Reblogging for that last comment, because I’m seeing too many earlier versions of this making the rounds. This is literally what Ocasio-Cortez made that tweet in response to, conservatives @ -ing her on twitter and referencing this statement, trying to turn it into a gotcha moment:
“Now that ICE has literally removed a Nazi from her backyard, where does Ocasio-Cortez stand?” the RNC asked in a statement.
That is a very specific form of deportation she was specifically asked about, and her answer didn’t actually allude to any other form of deportation. And as she pointed out, an entire agency with broad over-reaching powers like ICE doesn’t actually need to exist to handle that kind of deportation because there’s not enough instances of it to justify needing that kind of agency to handle it. Hence why like, we didn’t even have an agency like ICE before 2003.
The right targeting someone they don’t like shouldn’t be a reason in and of itself for us to defend that person and anything shitty they did, like happened with Gunn. Fuck that guy, but not because the right targeted him, but because regardless of who dug up his dirt, he was dirty as fuck and people should know that.
But the right targeting someone they don’t like should be a reason to at least take two minutes to make sure the shitty thing they’re accused of saying or doing is ACTUALLY a thing they did, and not an ACTUAL smear job, as opposed to what happened with Gunn, whose own actions and words are what actually made him indefensible.
We have to keep in mind that the GOP and their mouthpieces do not care about telling the truth or about telling lies. They only care about advancing their agendas, and both the truth and lies are tools they’re equally willing to use whenever it benefits their agenda. So sometimes, they’ll twist the truth or blatantly lie, but other times, they’ll present stuff factually because like hey, plenty of Democrats are shitty people too and the right isn’t going to bother making shit up to make them look bad if they don’t have to because they already did plenty to make themselves look bad.
Ideally, you need to be questioning everything right now. I know that’s like, a lot to ask, and its just not viable for everyone all of the time. But if you don’t have the spoons for that you at least should consider not signalboosting stuff you haven’t taken the time to verify yourself, for whatever reason. At least as we get closer and closer to the midterms. Because you are going to be seeing a lot more stuff like this popping up more and more frequently in the next couple of months, because our cynicism is the right’s greatest weapon against us at this present moment in time.
They KNOW we’re tired. They KNOW we’re frustrated. They KNOW most of us have no faith in the government, including the Democratic party. They KNOW most of us are pessimistic about whether or not our votes even matter at this point, given the rampant corruption in our government and how weak the official responses to that corruption are.
They know all this and they are absolutely committed to weaponizing that exhaustion and cynicism and using it to convince people not to bother showing up at the polls to vote in November, to make them feel it won’t make any difference and it’s not worth getting our hopes up.
But just keep in mind…..they’re the ones in control of our government right now, the ones with their hands on the button. They’re the ones who know just how far their corruption extends and just how much power to cheat the system they actually have. The GOP leadership are the only ones in the country who ACTUALLY know whether or not the midterm elections and the possibility of Democrats taking back more control of the government is a legitimate threat to them.
So, the fact that even with all their corruption and rule-breaking and foreign hacking and stacking the deck at every possible turn….that even with all that, the GOP leadership are still hellbent on pulling out the stops and trying to convince Democrats not to bother showing up, trying to close polling stations, trying to purge registered voters from the rolls, trying to enact legislation to fuck with us…..that’s what we should REALLY be paying attention to.
The people who are best positioned to know how much power they truly have a firm grip on, and how firm or shaky that grip actually is, are telling us everything we need to know with how determined they are to keep people from voting blue in two months.
YOU DON’T TRY THIS HARD TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM VOTING IF THEIR VOTES AREN’T AN ACTUAL THREAT TO YOU.
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