The Squad AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution

I've got my book right here behind me, which the final final plug that The Squad, AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution, which is heavily about the way that the pro-Israel lobby has shaped what is possible within Democratic Party discourse when it comes to Israel-Palestine.

It's been kind of surreal to watch. Basically they got some early copies of the book and took quotes by people who were quoted in the book, attributed them to me and then kind of elevated.

AIPAC actually reached out to Ocasio-Cortez with quote, a whole lot more than an olive branch.

We can help to educate her to make sure that she doesn't have another face plant interview like this again.

Congratulations on the book, which is fantastic, which I read cover to cover and I encourage all of you all to do as well.

I think she thinks some of it is fair.

I think she thinks a lot of them are unfair. That a lot of them are people who are making kind of bad faith arguments kind of to feed algorithms and like get you know for clicks basically.

I think the moment is over in the sense that that's what it was but we're in in the kind of post-Bernie post-squad moment now that is that is still that is still being shaped.

I've never seen them be as forceful in critique of Democratic leadership and especially President Biden as they have been in this moment with Israel's, you know, all-out war being waged on Gaza.

I don't know if that counts as starting the show, Ryan.

I've got my eye on Ted Cruz. It's kind of a conflict of interest to have him on here because I don't want to help him sell books.

Go get the book.

That's actually my book, which is out next week.

If you buy mine instead, we can knock him off the bestseller list. Wouldn't that be fun?

The Squad

It's called The Squad AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution. It's fantastic. There's so many nuggets in it.

And then the line that finishes that chapter is that she she knew it was going to be a big issue, but she never could have guessed how much she underestimated.

It's heavily female. Obviously, you have Jamal Bowman on the book cover, but it does seem almost like a sisterhood.

The squad doesn't exist. You can't acknowledge that there is a squad.

Well, the book is fantastic. I'm almost through it. I'm excited to do a talk with you at where are we doing it? Politics and Pros.

We're gonna do an interview with Ryan as well on his new book, The Squad.

And guys, stay tuned for more on Ryan's book called The Squad, AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution coming to bookstores near you soon.

It's technically out December 5th, but I think the Monday after Thanksgiving you can start getting it in bookstores.

Okay, it's The Squad. The Squad. All right, and it is AOC and the Hope of the Political Revolution.

It's an excellent book, and we will also have a link down in the description.

You guys are gonna be hearing a lot about it.

Ryan, you actually have your book here on the desk. It's got the faces of some of the people you just heard from.

Yeah. Yours hasn't showed up yet. It's a beautiful hard copy, a beautiful cover.

But as somebody who's covered very closely The Squad, it's a perfect book title for a long time now.

When that is not at all the book that I set out to write.

But going back kind of through their trajectory in Congress, it was the case that that made up about like half of their struggle and reshaped it through the way that AIPAC and DMFI entered into the Democratic primaries in 2022, making sure that anybody who was remotely critical of Israel was either pushed out or reframed their position completely.

They all had, and AOC in particular, had a higher name identification with Republicans for the first like year and a half of their time in office than they did with Democrats because of the 24-7 right wing ecosystem just blasting them, just calling them every single name in the book.

So just for one example, there's one guy that's quoted talking about the rollout of the Green New Deal saying that it was a, this one particular part was a cluster.

So what they do is they take that, they put it in my voice rather than somebody else and then say that I said that the entire Green New Deal is a cluster and a disaster.

So you have to imagine she comes in cold to politics.

She was reading about politics, she's smart. She went to Boston University.

And, you know, I think, you know, Ryan Graham wrote a book about the squad. And I think one of the most dismaying parts about the book is how contemptuous and patronizing people like Nancy Pelosi were towards the squad.