Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has somehow landed herself in hot water with progressives after saying that “identity” should be the “starting step” when it comes to President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court pick, but that worldview is another factor he needed to consider when choosing a nominee to ensure the choice is actually progressive. In short, some on the Left thought that AOC’s comments were evidence that she is racist and sexist against black women, as if she was somehow doubting Biden’s potential nominee pick would not be sufficiently progressive.
If it sounds as if everybody is confused in this conversation — AOC for saying ‘identity’ should be the first consideration and her critics for saying she is racist — the answer is they’re not confused — their brains are just poisoned by identity politics. The “debate” — which is almost insulting to the reader to call it that — highlights once and for all how stupid “identity politics” are.
AOC’s comments came on January 31 during an episode of Yahoo Finance’s “Influencers With Andy Serwer.”
“Identity is just the starting step when we are discussing a Supreme Court justice. There is no shortage of incredible qualified leading black female candidates to serve on the Supreme Court, but the question is what is going to be that nominee’s worldview? And what I hope is that what we see is a nominee that is, that is truly rooted in — not just public service but with a protection towards the very rights that frankly have been eroded over the last — not just you know two, three, five years but the last 10 years.”
“What their stance on something like Citizens United would be? What their stance would be on expanding the right to vote? I mean these are central questions about our democracy both in the financial capture of our democracy but also the racial injustice capture of an erosion of our democracy as well,” she continued.
The Young Turks’ YouTube Show, “The Damage Report With John Iadarola,” surmised that this was in part because the initial video that went viral was edited to remove AOC saying there are well-qualified black women for the job.
Regarding her comments about worldview, Iadarola surmised “If you just focus on that then, you can pretend that AOC doesn’t care about representation and in fact goes further than that and hates black women — because that is the attacks that’s coming at her and others who think that representation matters but inside of that rubric you can also have considerations for what they would do as judges.”
On Twitter, many leftists were puzzled by AOC’s comments, even accusing “The Squad” member of being anti-black and anti-women. Yet, even with AOC’s statement in full, her comments indicate that she is focused first on race rather than character or qualifications when making SCOTUS selections which is dangerous for a myriad of reasons.
“Do they think Joe Biden is going to nominate a black female right wing former slave owner. Who does AOC think the nominee is going to be? It’s going to be a left leaning one, that’s a given. Why are people like this? #SupremeCourt” Jason Elias wrote.
Do they think Joe Biden is going to nominate a black female right wing former slave owner. Who does AOC think the nominee is going to be? It’s going to be a left leaning one, that’s a given. Why are people like this? #SupremeCourt https://t.co/gMGdTa9j2Z
— Jason Elias (@Zebop) February 1, 2022
There were also some posts that defended AOC, pointing out that all she was trying to say was that Biden should not pick a nominee who goes against progressive values.
But this is what identity politics does. It puts a person’s identity — in this case skin color and sex — above any other qualification. It blinds people from being able to critically think. If you even slightly criticize the Left for focusing too much on race or sex, then you are a racist or sexist, in their minds. Meritocracy is dead in that framework. It is replaced by a race-based structure of power and victimization.
AOC is close to admitting that Biden shouldn’t consider race or sex and instead should focus on progressive bonafides and how they would interpret the Constitution. While conservatives may agree with those standards, they’re at least standards based not on immutable characteristics. But she cannot do that because the left would have a full-blown mutiny and she would be canceled.
The good news for conservatives is that so-long as the right stays away from embracing identity politics, the Left will eat their own and normal Americans — of all gender, sexes, creeds, and orientations — who still believe in meritocracy and hard work will come flocking to the GOP. America has seen this already with the recent revolt against Critical Race Theory — which is really what Biden, AOC, and leftist supporters of race-based Supreme Court picks are operating off of.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.