The Very Serious People of the Republican Party

That Republicans thought inviting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to a Kentucky coal mine was a sick burn shows how utterly stupid they are, especially given that she immediately accepted their invitation and then they had no idea what to do so are backing out in a chickenshit manner appropriate to their president.

So now Barr is demanding that Ocasio-Cortez apologize to Crenshaw if she wants to accept his invitation, writing in a letter to her office that her comments “demonstrate a lack of civility that is becoming far too common in the U.S. House of Representatives.” An apology’s not likely to happen, though. Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, told The Courier-Journal, “Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky. We don’t need Congressman Barr to meet with coal miners and have a town hall, though we’d love his participation if we do.”

Uninviting Ocasio-Cortez is probably a smart move on Barr’s part in the long run. For one thing, there aren’t any active coal mines in Barr’s district. And James Comer, another Republican representative from Kentucky, told local news that he didn’t “see any upside” to having her come to Kentucky. “I think a lot of Republicans are making a mistake picking on her. I think we need to be very prepared when we debate her on issues that we’re having a hard time with.”

Or as she herself puts it:

GOP’s getting scared that up close, their constituents will realize I’m fighting harder for their healthcare than their own Reps 🙂 https://t.co/TVSafpJWEd— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 16, 2019

I think it would be great if she spent some time this summer, when Congress isn’t in session, visiting the reddest parts of America and going into coal mines and wheat farms and deindustralized cities and making a national tour of how her ideas would actually appeal to a lot of disaffected people. Fox’s shock that the people in their Bernie Sanders town hall loved what he had to say shows what that can look like. These idiots think we are a bunch of lily-livered effete coastal weirdos too scared to go into Real America, which then feeds into why they think they can exterminate us. Walking into their own turf without fear and showing great empathy for the problems of real people and strategies to empower them is not going to move Kentucky into the Democratic Party, but then that’s not really the point of politics. Instead, it would challenge the right on their own turf, empowering people around the nation to stand up to them and help people see a different future other than racism and fascism, allowing them to have a greater choice over their own future.