This was a bad move on her part. Trying to explain only makes it worse. This vote is going to follow her for a long time.

Is it girl power to make other women’s lives worse?

Faustian bargains are part of the job description for any politician. This is performative BS because she knows she has crucified other politicians on the altar of purity tests. Purity tests that she realizes she cannot hold on to, if she intends to survive. Signal your shift in perspective and keep it moving.

I don’t view it as no different than if she’d voted no - I view voting ‘present’ as a cowardly, artless dodge  and I view the tears as, frankly, pathetic. If she cares that deeply, she should have had the courage to stick to her convictions and vote no. Voting present doesn’t actually benefit her at all, and this…

Maybe she’s concerned about the Palestinians who Israelis can slaughter with significantly less fear of consequences thanks to the Iron Dome?  I mean, I know you can’t earn political points ANYWHERE outside of Gaza and the West Bank by caring about the Palestinians who disproportionately suffer and die as a result of…

It’s just interesting to be moved enough by the plight of oppressed humans to weep openly, but apparently not moved enough to cast a vote against something which makes that oppression worse. Hopefully she remembers this feeling the next time she (apparently, since she has yet to offer an explanation for her vote) has…

I’d actually like to hear a politician say something like

Ugh I love AOC but I’m tired of having to defend or ignore shit lately. Like I get that this was a political move to run for Senate, but if i get that and you get that and everyone else does too then why not stick to your convictions and just vote no anyway?

I personally don’t care why she cried. I dont need an explanation for human emotion.

What is this simpering equivocation? The entire point of a “no” vote here is its symbolic power; if you can’t even show basic solidarity with people under apartheid in a moment like this then what good are you?

It also doesn’t help that folks have easy access to her own receipts in terms of others voting present.

Did she bump her head during the Summer or something?

I fail to see how going from “no” to “present” would make her more politically viable.  The pro-Israel folks are just going to be mad she didn’t vote FOR it, and her wing is going to be mad she didn’t vote AGAINST it.  Trying to walk the middle will just piss everyone off.  So, if this was done as cynical political…

Critics tend to be cold on musical adaptations, but audiences genuinely like them (hence why they keep getting made). They’re the kind of films where you kind of just have to roll with them, like you would if you were watching it on stage. 

I think the play-turned-movie was always going to get a rough reception because Evan is not particularly charming and does a genuinely bad thing that is pretty gross IRL, but I think with better casting* and them actually fixing the ending to something that works thematically rather fixing it the wrong way would have…

I went on vacation to the beach one time, and got so tired of men bothering me that I went to a store and bought a “wedding ring”. The woman who helped me said she kept a special selection of likely looking wedding rings for unaccompanied women who were buying them for just that reason.

When I was in my 20's I was told to wear a wedding ring at work, even if I was single, because it would stop men from hitting on ‘another man’s property’.  This is so perfectly demonstrated by the Cuomo bros.  Women’s bodies and feelings aren’t even a part of the equation - you are just a man’s property

When I think about all of the women who stay in horrible relationships, and then how no woman will stay with Musk in spite of the fact that he is rich AF and famous.  He must be bringing being a bad partner to dizzying new heights. 

Is she crying for the death of her convictions? Look, politics is dirty bidness and I’m not one for pushing purity tests. Sometimes, you gotta make the least shitty choice for reasons. But this? Seems like a fucking big thing to decide to compromise on. Hope she’s got a plausible explanation teed up.

It’s not great that she voted “present” instead of taking a stand, and it’s not great that she apparently did so for cynical political reasons (also, in the end, it’s not going to stop the criticism, it’s just a matter of changing the attack ad copy from “AOC voted ‘No’ on protecting Israeli lives” to “AOC refused to…