Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a millennial bartender, pulled off a wild political upset on Tuesday night, sending not blue waves, but shockwaves through the entire Democratic party machine.
The 28-year-old Bronx native defeated Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District. Prior to Ocasio-Cortez, Crowley hadn’t seen a challenger from his own party since 2004. This is shocking, as many liberal pundits had Crowley on a short list to knock off House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as the next speaker of the House, should the Democrats retake the House.
Let’s take a quick look at what her victory means.
The negatives are obvious to any staunch Republican and conservative. It’s a sure sign that socialism, for the first time in a century, has real, defined roots in our American political conscious.
Eugene Debs’s five Presidential runs from 1900-1920 clocked in as many as 901,551 votes – 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912. Bernie Sanders’ serious primary contention against Hillary Clinton in 2016 showed the “revolution” movement has grown stronger.
With millennials, socialism has feet of clay. In November, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation commissioned a study showing that 44 percent of millennials polled preferred to live in a socialist nation, and another 7 percent said the same of a communist nation.
The fact remains that many urban, socially-conscious millennials see the issues that the Democratic Socialists of America champion — such as free public education, Medicare for all, and now most recently, the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and find merit in fighting for them.
According to Vox, the DSA has “25,000 dues-paying members” with new chapters in Florida, Texas, and “unlikely states like Montana, Kansas, and Idaho.”
There are, however, two pieces of good news: one for conservatives, and one for all Americans.
For conservatives, the clear identity crisis that the Democratic Party has on its hands is nothing but a welcome development. Of course, right in the center of it is Pelosi. The longtime liberal boss of the party has found herself and her faction being pulled in two different directions.
During one of the biggest special elections of the Trump presidency, Conor Lamb, campaigning in a suburban Pittsburgh district, ran an ad specifically saying he has “already said on the front page of the newspaper that I don’t support Nancy Pelosi. The real issues are the ones that affect your lives.”
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of Maxine Waters’ stump speech urging supporters to form a crowd around members of Trump’s cabinet and “push back on them,” Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have led calls to their fellow Democrats to reject the rhetoric that Schumer called “un-American.” This actually angered the far-left portion of the Democratic base.
The RNC has capitalized on this violent rhetoric to create what could be one of the most devastating political ads against Democrats since Michael Dukakis rode in a tank.
There is no narration, just images of destructive riots led by Antifa and other progressive groups since the 2016 election. The exposure of the socialist agenda and raw anger among activists could very well drive a wedge in the predestined blue wave for the 2018 midterm elections.
The last part of this good outlook benefits all Americans in that they can’t stand politicians or deep political corruption.
New York City is one of the greatest examples of the “political machine.” Tammany Hall ruled New York politics from the 1790s until Republican mayor Fiorello La Guardia began dismantling it in the 1930s. In fact, New York is the only state to have its state and federal primaries on different days, most likely contributing to its strong incumbent culture. Even Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr., who expressed disappointment at Crowley’s loss, said it was “unfortunate” Crowley was even challenged.
For a young bartender to simply declare that she’d go out and shock the establishment — and then succeed — should show voters in toss-up states with not nearly as powerful machines that, in fact, their voice does matter and their vote does count.
