Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
US House candidate, NY-14
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.
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NPR Politics
@nprpolitics
· 3h
Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: "My most fervent wish is that i I will not be replaced until a new president is installed." https://trib.al/2q7vg0g
9:17 PM · Sep 18, 2020
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
US House candidate, NY-14
Now is not the time for cynicism or hopelessness. There is and continues to be political possibility to preserve our democracy & move forward.
It will require each & every one of us, from the streets to the Senate, to grow in courage, strength, and strategy. But it is possible.
9:17 PM · Sep 18, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
[That is bleak. Anything is "possible." That is not a rallying cry, not, "We will overcome." It is only a mere "political possibility" that we can "preserve our democracy.", "Possible" is bleak. That is ominously bleak.]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
US House candidate, NY-14
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.
9:17 PM · Sep 18, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
US House candidate, NY-14
You do not need to, nor should you, ignore your fears - there is plenty to be afraid of - but we have possibilities before us.
We can win, we can succeed, but we cannot do it alone. We will need the people.
We must get to work.
Everyone matters.
Everyone has something to give.
9:34 PM · Sep 18, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
I agree with AOC's diagnosis. I have stated repeatedly previously that the former U.S.A. ended on November 8, 2016. This election is the fight of our lives. The continuation of American democracy may not depend on electing Joe Biden. It may be too late. But Biden's election is the only way out and I disagree vehemently with AOC's characterization of Biden's election is merely a "political possibility." No: It is probable.
I vehemently object to AOC's advice to not ignore our fears. No: Ignore fear! You cannot have the courage to fight when you are in fear!
Permit me an example in contrast. In the summer of 1862 a Pennsylvania farmer, younger than AOC, with a wife on his farm, answered his president's call for volunteers in a "fight for their lives" in the "preservation of their democracy." He went south and on December 12 on the hills across the Rappahannock River as the sun was setting, after he and his company-men had spent the day watching other units advance across the Rappahannock and meet the enemy and never return he and his unit got the call. His commanding general gave these green nine-month volunteers a call to arms as bleak as AOC gave repeatedly tonight, describing their charge as one of "forlorn hope." The young farmer-soldier made it across, others did not, and as he and those who remained advanced through town, Fredericksburg, Virginia, they slipped on the blood of those who had gone before them, the barely alive among those wounded grabbing at the pant legs of the new men begging them not to go.
They went on.
When they got out on the field they were ordered to "ring your muskets," empty them of ammunition, and to "fix bayonets." They were to advance across that field completely bare of cover and advance against an enemy massed behind a stone wall two-deep and with ball to fire.
They charged.
Watching the scene from another hill the enemy general turned to his most trusted lieutenant and said in admiration, "It is well that war is so awful, we should grow too fond of it." The successor to the commanding general the Pennsylvania volunteers, surveying the same scene, said, "It is just murder now."
But they went on.
Their fears did not stop them, they went on. A 25 year-old raw volunteer and a tiny few of his company got closer--"two rods"-- to the stone wall at Fredericksburg than had any previous unit of the Army of the Potomac. The young Pennsylvania farmer was named Nathan Bracken, he had been elected by his company a Sergeant, and he was my great-great grandfather. Sgt. Bracken did not survive the charge of the 133rd Pennsylvania, it was indeed a "forlorn hope,"and afterwards his body was stripped bare of its clothing by the destitute "opponents of democracy," but he pressed on despite all until he was cut down.
We must fight and ignore our fears.
The closest that AOC comes to a positive exhortation is "We can win, we can succeed" and even that is couched with "but we cannot do it alone." No: We will win and we will win with who we have got. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. We will win with you or we will win without you but WE WILL WIN! I am very disappointed in my hero Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Those are not heroic messages tonight.
