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July 20, 2022

AOC's amateur-hour publicity stunt

By Rajan Laad

Yesterday, most mainstream media outlets reported that a number of Democrat representatives — including "Squad" members — were arrested outside the Supreme Court following protests against the Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), AKA AOC, was among those arrested for blocking traffic.  Reps. Barbara Lee of California, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Cori Bush of Missouri, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Nydia Velazquez of New York, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, and Andy Levin of Michigan were among the other legislators arrested.

The Capitol Police said they had arrested 35 people, including 17 members of Congress, for "crowding, obstructing or incommoding."  Law enforcement officials said that the group had, despite warnings, refused to vacate the street, so they took action.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) melodramatically tweeted a video of the arrests.

Such brutality!  Such handcuffs.  Such a price to pay, so the narrative went. 

But well, what really happened was something a bit different.

What's the truth about these dramatically presented "arrests"?

Start with the words used:

The Oxford dictionary defines "arrested" as "the person is taken to a police station and kept there because the police believe they may be guilty of a crime."

However, none of the individuals was taken to the police station, and no force was used.  The protesters were merely escorted to a containment unit nearby, where they weren't allowed to be a nuisance to the public.  They were let go after that.  AOC was back on Instagram in the evening.

The right word to describe what happened is "detained."

The "arrests" would have been a great opportunity for Democrat lawmakers to get some easy visibility.  Alas, for them, the publicity piranha AOC was there.

She extracts all publicity for any occasion faster than a piranha fish can strip flesh from a bone.

And sure enough, she pulled a phony stunt.

Many news outlets reported the incident with headlines that read "AOC and Other Lawmakers Arrested for Supreme Court Protest," with photos of AOC with her arms behind her back and wrists close to one another.  She appeared to be handcuffed, the poor thing, resignedly smiling as the cameras rolled.  The picture, of course, was of O Brave, Sir Sandy...she was not afraid to die, as the Monty Python song goes.

But social media users and some members of the press found something a little different:

Having been found out, caught in fake a melodramatic stunt, and not for the first time, you'd think she'd be embarrassed.

But that little fake handcuff revelation hardly matters to AOC.

What matters is that most U.S.-based news agencies such as CNN, NBC News, Axios, etc. reported it as an arrest.  Even agencies overseas such as the U.K. Guardian, the BBC, France 24, ABC in Australia, and numerous others reported it as an arrest, complete with a pity party for poor brave AOC.

AOC knows that more people will read the news than will read social media posts exposing her false claims.

Perhaps she may claim to be arrested, handcuffed, and even assaulted in her memoirs.

Following the January 6 protests, AOC went full drama queen there, too, falsely suggesting she was in the Capitol Building and in immediate danger because the protesters were demanding to know where she was and were even banging on her office door.  It was eventually revealed that AOC wasn't even in the building during the incident.

She also did a comparable border stunt in 2019, wearing white, posing in front of a chain link fence, pretending to cry over "caged" migrant illegal border-crossers, and then being found out from other pictures that she was "crying" in front of a parking lot for the cameras.

Now she's doing something right out of her own well practiced playbook around the issue of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

This wasn't the only protest that AOC conducted in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling.

She's protesting in every creative way she can.

A few weeks ago, AOC informed her 8.6 million followers on Instagram that she was going to "redo her nails" to display her commitment to the "resistance."

AOC claimed she grew up in a socially conservative and religious environment, where women wearing red nail polish and red lipstick were "frowned upon," hence the use of red was her way of protesting in favor of abortion.

So does AOC care about abortion or the overturning of Roe v. Wade?  Does she care for the downtrodden, as she also claims?

Emphatically not.

She had no time for the exploited Amazon workers in New York who were attempting to unionize in her own district.

She supports extreme gun control laws and defunding the police for regular citizens, but for herself, she spends thousands of dollars and has armed bodyguards.

When the NYPD was arresting "defund the police" protesters, AOC was just yards away, attending the ostentatious MET Gala, where tickets are priced at $35,000 per head. 

There are myriad instances of blatant hypocrisy.

The only cause that AOC passionately cares about is AOC herself. 

Nothing else matters.

AOC has found a shortcut to success in politics.

She doesn't waste her time authoring or co-authoring bills or working at the grassroots.  She doesn't engage with her colleagues to convince them to vote for progressive laws or the Green New Deal.

For AOC, every occurrence, irrespective of its graveness, is an excuse to seek publicity by making a spectacle of herself.  She knows that the footage is captured all over by cameras and will be broadcasted all over.  When she isn't on other people's cameras, she is on her own web camera on Instagram "connecting with her followers."

Gone are the days when people allowed their work to speak for itself.

For the likes of AOC, words are a replacement for work.

In a recent TV appearance, AOC urged Biden to create abortion facilities on federal land.  She also demanded the impeachment of Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neal Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett because she claims they misled the Senate about their positions on Roe v. Wade during their Senate confirmation hearings, which is nonsense, given that most Democrats weren't happy with their answers and didn't vote for their confirmations.

Both proposals are absurd and impossible to achieve, but AOC promoted them anyway since she knows that her audience will conflate her words with actions.

She is aware that when she bloviates about minority rights, the environment — the Green New Deal, racism, sexism, and transphobia during her Instagram sessions or in TV interviews, her voters think she really means those words.  She knows that few care to evaluate the actual steps she took to bring any change.

AOC understands that being in the public eye is all that matters.  Congressman Hal Roger from Kentucky has been an elected House member since 1981.  He has served for more years in the House than AOC has lived, yet few beyond his district will recognize him, while AOC has national recognition, perhaps even global recognition.

AOC has enough clout that her reluctance to endorse Biden for 2024 causes headlines. 

She may be an object of derision among some, but she does have a base who adores and worships her.

She is like an actor, who plays the part of a kind, compassionate, empathetic progressive.  Her act is like that of someone who stars in her own biopic or reality show.

What is surprising and disappointing is that despite her obvious charades, she not only gets elected, but is likely to be re-elected for as long as she wants to be.

AOC could someday become speaker of the House.

But her prospects aren't limited to Congress.  Perhaps she becomes senator — there was buzz last year that she may challenge Chuck Schumer for his seat.  While that will not happen now, it could happen some years later.

In a decade, she could become governor of New York.  All she has to do is knock out her rivals in the primary through virtue-signaling and empty talk.  It is unlikely she will be held accountable for her subpar performance in the House.  If she is, she will claim to be a victim of sexism and racism, and the liberals of New York will fall for it.

AOC could even aim higher than that and aspire to the Executive Branch. 

Image: Screen shot from Washington Free Beacon video via Twitter.

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