If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks the Democratic Party is “center-conservative,” she’s in for a shock.
Compared to some countries in Europe, especially those with the socialized healthcare systems that AOC loves, the American Left could be considered centrist. But compared to America’s own past, Democrats are the furthest left they’ve ever been.
At an event celebrating MLK Day on Monday, the congresswoman told author Ta-Nehisi Coates that the Democratic Party isn’t really on the political Left.
“We don’t have a left party in the United States. The Democratic Party is not a left party. The Democratic Party is a center or center-conservative party,” she said. “We can’t even get a floor vote on ‘Medicare for all,’ not even a floor vote that gets voted down.”
“So this is not a left party,” she continued. “There are left members inside the Democratic Party that are working to try to make that shift happen.”
AOC: “The Democratic Party is not a left party. The Democratic Party is a center, or a center-conservative party” pic.twitter.com/6TNAC50nXi
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 20, 2020
Proving her leftist bona fides, Ocasio-Cortez added that we can’t “capitalism our way out of poverty.” In that context, it’s no surprise that the Democratic Party isn’t radical enough for someone who has accused Nancy Pelosi of racism and sexism and advocated for a $93 trillion Green New Deal. But if she thinks Democrats are “center-conservative,” then what are Republicans?
“It is fascism that we’re evolving into,” she said at a Bernie Sanders rally last month, adding, “What we are living in now is not an advanced society.”
If Democrats are in the center, then Republicans must be on the far, far right. But fascism is predicated on the government seizing power from the people. Isn’t that what socialism does?
At the same event, Ocasio-Cortez argued that billionaires have profited from an “unjust system.”
“I don’t want your money as much as we want your power,” she said, clarifying: “The people, not me.”
However, “the people” is just another word for “the government.” And central control of power is one thing that both the far right and the far left have in common.
