Thread by @studentactivism

Man. AOC out here responding to left-punching with "be more good at politics, whiners." You honestly love to see it.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1324694301234921474

And if you want to know what AOC thinks about left messaging, just do a Twitter search on the terms she puts in quotes in this tweet. She knows what she's doing here, and what she's talking about.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1324698828944138243

A couple more things here: First, AOC didn't pick this fight, on this day. Spanberger chose to bring this to AOC's door, and it would have been malpractice for her to stay silent. Mad about infighting? Go be mad at Spanberger.

Also, AOC is explicitly pivoting AWAY from a factional argument. Yes, she's saying you need to respect the base, but she's not making a zero-sum case. Want to run as a centrist? AOC is saying, "Fine. Do that. But don't kick other Dems, and don't forget to door-knock, either."

There's a candidate making a big-tent argument here, and it's the candidate of the left.

Let me make this part a bit more explicit.

https://twitter.com/studentactivism/status/1324724089018294272

Here's AOC's tweet history on the word "defund." When "Defund ICE" was an important part of left messaging, she tweeted about it all the time. "Defund the police"? Very different story. twitter.com/search?q=from%…

Does that mean she repudiated it, or ran from it? No. She explicitly defended it as an organizing tool and an activist rallying cry. But she didn't use the term herself, because she understands her role in the national conversation.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1270343169780178944

AOC isn't out here pushing "defund the police" as a Democratic Party slogan, but she's also not trashing activists who are organizing around it. She understands that doing that is doing the GOP's work for them.

Ideology aside, AOC is very very very good at politics. Period.

And again, did AOC mention Spanberger by name here? She did not. Did she point out that Spanberger herself is (based on reports I'm seeing from her district) bad at the kind of retail shoe-leather politics she's talking about? No, she didn't.