"I have tossed men out of bars that have used language like Mr. Yoho’s and I have encountered this type of harassment riding the subway in New York City."
I want to analyze the first 7 words - "I have tossed men out of bars" - of this sentence from AOC's July 23rd, 2020 speech.
Not many news media accounts picked up on these particular words, but it is a masterpiece of linguistic construction that jumped out to me. AOC packs an incredible punch into this simple phrase.
Most obviously, it is part of a first person sentence. No weaseling around with third-person "men get tossed out of bars for saying this". No, AOC is most definitely the actor in this sentence. She has done the tossing. And as such, it is believable and most certainly true. It's well known about AOC that she has worked in bars. One of the many messages this sentence is carrying is to reinforce that: it is a shout-out to one of her core constituencies.
Simultaneously, it is reinforcing that a young, slip of a girl like herself should not be underestimated. She identifies a need to take action, and takes it. Do not mess with AOC.
Next, let's consider who gets 'tossed out of bars'. Bars are fairly welcoming places, generally, not especially demanding of etiquette. You have to be fairly objectionable to get tossed out of a bar. So she is equating 'Mr Yoho' with a class of people so uncultured, they can't even manage to stay in a bar. This puts him, by inference, below nearly everyone else, because most of us have managed to avoid being thrown out of bars for our behavior. There is also an implicit contrast between people who belong in a hallowed and respected institution, such as Congress, with rules of conduct far higher (we hope) than those obtaining in bars. If 'Mr Yoho' doesn't even belong in a bar, it's pretty clear Congress is the wrong place for him too.
Taking it a bit deeper, let's look at the choice of 'tossed'. What a beautiful word. What do we 'toss'? We toss things of no value, old and worn out things, things we definitely don't want around any more, dirty, soiled, and used-up things. What a lovely set of adjectives to apply to - oh let's think - some Republican congressmen of our acquaintance that we really would quite like to toss too. "Toss" is also a fairly casual word. Not "thrown out", "ejected", "removed" but "tossed". You toss things that aren't much trouble to dispose of. It's not a big deal to toss something that needs to be tossed. Just get rid of it. In that sense the word is carrying a smidgen of contempt. Perhaps not so obvious that one could object to it as disrespectful, but it is undeniably there. Perfect, perfect word choice here.
The bottom line is that 'Mr Yoho's' original insult was 2 words long: boring, predictable, misogynist, over-used words. AOC, using only 4 more words here, delivered a scalpel-incision insult of a glory that he is probably incapable of fully comprehending. And as we know, there are plenty more where that came from. Hopefully someone will write a book one day of AOC clapbacks and why each one is a thing of wonder and an example of the art for us all to admire.
