While Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) draw huge crowds across the country on their "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, some party insiders say the 34-year-old congresscritter "represents the next generation of Democratic politics."
I say: Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please let this happen.
“I think what she has been saying, either tacitly or explicitly, is that there needs to be a generational shift in the party’s leadership and its message to voters," Basil Smikle, former executive director for the New York State Democratic Party, told The Hill's Caroline Vakil. "She essentially did that in her race against Joe Crowley" in her 2018 congressional run.
An anonymous AOC insider said to Vakil, "I think people are mistaken if they’re dismissing these crowds as, like, a reaction to Trump and not an embrace of … some unique features of who she is and the policies she advocates for."
What must former Vice President Kamala Harris think of all this AOC speculation? At age 60 now, she isn't exactly on the old side of presidential politics. But Harris is also a proven loser, and historically speaking, losing is the one thing Democrats will not tolerate.
Sanders was once considered too left-wing, too progressive for the mainstream, and AOC was his annoying protege trapped in her bluer-than-blue Queens enclave. But here's the thing about the Democratic Party's progressive wing: it's taking over the building.
There's been plenty of online chatter, including from Elon Musk, that the "Fighting Oligarchy" crowds are bought and paid for, and yet no compelling evidence. I'd wager that the post-Joe Biden Rump Democrat Party is increasingly made up of hardcore lefties. Candidates like Sanders and AOC, who are this close to serving as the vanguard of the Revolution on the road to seizing the means of production and establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat, genuinely get their juices flowing.
Bear with me here because I think recent history backs me up.
Bernie Sanders was well on his way to winning the party's 2020 presidential nomination — after having been effectively robbed of it in 2016 by Hillary Clinton's lead in superdelegates. Superdelegates are party elders whose votes count more than actual primary voters do because of Muh Democracy™ or something.
Something similar happened in 2020 when party elders and second-tier candidates coalesced around Joe Biden. Despite his increasingly obvious mental decline, Biden could at least be presented to the public as a moderate, and COVID-19 provided cover for the "basement campaign" that kept him and his frailties away from the public.
Insiders decided both times that Sanders was too left-wing to win the general election, and that was that for poor Bernie. Democracy is kinda weird the way Democrats do it, but it's their party, and they'll cheat if they want to.
Sanders is too old to run again in 2028. AOC turns 39 just weeks before Election Day that year and will be technically old enough to serve, if probably not seasoned enough to wage an effective campaign. But Democrats think long-term, particularly when it comes to grooming younger candidates for higher office in the future.
If not in 2028, it certainly looks like AOC will be more than prepped for 2032. And if the crowds — and Sanders's fundraising prowess — are anything to go by, she'll be well-financed, too. I dearly hope this happens because maybe that means one conservative win after another.
"Be careful what you wish for," they say — and they're probably right. But please let me enjoy this moment when it looks like the Democrats might never learn the lessons of 2024.
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