? She didn’t. Elections have consequences, as Trump said.
Radicalization or not, AOC — you don’t hold the cards.
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