My Twitter feed is regularly flooded with right-wing criticism of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Yet seldom do these disapproving opinions contain critical policy analysis. Instead, they're rife with attacks on trivialities like the congresswoman's choice of clothes, coffee chain, or credit score. If political history is doomed to repeat itself, then these cheap shots will eventually end up backfiring. I watched as British pundits used similar tactics against the Labour Party's Jeremy Corbyn, and the mud-slinging didn't land. In fact, all it did was further his bad ideas.
Five weeks before the 2017 UK general election, Labour was more than 20 points behind the Conservative Party in the polls. Then the right-wing British media began to really ratchet up the criticism of Labour leader Corbyn. Much of this engagement was petty, even if the socialist manifesto Corbyn stood on was heavily flawed. A London School of Economics (LSE) report on the media representation of Corbyn found that 30 percent of news stories about him were mocking or scoffing at his ideas, policies, history, personal life, and looks. For The Sun, the UK's most circulated newspaper, this number sat at 62 percent.
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