For Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, there’s no such thing as too far left.
The socialist politician has made it quite clear since she first set foot in Congress that the Democratic Party is too moderate for her liking. In a recent interview with New York magazine she said that “in any other country,” she and former Vice President Joe Biden would not even be in the same political party. “But, in America, we are,” she said.
By this, Ocasio-Cortez means that Biden’s policy proposals maintain the established status quo. Much of the Democratic Party’s time is spent maintaining this system, she said, arguing that party leadership spends too much time catering to its moderate representatives’ interests — particularly the vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in swing districts — and not enough time pushing lasting liberal policies.
That’s where she comes in. She might not see herself as the new Tea Party (though plenty of other Democrats do), but she is, in some ways, trying to inspire the same kind of change that swept the GOP during the Obama administration. The group of rogue conservatives initiated a kind of fervor and excitement for, of all things, fiscal conservatism in a party that had been stagnant for too long — an effort that was sadly short-lived.
Oddly, Ocasio-Cortez believes the Tea Party of the Democratic Party is in its “conservative parts.”
“For so long, when I first got in, people were like, ‘Oh, are you going to be basically a Tea Party of the Left?’ And what people don’t realize is that there is a Tea Party of the Left, but it’s on the right edges, the most conservative parts of the Democratic Party,” she said.
It’s unclear who exactly Ocasio-Cortez is referring to since the vast majority of moderate Democrats have gladly moved to the Left over the past few years. Even Biden has abandoned policies once considered the moderate norm, such as the Hyde Amendment, which bans taxpayer dollars from directly being used on abortion. But Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t want to waste time waiting around for Biden and the rest to come around. Not even the congressional Left is Left enough, she said, referring to the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which isn’t selective enough.
“They let anybody who the cat dragged in call themselves a progressive,” she said. “There’s no standard.”
But, under her guidance, the liberals have been able to push the envelope just enough to create “more room for dissent” in the party, she said. “We’re learning to stretch our wings a little bit on the Left.”
To her credit, Ocasio-Cortez’s strategy has sometimes worked. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi caved to the pressure of Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional leftists on impeachment, and she will undoubtedly do so again on other issues in the future. After all, it’s unpopular not to be a leftist in the Democratic Party these days.
Pelosi has tried to put a lid on Ocasio-Cortez’s efforts, but the impeachment saga is proof that she’s lost control. This spells bad news for the Democrats who can’t pass Ocasio-Cortez’s “purity tests,” such as the moderate swing-district Democrats who she’ll have no problem throwing to the wolves, even if that means losing a congressional majority.
It’s this kind of thinking that could render Ocasio-Cortez’s success just as short-lived as the original Tea Party’s. The freshman Democrat is a trailblazer with a whole lot of energy and momentum, but she lacks the prudence to see her project through. How are you going to change the Democratic Party if you can’t even maintain its power? How are you going to convince moderate Democrats to join your cause when you’ve labeled them irrelevant?
But that’s just the thing: Ocasio-Cortez isn’t trying to persuade anyone. And she doesn’t care whether you agree with her or not. She’s not here to fix the political system; she’s here to burn it down. It’s clear she has no intention of stopping any time soon.
