Thread by @SethAbramson

Mitch McConnell's campaign manager Kevin Golden was complaining today about the "speech police"—further confirmation the right does everything it complains about but simply refuses to register it given that Trump polices the words of @AOC and other Democrats daily down to the nub

@AOC 1/ Trump says @AOC *needs to speak differently about policy* or she must *leave America*, but no, Twitter suspending McConnell's Twitter account temporarily because he posted audio/video of violent threats is the *real* "speech police"

No bigger snowflake than a Trump snowflake

@AOC 2/ Clearly, engaging with the right is futile. Trump attacks America, Americans, and American cities near-daily, but that's "loving America"; the slightest critique of the Trump administration by a Democrat is proof of a deep hatred for the flag, the Constitution, and apple pie.

@AOC 3/ The second a child goes missing, Republicans nationwide are clamoring for a new law named after the missing child—but if Democrats seek new laws after *hundreds and hundreds of innocents are murdered*, they're "politicizing a tragedy." I'm done with this gaslighting hypocrisy.

@AOC 4/ Remember—given their cynical, fatalistic perspective on *all* communal endeavors and *hatred* of the U.S. government, Republicans *benefit* when (a) government doesn't work, (b) people feel hopeless about politics, (c) there's gridlock so conversations can't ever move forward.

@AOC 5/ When Democrats engage Republicans thinking the latter believe in facts, have values they apply equally in all situations, or believe in the Christian principles they espouse, they get gaslit and become hopeless and start to think politics is a waste of time. So the GOP *wins*.

@AOC 6/ Enough is enough. It now seems clear Democratic voters and Democratic politicians must function—to the extent possible—as though Republicans don't even exist. It seems to be the only way to *not* waste time on gaslighting, retain *hope*, and *maybe* push conversations forward.

@AOC 7/ The impeachment inquiry is a good example. Republicans in Congress have no values or standards; they're not worth appealing to or waiting for. Democrats must act as good, decent, smart, fact-amenable people act and whenever possible treat this era's GOP cult as a *non-entity*.

@AOC 8/ How much better would your social media life become if you began simply ignoring—and I mean ignoring like they *never existed and don't exist*—every radical who comes onto your feed or into your perimeter with fake news, false equivalencies, trolling, or other time-wasting BS?

@AOC 9/ How much more effective would every national Democratic politician be if every time s/he was asked to respond to a Trumpian rant or some far-right BS from stooges like Jim Jordan or Doug Collins, "I don't have any reaction. I don't care. Here's what I'm here to talk about..."

@AOC 10/ I mean, how much of our lives are we wasting on stupid people? How much time are Democratic politicians wasting on a party that's no more than a cult and a sizable chunk of which (80%+) is so radicalized and living in an alternate reality they can't even be spoken to anymore?

@AOC 11/ John Lennon used to say, "War is over if you want it." The same could be said of this totally made-up idea that there's *political* discourse to be had with Republicans in DC, or the 80%+ of Republican voters now in Trump's cult. There isn't. There's *nothing* to talk about.

@AOC 12/ Again, *everything* the GOP complains about they themselves are doing to the nth degree—they just refuse to see their actions in the same light they cast everyone else's. It's gaslighting, time-wasting, and if we're going to move forward as a nation we must treat it as noise.