Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday singled out AIPAC as a ‘special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda,’ starting a new debate about the pro-Israel organization’s involvement in the party

The debate has been simmering since AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC spent unprecedented sums to unseat two progressive Democrats in their respective primaries over the summer – largely, but not exclusively, bankrolled by donations from Republican megadonors in an election year that was far and away the most expensive in history.

As internal Democratic debate over the party’s ills and its future reached fever pitch in recent days, AIPAC was once again catapulted to the center of the matter.

“Weird to have a whole discourse about ‘special interest groups’ that completely leaves out corporate and industry lobbies – by far the most influential ‘groups’ in the Democratic Party,” Jeremy Slevin, a senior adviser to AIPAC foe Sen. Bernie Sanders, wrote on Sunday.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the most nationally prominent AIPAC critic despite, ironically, being attacked from the left as an apologist for the group earlier this summer, singled out the pro-Israel organization while echoing Slevin’s point. “If people want to talk about members of Congress being overly influenced by a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats then they should be discussing AIPAC,” she tweeted in response.

  • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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    20 hours ago

    Nobody has put in more work to get Trump elected than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

    I am still amazed they managed to pull off this massive of a loss against the easiest possible opponent.

      • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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        18 hours ago

        Harris had 5 point lead before opening her mouth.

        Harris dropped out in the 2020 primary because she polled less than 1%. She only got to run because the the DNC convinced themselves they could run an even worse candidate against Trump until three months before the election.

          • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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            16 hours ago

            Harris’ popularity in 2020 was certainly accurate.

            They invented this thing called a primary so that does not happen. Democrats did not have one.

            I do believe if the elections were two weeks after Harris became candidate she would have had a better chance of winning.

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      against the easiest possible opponent

      If policies or respect actually mattered in politics, I would agree with you. But, Trump has a few things going for him:

      • A cult of personality.
      • Endless media coverage.
      • Alternative facts.
      • Emotionally-driven campaign goals.
      • His “tell it how it is” attitude and lack of self-censorship.*

      *Not that much of it is based in reality, but freedom of speech diehards appreciate that.