安易な「あちら側」論法に陥らない

先ほどのエントリーはトランプ支持者は体制側への不信感があるのではと書きましたが、その不信感は民主党の左派、急進派も持っているように思えます。大物議員はサンダースやウォーレンですが、勢いがあるのはAOCと呼ばれるアレグザンドリア・オカシオ＝コルテスですね。綺麗事をいうだけで実際は自分の利益確保に躍起になっているグループよりも苦しんでいる労働者階級の立場を代弁しようとしているこのグループをYutaとしては応援したくなります。ちょうどサンダースの主張がわかる寄稿の日本語訳が紹介されていました。

2020.11.28

【全訳】サンダース本人による英「ガーディアン」紙への寄稿

バーニー・サンダースがバイデンに叱咤「立つんだジョー、労働者の味方に！」

How do we avoid future authoritarians? Winning back the working class is key

Bernie Sanders

Tue 24 Nov 2020 19.17 GMT

AOCに戻ります。最近日本ではAOCの見かけについてコメントした日本の大学教授が非難されました。理想論からすれば政治家に対する表現としてふさわしくないのは確かだとしても、「アメリカだったらXX」みたいな話で片付ければいい話でもない気もします。AOCは先月のVanity Fairの表紙になり、彼女のファションが紹介されたりしています。当選以来色々な注目を集めてしまっている人ですよね。

FASHION

Nine Power Looks Inspired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

As the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress, the history-making congresswoman knows how to make a political statement in style.

BY MILES POPE AND JESSICA NEISES

OCTOBER 29, 2020

早速、共和党からは労働者の代表と言いながらファンション誌の表紙を飾っておしゃれなスーツを着ていることを非難されたりしているので彼女も大変です。カバーストーリーの方は彼女のこれまでがまとめられていて、AOCについて知りたい方にはよい導入になりそうです。

COVER STORY

DECEMBER 2020 ISSUE

AOC’S NEXT FOUR YEARS

The history-making congresswoman addresses her biggest critics, the challenges that loom no matter who wins, and what she’s taking on next.

BY MICHELLE RUIZ

OCTOBER 28, 2020

彼女が大変だと感じたのはセクハラどころではなく、脅迫を受けているところ。セクハラを許すべきだとは断固として思いませんが、「アメリカだったらXX」というような単純な話にならないところです。ドロドロした世界は日本もアメリカも変わりません。

She has demonstrated a special talent for triggering white-male fragility on both ends of the political spectrum. Three months after her 2018 primary, Andrew Cuomo dismissed her victory as a “fluke.” Ron DeSantis, a congressman at the time, called her “this girl…or whatever she is.” That demographic of politico are allowed to be wunderkinds—Joe Biden was 29 when he first won his Senate seat; Mayor Pete Buttigieg launched a presidential bid at 37, the same age as Tom Cotton when he ascended to the Senate. But “we are not used to seeing young women of color in positions of power,” says journalist Andrea González-Ramírez, an early chronicler of AOC’s rise.

Even back then, her public profile came with a threat of danger. A month into Ocasio-Cortez’s first term, a Coast Guard lieutenant and self-described white nationalist was arrested in Maryland with a stockpile of guns and a plot to kill Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Kamala Harris, Pelosi, and others. His internet search history included “where in dc to [sic] congress live.” He eventually pleaded guilty to federal drug and gun charges. Around the same time, Ocasio-Cortez came home to the D.C. apartment she shares with her partner, Riley Roberts, to find a man with a camera parked in a dark car outside. She ran to the back of a grocery store, fearing she might be attacked. The next day, a right-wing outlet published photos of her address, blurring it only after her office complained.

The death threats seem to spike in concert with Fox News rhetoric. “I used to wake up in the morning and literally get a stack of pictures that were forwarded by Capitol police or FBI. Like, ‘These are the people who want to kill you today,’ ” she says. The torrent of abuse spread to her mother, Blanca, and her younger brother, Gabriel.

AOC含めた、Ilhan OmarやRashida Tlaib、Ayanna PressleyがThe Squadと呼ばれ若手急進派グループを形成しているようです。Ilhan OmarやRashida Tlaibは前からこのブログでも取り上げたりしていますので応援したくなります。

Later, Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, and Tlaib took turns placing comforting hands on one another’s backs as they spoke at a press conference alongside an angry mob. Soon after, Trump launched a now-infamous racist Twitter tirade, urging Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Tlaib, and Representative Ilhan Omar to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” The Squad, as those four women are known, had begun with a serendipitous selfie at freshman orientation, but it is now a source of support that Ocasio-Cortez calls a “gift from God.”

英語学習的にはsquadには以下のような米国東海岸ヒップホップでのアイデンディティを同じにする同士が形成したグループという意味合いがあるそうです。

(Wikipedia)

The colloquial use of the word "squad" arose from East Coast hip hop culture and describes "a self-chosen group of people that you want to identify with". Its use by Ocasio-Cortez signaled familiarity with millennial slang[9] as a playful reference to youth social cliques.[3] Ocasio-Cortez's home borough of The Bronx was the origin of a hip hop group called Terror Squad, formed in 1998; musical acts with "Squad" in their name and lyrics started from the 1990s to the present day.[10] The average age of the Squad was 38.3 years as of mid-2019, nearly two decades younger than the overall House average age of 57.6 years.[10] As it became adopted by "older and whiter" audiences, usage of the related hashtag "#SquadGoals" on Instagram began to decline.

こういう語感は普通の辞書には載せていませんね。Urban ditctionaryにはありましたが、やはり幅広く触れていって実際の使われ方に馴染むしかないと思います。

(Urban dictionary)

squad 

Crew, posse, gang: an informal group of individuals with a common identity and a sense of solidarity. The term is a bit flashy and is more likely to be heard in hip-hop lyrics than in spoken conversation.

You step to me, and my whole squad will come down on you.

by Greenie March 24, 2004

Netflixの『レボリューション －米国議会に挑んだ女性たち－』を見ると何に対して彼女たちが戦っているかがよくわかります。この映画では落選してしまった、Cori Bushでしたが、今回の選挙では見事当選しましたね。そのあたりのことに触れてVanity Fairの記事は終わっています。

A new crop of AOCs is popping up across the country—young, progressive, working-class candidates of color who sought seats of power by her example. “I wouldn’t have run for office if it weren’t for AOC and the Squad,” says Jamaal Bowman, a former New York City principal.

Of the many knocks on Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prevailing is that she drives the political conversation but lacks a substantive coalition in Congress. “They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got,” Pelosi once quipped of the Squad. But the potential addition of Bowman, fellow New Yorker Mondaire Jones, Cori Bush from Missouri, and Marie Newman of Illinois to the House would mean “the Squad just doubled up,” Bowman says. Ocasio-Cortez gets animated as she imagines the rest of this “Squad-plus”: Nebraska’s Kara Eastman and current Illinois representative Chuy García, with Sanders, Warren, and Ed Markey (“Tío Markey”) as Senate allies.

“You keep telling me I’m just four votes,” AOC says, “so I’mma go get more.”

バイデン政権は穏健派中心に組閣しましたが民主党穏健派とこの急進派がどうなるのか、今後注目です。