Obama vs The Squad

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush lecture President Obama about how to win in politics. And they're wrong.

Democratic US House Representatives Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the newest member of AOC’s Democratic Socialist bloc, Cori Bush, are pushing back against President Obama’s recent criticism of the “Defund the Police” slogan.

Obama argued in a recent interview that the slogan was “snappy” and counterproductive:

"You lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you're actually going to get the changes you want done. The key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with?"

First up, Ocasio-Cortez:

No, it’s really not. The “whole point of protesting” is not “to make people uncomfortable.” It’s to win. Sometimes, particularly with corporations and politicians, making them uncomfortable forces them to act — simply to make the pain stop. But at other times, such as when dealing with public opinion, you often try to woo, not piss off, your audience. For example, on LGBT civil rights issues, when organizing any particular action campaign we’d present an angry side to Congress and corporate America, and a warmer, fuzzier side on TV in order to reach the American people. Both carrot and stick have their place. But they’re tools — they’re not objectives in and of themselves.

And even when the goal is to make the public at large “uncomfortable,” the idea isn’t usually to piss them off. Rather, it’s to make them uncomfortable with the knowledge that others are suffering and in need, and that they aren’t helping. The goal is to make them want to help, not make them hate your cause. The “Defund the Police” slogan, according to Obama — and me — forces people to disagree with us, and oppose our cause, because the slogan misportrays the issue. To reiterate, discomfort is not an end in and of itself. It is a strategy for achieving an end. And using it effectively takes more forethought than simply striving to tick people off.

As for “activists not being PR [public relations] firms,” maybe they should be. It’s one thing if some activists don’t understand how to market their ideas well, it’s another entirely for Ocasio-Cortez to make excuses for it, and to suggest that therefore poor messaging is acceptable. Bad marketing is never acceptable if you actually want to win. It also should be noted that Ocasio-Cortez’s response is a bit disingenuous. She’s a walking one-woman PR machine, who knows how to sell issues and herself. (She’s been on a non-stop media tour since the election, including this week’s cover of Vanity Fair.) It’s not clear why she’s now pretending that PR and marketing are dirty words, and unnecessary, when they’re here claim to fame.

And finally, no one is talking about “being polite.” We’re talking about having an actual winning strategy, or any strategy, beyond simply “making others uncomfortable,” when all it is achieving is making others vote against Democrats and our issues.

Next up, Ilhan Omar lectures President Obama about the plight of black men in America:

First off, it’s a slogan and a policy demand. And both suck. Americans aren’t generally in favor of eliminating police departments, and that’s what the slogan/policy demand proposes. If it’s not what you mean, then don’t say it. Obama’s original point stands.

Second, it’s an interesting tactic to scold an African-American man — and former president, no less — about his alleged ignorance of the danger African-American men face in America. This would be another example of how making Obama “uncomfortable” isn’t furthering Omar’s cause.

And then there’s Cori Bush, the newest member of the Squad, and another self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, who responded to Obama by basically parroting Omar’s suggestion that Barack Obama doesn’t understand what it’s like to be a Black man.

In the end, Obama is talking about how we go about achieving our goals, and making sure that whatever strategies and tactics we adopt get us one step closer to winning. AOC, Omar and Bush would rather insist that their cause is just — as if, by magic, they’ll win simply because they’re on the side of the angels. Sadly, politics doesn’t work that way. You don’t win by whining about how right are you. You win by convincing the American people, and their elected representatives, to do what you demand. And that takes smart marketing.

Thanks, JOHN

PS There’s an excellent twitter thread tackling this issue here.

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