Of course, Trump calls her a ditzy idiot, a Fool. We expected that.
The "swift-boat" attack is that she isn't authentically a struggling millennial, passionate about changing the world.
The good news is that AOC knows what to do in a media fight. Other Democrats could learn from her.
The swift-boat technique is to attack the strongest part of the opponent's reputation. It got its name from the claim that candidate John Kerry, who got medals and purple hearts for courage under fire while commanding a small Navy river craft, was actually a coward. Kerry said the attack was beneath notice. People heard it go unanswered. Mistake. The attack muddled an important part of the Kerry brand.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is under current attack, and will likely be for the entirety of her political life.
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| NY billboard |
Attack Number One: She's a Fool. This one defines her as an ignorant inexperienced young woman. Opponents leap on mis-statements, regarding the size of Pentagon funding, of details in the Green New Deal, on unemployment numbers. She has made actual errors, and her opponents have turned perfectly reasonable statements into errors, by mis-stating her words.
It is classic archetype messaging, pitting the silly Fool against the steady hand of the Hero.
Attack Number Two: Undermine her authenticity. AOC got publicity for revealing that she had worked as a bartender while running for Congress, and that she didn't have enough savings easily to enter the DC housing market. At first, Fox and other conservative media sources thought to mock her for this. See how poor she is, how young, how unprepared for grown up life.
That backfired.
It reinforced her brand as an authentic and sympathetic struggling millennial. Many people struggle to have the "first, last, and security deposit" available to move into a new place, and many people have worked in the service and hospitality industry, and aren't ashamed of it.
The attacks confirmed she wasn't a privileged woman with a trust fund or a political special interest puppet-master.
The attacks confirmed she wasn't a privileged woman with a trust fund or a political special interest puppet-master.
Her critics learned, and reversed course. Now they are attacking her for her presumed wealth, power, and privilege.
She isn't like you. She is mired in the swamp!
She isn't like you. She is mired in the swamp!
Boyfriend. There are new media attacks saying a boyfriend had a House of Representatives e-mail account. (He does. He is a volunteer.) Her boyfriend got paid $6,000 from a progressive PAC! Maybe that is corrupt!
Clothes. Meanwhile Fox and Friends revealed she modeled expensive clothes in a magazine shoot for Interview Magazine.
Fox and Friends' Pavilch: "The rising star of the Democratic Party has expensive tastes for a socialist. For a photo shoot for Interview Magazine, her pant suit--appropriate--retailing more than $2,800 alone. And the shoes 600 bucks. It's tough being a socialist. I think she should redistribute. Hypocrisy at its best."
Twitter followers and other media leaped onto this, echoing the hypocrisy meme.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did what John Kerry failed to do: offer a pugnacious and unapologetic response:
"The alt-right doesn't seem to understand the concept of magazine shoots. You don't get to keep the clothes, duh."
She added: "I don't "pretend" to fight for a Living Wage & Medicare for All. I do it."
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| Opposition tweet |
There was the dividing line. AOC was Whole Foods, not Walmart, i.e. she is a privileged hypocrite.
Again, AOC responded immediately and pugnaciously, with a tweet, citing her name being on the target list of the Coast Guard officer who had compiled weapons and ammunition in a suspected plot to do a mass attack on her and other prominent Democratic politicians.
“Journalists are sharing stories about where I live the same day it’s shared that myself + others were targeted by a mass shooter. All this paired w/ amplifying unvetted conspiracy theories. It’s reckless, irresponsible & puts people directly in danger. This isn’t a game.”
Note: No apology.
Two takeaways:
One is that we see underway the Trump/Fox approach to damage the AOC brand. Define her as incompetent and try to make her look hypocritical.
The second is that AOC is media savvy. She knows what to do in a media fight: defend her brand. She is who she is, and it's OK.
8 comments:
The right is afraid of her that obvious
AOC is 29 years old, and she has a bachelors degree in International Relations (with a minor in economics). Sixth months ago she was a barmaid. She has no real professional experience. She was voted into office by her congressional district, and not the entire world. She's an empty suit with no accomplishments, who doesn't have a clue how the real world works, or what her proposals would do to the U.S. The woman is delusional. Aside from that, it's questionable that she even lives in her congressional district, and she has awfully expensive tastes for a socialist. She's an ignorant snake oil salesman. Only fools would follow her.
I think you may have misunderstood the point of today’s post. As I saw it, this is about effective brand management. OAC - and most members of Congress for that matter are not executives who make decisions; they need to get buy-in and consensus for anything they propose to get traction. You may be right, but time will tell how effective she will be in pushing any real legislation. However even if she doesn’t, she may be a powerful catalyst in other ways that we may never be able to measure in usual ways.
Judging from Anonymous's elitist comment he is a defender of the meritocracy, those effete, latte-drinking, New York Times reading blue-bloods who graduated from Harvard and Yale and got lots of professional experience in their daddy's law firms as they "worked their way up" as Washington insiders. Because THAT is how the real world works, eh Anonymous? He who has the gold wins, while the rest of us get the shaft...right? What could a "common" person from Queens know about the "real world?" (Thomas Jefferson may have had something to say about that...)
Andy Seles
Did you really think that the Rs would just go away quietly when threatened (see above). Duh.
Is your comment meant as irony or did you just look at the headline and not read the article?
To Andy Seles,
I suspect the anonymous comment above was written by Curt Ankerberg, who uses the phrase “empty suit” and would refer to someone as a snake oil salesman. I don’t know for sure, but it is my guess. He didn’t attend Harvard, nor Yale, and he—like you—has written that he considers it a black mark.
Don’t join him in that behavior. That kind of anti-elitism flows into anti-intellectualism, and that is a tool of the the authoritarian right. It empowers prejudice. You really think it helps progressive politics by belittling higher education? Tell that to Bernie, a University of Chicago grad. Some of the best leaders in progressive social change—as well as superb political commentary—went to the colleges you cite.
Peter Sage
Thanks, Peter. I get discouraged when I see the extent to which celebrity-style, tabloid-media style character assassination has become such a powerful force in our country's governance. Yay - let's get behind nasty, belittling nicknames, shibboleths and snide insinuations, that'll work. Snark prevails, and it must be ok because it is modeled at the top. Swift boating? Hey, it worked before, let's do more. They've started doing it to Amy Klobuchar too. Per your quote: "The swift-boat technique is to attack the strongest part of the opponent's reputation." It's a dirty tactic.
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