Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been jilted by President Obama. The
former president recently announced 81 endorsements of candidates
running in the midterm elections. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, toast of the
progressive movement,
did not make the cut.
Mr. Obama’s foreign policy maxim “Don’t do stupid
stuff” may apply. Embracing the 28- year-old Latina supernova who is
running for Congress to replace long-time Democrat leader Joe Crowley in
New York’s 14
th district carries risks. Already she has made
gaffes that expose a tenuous (at best) understanding of important
issues like unemployment and the history of capitalism; she pleads
ignorance on foreign policy matters. She also
ruffled feathers among House members whose caucus she hopes to join by suggesting that Crowley might try to undermine her chances.
Her rookie errors have not deterred most members of her
party and the media who, like toddlers with a shiny new toy, cannot get
enough of the young self-professed Democratic-Socialist. (She
originally described herself as a Socialist until a helpful someone
attached the D-word.) Her surprise upset of a senior Democrat
considered a contender to boot Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker shocked the
media, which responded with over-the-top coverage meant to atone for
their earlier neglect of the race. (The New York Times, for instance,
ran but one piece about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez in the lead-up to the primary
ballot, a disturbing miss by the hometown newspaper.)
The real story is that a smug and entitled incumbent
lost to an attractive, energetic challenger who rallied supporters with
an aggressive social media campaign. Also, the demographics of the
Queens-Bronx district had changed markedly during Crowley’s 20 years in
the seat. It is now majority-minority, 50 percent Hispanic, and the
incumbent is white.
Ocasio-Cortez won decisively, 57-42, but the margin was a little more than 4,000 votes. Only 13 percent of Democrats turned up.
In any event, since her win, and her likely election to
Congress come November in the heavily Democratic district, Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez has become the toast of the town, not to mention the
entire country. Which goes to show just how desperate Democrats are.
Democratic National Committee chief Tom Perez declares
that Ocasio-Cortez “represents the future of our party”; Democrat
Congressman Ro Khanna, D-Calif.,
calls her a “harbinger of [a].. new progressive movement”. The New Yorker’s David Remnick
suggests she offers the nation a “glimmer of hope.”
Enthusiasts whisper she could be presidential material.
But can she sell her agenda to the nation? No, and
especially not to the blue collar workers, formerly reliable Democrat
voters, who defected to elect President Trump.
There is no doubt that Ocasio-Cortez has inspired
excitement, partly because she is female, Latina, telegenic and feisty,
and partly because standard-bearers like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer
have Democrats hungry for new leadership.
She also embraces the increasingly vocal progressivism
that animated Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and that has arguably moved
Democrats to the left. She hates pipelines, wants to abolish ICE,
advocates for Medicare-for-all, free college and guaranteed employment.
But can she sell her agenda to the nation? No, and
especially not to the blue collar workers, formerly reliable Democrat
voters, who defected to elect President Trump. Perhaps that’s why
President Obama has, for now, withheld his endorsement. He, like other
Dem leaders, may think the party is spiraling out of control, or at
least out of the mainstream.
Obama may think that recent (bipartisan) studies putting the
price tag
for Bernie Sanders’ Medicare For All Act at $33 trillion (with a “t”)
over its first ten years renders the proposal moot. Or they may be
worried that mandating a big hike in the minimum wage will accelerate
job-killing automation.
Or, those party elders may be reviewing research and
polling
by center-left think tank Third Way, which suggests that Americans want
opportunity, not handouts. In an online survey, most respondents
embraced traditional American values like hard work, and 75 percent said
they wanted the government to present an “opportunity agenda for the
Digital Age so that that everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to
earn a better life.”
When asked, “What is the more challenging problem
affecting the U.S. economy,” only 36 percent of those surveyed chose
“income inequality,” while 44 percent selected “opportunities to get
ahead.”
Similarly, asked to choose between “policies that
spread opportunity to more people and places” and “policies that address
income inequality,” 46 percent chose the former and only 25 percent the
latter. A plurality said they would vote in favor of a candidate whose
platform included, “Creating one million new apprenticeship positions,
giving every American who works a private retirement account on top of
Social Security and eliminating all federal taxes on the first $15,000
of income each year” – all work-friendly proposals.
Also, the poll found that more people wanted to see
ObamaCare strengthened and made more user-friendly,“ as opposed to
single-payer health care, as well as a minimum wage geared to regional
differences as opposed to a one-size-fits-all national wage.
The polling was a follow-up to a
study
by Third Way of the 2016 election, reviewing how Hillary Clinton and
Donald Trump fared in counties across the country distinguished by
economic circumstances. It found that President Trump won regions
described as “Opportunity-Falling America” while Clinton dominated in
“Opportunity-Rising America.” Those divisions were based on whether
counties had more new businesses starting up or more failing. The
conclusion reached by the authors of the study, and by the strategists
at Third Way, is that Americans want to make it on their own, and will
vote for the candidate who promises to provide jobs and opportunity, as
President Trump did.
President Obama may yet come around to giving
Ocasio-Cortez a boost. Democrats are struggling to find a message that
can top record-low unemployment and rising wages. The progressives
making promises that cannot be kept may be their best bet, and
Ocasio-Cortez is emerging as their top spokesperson. But, as former
Senator Joe Lieberman said recently, “If her win makes her into…. the
new face of the Democratic party, the Democratic party’s not going to
have a very bright future.”
