In depth interview with Ocasio-Cortez at the Jacobin:
"Because no one is going to vote for the Republican Party, but there is such tight control over who the Democratic nominee is in any given situation that New Yorkers are forced to vote for whatever Democrat is on the ballot in November. Especially because our primary system is so broken, it is so underreported on, deliberately. People don’t want attention paid to Democratic primaries."
“We’ve lost a thousand seats, we’ve lost the House, we’ve lost the Senate. We have lost the presidency in an election that we most certainly should not have lost. Are we going to continue to commit to voting for the same people, the same strategy, and the same plan?”
" “Trump is a terrifying demagogue, and he’s going to be a disaster for our democracy.” Guess what: Trump is a terrifying demagogue and he is a disaster for our democracy, but we lost the election on that narrative. "
"I’m not going to allow this movement to get hijacked by an energy of antagonism when what we are really trying to advance is a positive and progressive vision for America’s future."
"Money in politics has been so influential because there’s a lot of laziness on the ground. A lot of these “unassailable” political machines are shells — they do not have strong turnout. They’re decrepit."
"A lot of these Democratic — especially state Democratic — parties are asleep at the wheel. They’ve been kind of taken over, as, like, these little legal forms of money laundering units. "
"The story that I always told at these little living rooms was the story of The Wizard of Oz. We built our little ragtag group, and we walked down this yellow brick road, and we got to the Emerald City. We knocked down the door and we walked in, and there’s this huge intimidating behemoth, but it’s really just a guy behind the curtain. "
"A lot of consultants make 10 percent on every television ad that they place for a candidate. They’re not going to recommend things that win, they’re going to recommend things that earn commission. "
"knocking doors wins, phone banking wins, direct voter contact wins. But it doesn’t make people money."
Read the whole thing:
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/07/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-interview-democratic-primary/sidd