There’s an Easy Answer to Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Won: Socialism
Briahna
Gray, The Intercept, June 30 2018
It seems
no one can stop talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old former
bartender who ousted 10-time incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley from his seat
in New York’s 14th Congressional District last Tuesday.
no one can stop talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old former
bartender who ousted 10-time incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley from his seat
in New York’s 14th Congressional District last Tuesday.
 |
| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does an interview near Rockefeller Center in New York, Wednesday, June 27, 2018. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP |
But some
people should.
people should.
As I’ve written
before, each electoral contest between now and 2020 will scrutinized for its
predictive value, parsed for insights into how to beat Trump. But some of
the insights from the prognosticators who ignored the Ocasio-Cortez campaign
until she won are, well, not very insightful.
before, each electoral contest between now and 2020 will scrutinized for its
predictive value, parsed for insights into how to beat Trump. But some of
the insights from the prognosticators who ignored the Ocasio-Cortez campaign
until she won are, well, not very insightful.
Myriad
horse-race callers seem hell-bent on divorcing Ocasio-Cortez’s core ideology
from any causal analysis of her win, with no discernible motive other than
preserving the party’s failing strategies, and the strategists paid to enact
them, for another election cycle. Others downplay the radical nature of her
policy platform by claiming her leftism for the center, and pretending her
choice to identify as a democratic socialist is a distinction with out a
difference.
horse-race callers seem hell-bent on divorcing Ocasio-Cortez’s core ideology
from any causal analysis of her win, with no discernible motive other than
preserving the party’s failing strategies, and the strategists paid to enact
them, for another election cycle. Others downplay the radical nature of her
policy platform by claiming her leftism for the center, and pretending her
choice to identify as a democratic socialist is a distinction with out a
difference.
Lest
anyone confuse enthusiasm for Ocasio-Cortez, a vocal member of
the Democratic Socialists of America, with enthusiasm for democratic
socialism, Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker was quick to distance
Ocasio-Cortez from Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., — the politician who has done
the most to popularize democratic socialism over the past few years.
anyone confuse enthusiasm for Ocasio-Cortez, a vocal member of
the Democratic Socialists of America, with enthusiasm for democratic
socialism, Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker was quick to distance
Ocasio-Cortez from Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., — the politician who has done
the most to popularize democratic socialism over the past few years.
“While
Ocasio-Cortez borrowed some of Sanders’s language and policy ideas,” he writes,
“she also embodied a more varied conflict with power.” How? According to
Wallace-Wells, where “the Sanders movement has sometimes seemed as pedantic and
single-minded as its hero, fixated on the influence of billionaires,”
Ocasio-Cortez is distinguishable on the basis that “she gave interviews to The
Cut and Vogue,” traveled to the Texas tent camp where migrant children are
being held, and, “dressed in white,” decried the human-rights abuses there.
Ocasio-Cortez borrowed some of Sanders’s language and policy ideas,” he writes,
“she also embodied a more varied conflict with power.” How? According to
Wallace-Wells, where “the Sanders movement has sometimes seemed as pedantic and
single-minded as its hero, fixated on the influence of billionaires,”
Ocasio-Cortez is distinguishable on the basis that “she gave interviews to The
Cut and Vogue,” traveled to the Texas tent camp where migrant children are
being held, and, “dressed in white,” decried the human-rights abuses there.
If
Wallace-Wells’s point is that Ocasio-Cortez handles intersectionality better
than Sanders, it’s well taken: She is more articulate on the
subject of identity than any politician I’ve ever heard. But the political
relevance of her Vogue interview or sartorial choices remain elusive to this
reporter.
Wallace-Wells’s point is that Ocasio-Cortez handles intersectionality better
than Sanders, it’s well taken: She is more articulate on the
subject of identity than any politician I’ve ever heard. But the political
relevance of her Vogue interview or sartorial choices remain elusive to this
reporter.
Meanwhile,
at New York Magazine, Frank Rich was explicit
that Tuesday’s results “cannot be construed as a harbinger of what might happen
nationally in November.” According to Rich, “despite her embrace of the socialist
label, there is nothing radical about what Ocasio-Cortez ran on.” He argues
that government-funded higher education, Medicare for all, and abolishing
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are “solid Democratic positions.”
That will be news to anyone who remembers Hillary Clinton’s 2016 primary
strategy of characterizing
these types of Bernie-style initiatives as policies that could “never, ever,
come to pass,” or California Senator Kamala Harris’s recent
defense of ICE: “Yes, ICE has a purpose, ICE has a role, ICE should exist,” she
said in a March interview. (She’s since revised
her opinion).
at New York Magazine, Frank Rich was explicit
that Tuesday’s results “cannot be construed as a harbinger of what might happen
nationally in November.” According to Rich, “despite her embrace of the socialist
label, there is nothing radical about what Ocasio-Cortez ran on.” He argues
that government-funded higher education, Medicare for all, and abolishing
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are “solid Democratic positions.”
That will be news to anyone who remembers Hillary Clinton’s 2016 primary
strategy of characterizing
these types of Bernie-style initiatives as policies that could “never, ever,
come to pass,” or California Senator Kamala Harris’s recent
defense of ICE: “Yes, ICE has a purpose, ICE has a role, ICE should exist,” she
said in a March interview. (She’s since revised
her opinion).
Rich’s
mistake, a mistake I see repeated in op-ed
after op-ed
covering this race, is to see Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign choices as separate
and apart from a “single-minded” focus on this country’s gross and
fundamentally unethical wealth disparity.
mistake, a mistake I see repeated in op-ed
after op-ed
covering this race, is to see Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign choices as separate
and apart from a “single-minded” focus on this country’s gross and
fundamentally unethical wealth disparity.
What gave
Ocasio-Cortez’s platform its power is not just her rhetorical acuity — the fact
that she’s frank where others are euphemistic. She’s able to be frank because
her ideology is internally consistent and uncompromised by the influence
of money — just as others are euphemistic where the truth
would upset their donors.
Ocasio-Cortez’s platform its power is not just her rhetorical acuity — the fact
that she’s frank where others are euphemistic. She’s able to be frank because
her ideology is internally consistent and uncompromised by the influence
of money — just as others are euphemistic where the truth
would upset their donors.
Ocasio-Cortez’s
socialist message is not an incidental part of a larger demographic story.
Nor can
her popularity be boiled down to the fact of her racial identity and the
similarly brown demographics of her district — despite many attempts to do so.
Wallace-Wells, for instance, notes early in his article that the 14th District
is half Hispanic and only one-fifth white. “Crowley lost because of
the changing demographics in his district,” writes Dana
Milbank of The Washington Post. That implication is so pervasive
that Ocasio-Cortez felt the need to push back, tweeting: “Some
folks are saying I won for ‘demographic’ reasons. 1st of all, that’s false. We
won w/voters of all kinds.”
her popularity be boiled down to the fact of her racial identity and the
similarly brown demographics of her district — despite many attempts to do so.
Wallace-Wells, for instance, notes early in his article that the 14th District
is half Hispanic and only one-fifth white. “Crowley lost because of
the changing demographics in his district,” writes Dana
Milbank of The Washington Post. That implication is so pervasive
that Ocasio-Cortez felt the need to push back, tweeting: “Some
folks are saying I won for ‘demographic’ reasons. 1st of all, that’s false. We
won w/voters of all kinds.”
And she’s
right. The southwestern part of the district (located in northwest Queens)
was where Ocasio-Cortez performed best, with 60 to 100 percent of voters
choosing her over Crowley, even though that area is only
15 to 40 percent Hispanic.
right. The southwestern part of the district (located in northwest Queens)
was where Ocasio-Cortez performed best, with 60 to 100 percent of voters
choosing her over Crowley, even though that area is only
15 to 40 percent Hispanic.
Ocasio-Cortez’s
socialist message is not an incidental part of a larger demographic story. And
her socialism shouldn’t be treated as a virus opportunistically riding the
vector of her Latina form. Socialism is inextricable from Ocasio-Cortez’s
success because it’s the secret behind her ability to do what the Democratic
party has long failed to do — articulate a holistic progressive vision for
America.
socialist message is not an incidental part of a larger demographic story. And
her socialism shouldn’t be treated as a virus opportunistically riding the
vector of her Latina form. Socialism is inextricable from Ocasio-Cortez’s
success because it’s the secret behind her ability to do what the Democratic
party has long failed to do — articulate a holistic progressive vision for
America.
Socialism
is a framework that supports a belief that a country in which everyone can live
with dignity is not the stuff of fantasies, of “ponies”
— nor is it the selfish dream of a “privileged” populous who want something for
nothing. It’s a socialist conception of the world which emboldens Ocasio-Cortez
to aver, on a popular
late night show, that “in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no
person in America should be too poor to live.”
is a framework that supports a belief that a country in which everyone can live
with dignity is not the stuff of fantasies, of “ponies”
— nor is it the selfish dream of a “privileged” populous who want something for
nothing. It’s a socialist conception of the world which emboldens Ocasio-Cortez
to aver, on a popular
late night show, that “in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no
person in America should be too poor to live.”
Socialism
reveals that capitalism — a system which privileges markets over community — is
not a natural truth, but a political choice to which there are alternatives. It
shows that Jeff Bezos’s wealth cannot be understood as unrelated to the plight
of Amazon’s workers, but is a consequence of their hardships. It reveals
one man’s merit to be another woman’s wage theft,
and challenges society to value humans outside of our ability to toil. It’s
what sets up Ocasio-Cortez to talk about human dignity as non-negotiable. Where
Nancy Pelosi quips, “we’re
capitalists, and that’s just the way it is,” socialism says that’s not good
enough.
reveals that capitalism — a system which privileges markets over community — is
not a natural truth, but a political choice to which there are alternatives. It
shows that Jeff Bezos’s wealth cannot be understood as unrelated to the plight
of Amazon’s workers, but is a consequence of their hardships. It reveals
one man’s merit to be another woman’s wage theft,
and challenges society to value humans outside of our ability to toil. It’s
what sets up Ocasio-Cortez to talk about human dignity as non-negotiable. Where
Nancy Pelosi quips, “we’re
capitalists, and that’s just the way it is,” socialism says that’s not good
enough.
Wallace-Wells
gets it wrong when he claims that the “central insight” of the Sanders
presidential campaign was “that the Democratic establishment is as weak as the
Republican one” during the Obama years. The central insight of both the
Sanders campaign and Ocasio-Cortez’s victory is that socialism as an ideology
is strong.
gets it wrong when he claims that the “central insight” of the Sanders
presidential campaign was “that the Democratic establishment is as weak as the
Republican one” during the Obama years. The central insight of both the
Sanders campaign and Ocasio-Cortez’s victory is that socialism as an ideology
is strong.
In the
aforementioned Vogue interview
conducted by socialist reporter Bridget Read, Ocasio-Cortez makes a critique of
our current system which is so unheard of in the mainstream press that reads
like heresy: “When we talk about the word socialism, I think what it really
means is just democratic participation in our economic dignity, and our
economic, social, and racial dignity…It is about direct representation and
people actually having power and stake over their economic and social wellness,
at the end of the day. To me, what socialism means is to guarantee a
basic level of dignity.”
aforementioned Vogue interview
conducted by socialist reporter Bridget Read, Ocasio-Cortez makes a critique of
our current system which is so unheard of in the mainstream press that reads
like heresy: “When we talk about the word socialism, I think what it really
means is just democratic participation in our economic dignity, and our
economic, social, and racial dignity…It is about direct representation and
people actually having power and stake over their economic and social wellness,
at the end of the day. To me, what socialism means is to guarantee a
basic level of dignity.”
As
Ocasio-Cortez said on election night: “There’s nothing radical about moral
clarity in 2018.” Except, it is a radical act to run on it.
What
should frighten centrists of both parties is how unimpeachable that simple
moral claim is. As Ocasio-Cortez said on election night: “There’s nothing
radical about moral clarity in 2018.” Except, it is a radical act to run on it.
If
anything distinguishes Ocasio-Cortez from the pack — if there is any lesson to
be learned here for Democrats hoping to capture her magic going into midterms
and 2020 — it should be this.
anything distinguishes Ocasio-Cortez from the pack — if there is any lesson to
be learned here for Democrats hoping to capture her magic going into midterms
and 2020 — it should be this.
Nancy
Pelosi though, whom Ocasio-Cortez has declined to support for house leadership,
sees things differently. “They made a choice in one district,” she said at a news
conference Wednesday. “So let’s not get yourself carried away as an
expert on demographics and the rest of that…we have an array of genders,
generations, geography, and there is opinion in our caucus, and we’re proud of
that. The fact that in a very progressive district in New York, it went more
progressive than — Joe Crowley is a progressive, but she’s more left
than Joe Crowley — is about that district.”
Pelosi though, whom Ocasio-Cortez has declined to support for house leadership,
sees things differently. “They made a choice in one district,” she said at a news
conference Wednesday. “So let’s not get yourself carried away as an
expert on demographics and the rest of that…we have an array of genders,
generations, geography, and there is opinion in our caucus, and we’re proud of
that. The fact that in a very progressive district in New York, it went more
progressive than — Joe Crowley is a progressive, but she’s more left
than Joe Crowley — is about that district.”
Hopefully,
a more insightful
leader will emerge who understands that while demographics are
important, identity should be political only insofar as it serves an inclusive,
progressive and humanistic ideology.
a more insightful
leader will emerge who understands that while demographics are
important, identity should be political only insofar as it serves an inclusive,
progressive and humanistic ideology.
Ocasio-Cortez
put it best: “At the end
of the day, I’m a candidate that doesn’t take corporate money, that champions
Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee, the abolishment of ICE, and a green
New Deal. But I approach those issues with the lenses of the community
that I live in. And that is not as easy to say as ‘identity politics.’”
put it best: “At the end
of the day, I’m a candidate that doesn’t take corporate money, that champions
Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee, the abolishment of ICE, and a green
New Deal. But I approach those issues with the lenses of the community
that I live in. And that is not as easy to say as ‘identity politics.’”
