Ocasio-Cortez Pushes Democrats to the Left
La jeune représentante bouscule la gauche américaine.
WASHINGTON — Not so long ago, left-wing activists were dismissed as fringe or even kooky when they pressed for proposals to tax the super rich at 70 percent, to produce all of America’s power through renewable resources or to abolish
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Then along came Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — and her social-media megaphone. 2. In the five months since her election, Ocasio-Cortez has had the uncanny ability for a first-term member of Congress to push the debate inside the Democratic Party sharply to the left, forcing party leaders and 2020 presidential candidates to grapple with issues that
some might otherwise prefer to avoid. The Democratic field in 2020 is already being quizzed about her (Sen. Kamala Harris praised her on The View), emulating her digital tactics (Sen. Elizabeth Warren held an Instagram chat in her kitchen that looked much like one of Ocasio-Cortez’s sessions) and embracing some of her causes.
3. Warren and Sen. Cory Booker, among others, have recently endorsed the idea of a “Green New Deal,” a call to reimagine an environment-first economy that would phase out fossil fuels. Ocasio-Cortez thrust that issue into the national dialogue after she joined a sit-in protest in the office of then-incoming House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, in one of her first, rebellious acts in Washington.
BACKLASH
4. Her rise has stirred a backlash among some congressional Democrats, who are seeking to constrain her anti-establishment streak and fear her more radical ideas could tar the party as socialist. And it’s not just Washington. Back home in New York, she has stoked opposition to a deal with Amazon to set up offices in Queens, putting pressure on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats, to justify corporate incentives.
5. Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx-born 29-year-old of Puerto Rican descent, is the youngest congresswoman ever, and Washington veterans say they cannot recall a similar congressional debut. “A bartender from the Bronx has been able to create a litmus test around climate and economic policy for every 2020 Democrat,” said Waleed Shahid, who was one of Ocasio-Cortez’s early campaign advisers and is now communications director for Justice Democrats, a liberal activist group. “If that’s not seen as a metric of success, then I don’t know what is.”
SYMBOL OF DIVERSITY
6. Far beyond policy, she has emerged as a potent symbol for a diversifying Democratic Party: a young woman of color who is giving as good as she gets in a political system that has rarely rewarded people who look like her. Her mastery of social media has allowed her to connect with audiences who might otherwise be alienated from Washington. 7. Still, her unexpectedly outsize profile could bring perils. Her threats to knock out more moderate Democrats in future primaries in particular seem to have rankled. Some whisper her tweet-first, ask-questions-later mentality reminds them of President Donald Trump. And while she has attracted considerable attention, policymaking in Congress remains a long, slow grind dominated by insiders. Pelosi, for instance, declined to grant the new climate change committee some of the powers that Ocasio-Cortez had demanded at the sit-in.
8. Many Republicans are downright giddy at the notion that a self-described democratic socialist is driving Democratic policy discussions. Congressional Republicans saw up close the dangers of having the more staunchly right-wing elements of the Tea Party come to
define their tenure in the House majority. “Whether Democrats like it or not, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is now the face of their party,” said Steven Cheung, a former communications adviser in the Trump White House.
RADICAL LABEL
9. Supporters and rivals alike agree that she has upended the traditional rules of engagement on Capitol Hill with a millennial’s intuitive sense of what sells online. In an interview, Ocasio-Cortez rejected “the general notion of, ‘Oh, you’re here and need to be quiet and keep your head down.'” “For me, especially as a member who won her seat via a primary election against another Democrat, my constituency was telling me the exact opposite thing,” she said. Republicans, she said, fundamentally misunderstand her: “They think I’m just a Tea Party mirror. It’s an easy and convenient way to frame something. But I don’t think it’s the same.” Still, she has fully embraced the radical label — especially if it means pulling the Democratic Party to the left. “I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country,” she told 60 Minutes.
10. It has all come in a rush: By the end of her full first day as a congresswoman, OcasioCortez had overtaken Pelosi’s following on Twitter. Her initials and Twitter handle, @AOC, have become shorthand for the phenomenon that is the talk of Capitol Hill. She had a full 60 Minutes segment devoted to her on her first Sunday as a congresswoman. And she has become a viral Internet sensation many times
over, including one video of her dancing outside her office that has topped 22 million views across the globe.
MOST TALKEDABOUT IDEA
11. Perhaps Ocasio-Cortez’s most talked-about idea, raised on 60 Minutes, has been that people she called “the tippy tops” — those earning above $10 million — should pay a 70 percent rate on income above that threshold. The remark sparked days of debate among economists and pundits, on the right and the left, about tax rates unseen in America in decades but common during the post-World War II era. “I’ve been trying to open up this rhetorical space for many, many years,” said Stephanie Kelton, a former chief economist for Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee. “They used to talk about the Oprah effect,” said Kelton, now a professor at Stony Brook University. “I think it’s the Ocasio effect at this point.”
12. For all her focus on what she called “outsideinside” organizing, Ocasio-Cortez does seek power inside the Capitol. She raised her hand for a slot on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, though no freshmen got a seat on that panel. She has since secured a seat on the Financial Services Committee, which is a notable perch for a politician who has railed against the grip of money in politics generally, and Wall Street in particular.
She has become a viral Internet sensation many times over.