Anti-war progressives disillusioned with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Ny.) confronted the lawmaker during a chaotic town hall this week, accusing her of selling out to the “establishment” and dragging the United States into a nuclear conflict with Russia by voting to send weapons to Ukraine.
The protesters called AOC a “coward” in a comparison to ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who recently left the party over its increasingly hawkish direction.
Anti-war protesters confront phony AOC
Twitter users mocked AOC for calling the protesters “rude,” with many looking back at AOC’s past comments saying the purpose of protest is to make people uncomfortable.
The unruly scene encapsulated a growing rift between the Democratic party establishment and a vanishing anti-war left. Not a single Democrat, including AOC and her fellow “squad” allies, voted “no” on a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine in May. The only dissenters were Republicans.
Protesters at AOC’s town hall in the Bronx had cutting words for the self-styled socialist progressive, who the protesters accused of becoming part of the establishment she claimed to oppose when she ran for office.
“You originally voted — you ran as an outsider. Yet you’ve been voting to start this war in Ukraine. You’re voting to start a third nuclear war with Russia and China,” one of the protesters said. “Why are you playing with the lives of American citizens?”
AOC Humiliated at Town Hall — “You Are the Establishment” pic.twitter.com/74T6FzdmVE
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 13, 2022
AOC becomes the establishment?
Another protester called AOC a “coward” and urged her to condemn the Democratic party for supporting “Ukrainian Nazis.”
“You have done nothing. Tulsi Gabbard has shown guts, where you’ve shown cowardice. I believed in you and you became the very thing you sought to fought [sic] against. That’s what you’ve become,” he said.
“You are the establishment and you are the reason why everybody will end up in a nuclear war unless you choose to stand up right now and denounce the Democratic party,” he added.
President Biden conceded recently that nuclear “Armageddon” is a distinct possibility as the war in Ukraine continues to escalate.
Tulsi Gabbard was widely mocked by progressives when she left the Democratic party this week, saying it had become an “elitist cabal of warmongers.”