Summary of The Squad by Ryan Grim: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution

By GP SUMMARY

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.
Summary of The Squad by Ryan Grim: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution
 
IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:
 

• - Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• - Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• - Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

 
The Squad is a must-read book about the progressive movement in Congress, focusing on A.O.C., Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar. The book tells the story of the group's rise, efforts to set an ambitious agenda, and their struggle to find footing within the Democratic party. The Squad, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, laid down a marker for an aggressive left-wing agenda. As they grow in office, they face the question of whether they are still radical organizers capable of leading a political revolution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Dec 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9783755462958

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Summary of The Squad

A

Summary of Ryan Grim’s book

AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution

GP SUMMARY

Summary of The Squad by Ryan Grim: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution

By GP SUMMARY© 2023, GP SUMMARY.

All rights reserved.

Author: GP SUMMARY

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Cover, illustration: GP SUMMARY

Editing, proofreading: GP SUMMARY

Other collaborators: GP SUMMARY

NOTE TO READERS

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Ryan Grim’s The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution designed to enrich your reading experience.

DISCLAIMER

The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

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Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

ENDING RACISM

In April 2015, Bernie Sanders announced his improbable run for the presidency amid a set of interlocking crises that had not been seen since the Great Depression. The country was facing issues such as longer working hours and lower wages, with people struggling to afford education and healthcare while the top one percent generated 99% of all new income. These themes were rooted in the left-wing zeitgeist that had emerged from the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.

Sanders faced hesitancy in raising money, but eventually raised $1.5 million through BernieSanders.com, a no-frills C-SPAN affair that netted the campaign $1.5 million in the first 24 hours. As the campaign continued, enthusiastic crowds followed him everywhere, turning People for Bernie into a phrase conjured up by Occupy organizer Winnie Wong.

By the fall of 2015, Hillary Clinton's campaign staff were growing concerned about the momentum behind Sanders, as his crowd sizes were exploding and his poll numbers were rising. The campaign debated whether to come out publicly in favor of restoring Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era law that barred big commercial banks from gambling with their depositors' money. Some on the Clinton campaign raised policy objections, while others argued that the move would backfire due to its inauthentic pandering.

The Clinton campaign decided to go on offense with cultural and social issues, so they decided to strengthen the Volcker Rule, a milder reform than reinstating Glass-Steagall.

In early 2016, Hillary Clinton emerged victorious in the Iowa caucuses, while Sanders had climbed into a tie in the statewide polls. In New Hampshire, Sanders' campaign team tried to weaponize his enthusiastic young supporters against him, aiming to win over voters influenced by cultural issues. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook and communications director Brian Fallon accused Sanders of using demeaning and insulting language and warned against letting the mentality or crudeness seep into their own words and criticisms.

Sanders himself was encouraging these supporters, stating that he is skilled and deft politician. This was the first entry into the official record of the term Bernie Bros. Tom Perez, the head of the Department of Labor at the time, proposed that the Bernie Bro insight could be used in the party's internal culture war.

Sanders's strength was that he had passionate young people who were passionate enough to volunteer and contribute to the campaign. The goal was to turn those people into a liability by flagging the Bernie Bros as obnoxious, privileged young white men. Sanders's support among young people cut across race and gender, but it wasn't hard to find young, white, obnoxious men who backed him, elevate them publicly, and then condemn them and the Sanders campaign together.

Clinton took her first serious shot at fending off Sanders's charge that she was the candidate of the moneyed elite and that the support her campaign had from big-money donors and speaking fees might have some corrupting influence. Sanders refused to call Clinton personally corrupt but pointed out that drug companies could raise prices at will because they had bought power in Washington.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton's campaign faced significant challenges as she emphasized the issues of racism and sexism in her platform. She argued that breaking up big banks would not end racism, discrimination against the LGBT community, or make people feel more welcoming to immigrants. Sanders could have countered this with the race-class narrative, which focuses on material concerns without incorporating a critique of systemic racism. However, Clinton's single-minded focus on economic security and the battle against the one percent was seen as a luxury rather than addressing the intersecting forms of oppression faced by marginalized communities.

The Nevada caucuses were tight, and allegations of bigotry from Bernie supporters were spread widely. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called the head of the Culinary Workers Union to endorse Clinton and ordered casinos to give their employees time off to caucus. This led to a 5-point caucus victory for Clinton. Sanders' momentum was blunted, but the narrative had been set: Bernie's movement was beset by racism and misogyny, and good progressives must support Clinton.

Sanders was defeated in South Carolina, further highlighting the white Bernie Bro narrative. The campaign took months to bleed out, with each day driving a wedge deeper between the party's increasingly bitter factions. The Clinton campaign, through a super PAC called Correct the Record, admitted to spending at least a million dollars to get into bitter fights with Sanders supporters online, either through bots or paid accounts. For-profit scam artists based in eastern Europe also joined Sanders or Clinton Facebook groups and posted fake news, which became digital media director Hector Sigala's job.

The Clinton campaign used identity politics to detonate the Sanders campaign, which set off a chain reaction that would blow the lid off the Democratic coalition in the years to come. However, the conditions were not perfect for this success, as the 2008 financial crisis hit Millennials especially hard. In a nation founded by a radical sect of Puritans and engulfed by multiple Great Awakenings and lesser moral panics, real social progress was being made thanks to the early petering out of the Obama administration.

Barack Obama, in part due to the prior machinations of his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, was the first president in fifty years to be working with a Democratic majority more conservative than the White House. Emanuel recruited conservative candidates to challenge incumbent Republicans, and the timing couldn't have been worse. Democrats took the House and Senate that cycle, but not long after they were sworn in, cracks began showing in the bubble economy. Small-time subprime lenders, who had pumped out fraudulent loans disproportionately to Black homeowners, began going under. Big lenders followed, and Bear Stearns, a Wall Street giant, collapsed. Obama, though, was surging, having caught and eclipsed Hillary Clinton.

At home, things were going poorly, with her father battling cancer and her brother living with their mother in a rapidly plummeting house. The Obama administration deliberately encouraged foreclosures, with White House economic adviser Larry Summers and Treasury secretary Tim Geithner