As Red State‘s Bonchie wrote last week, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) took after Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s (R-TX-2) criticism of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN-5) 9/11 remarks Thursday.

Her response was bizarre: In a nutshell, she insinuated that Crenshaw – a Navy SEAL who served his country honorably after 9-11 and lost his eye in an IED explosion in Afghanistan – had not done enough to defend victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Rep. Omar also went after him. She tweeted that his words were a “dangerous incitement” of violence against her, and urged “leaders of both parties” to join her in condemning Crenshaw, a Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart recipient.

Ocasio-Cortez escalated her attacks on critics of Omar later in the day Thursday:

“We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color and if they can’t figure out how to get it back to policy, we need to call it out for what it is because this is not normal,” Ocasio-Cortez concluded. “This is not a normal level of political debate or rhetoric, as wild as it can get sometimes, this is something beyond what is normal.”

Crenshaw again took to the Twitter machine to call out this tactic for what it is:

Just so we are clear on basic notions of reality:

When someone calls out a public official for things they said, it is not endangering their life or inciting violence.

Claiming otherwise is just an attempt to silence your critics.

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 13, 2019

On Saturday night, Crenshaw expanded on his remarks on Jesse Watters’s show on Fox News:

“This is the worst kind of argumentation,” Crenshaw said. “So what they’re doing is they’re trying to silence any kind of arguments against them. Why? Because they don’t actually have an argument to make. So what they do is they’ll use identity to try and silence anyone else from saying anything. You’re not allowed to say that because of who I am. Sorry, no, that’s not how things work in a democracy, especially amongst members of Congress. You’re supposed to debate ideas, if you say something we should call it out. That is the point of this. That’s why we were elected.”

“So to say that you’re not allowed to talk about something because of identities is nonsense,” Crenshaw added. “And it’s also sort of bigoted in itself because you’re assuming that everybody of a certain skin color or gender should think a certain way. That is really wrong; it’s the content of your character that matters; it’s the ideas that you have. And that’s what we should actually be debating here.”

Watch the segment below:

This is a frequent tactic of Omar’s, Ocasio-Cortez’s, Rep. Rashida Tlaib‘s (D-MI-13), and other Democratic women in Congress. They invoke the Woman Card, or the Woman of Color card, as if that’s supposed to insulate them and shield them from legitimate criticisms of what they say and do.

As a woman, I view their frequent WOC card-playing as embarrassing and hypocritical. These are the same “fierce women” who tell you they “don’t flinch” and to “raise hell” but then turn around and play the WOC card to try and shut you up for raising hell and not flinching.

It’s a shutuppery tactic, a way for them to try and declare debates over. Crenshaw is right to call it out.

Can’t have it both ways, ladies.

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—Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–