By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez panders to Democrat race-obsessed groups to get noticed
Imagine you’re an aspiring 2028 Democrat presidential candidate and you’ve strained your brain trying to come up with a cause or theme to base your campaign on.
A brainstorm hits – just look to the recent past and simply copy the modus operandi of the most successful Democrat politicians! There was senile Joe Biden, of course, but the former vice president had been in Democrat politics for a half-century (more or less) prior to his third run for the top job, and he occupied the “next in line” chair vacated by Crooked Hillary Clinton upon unceremoniously losing the 2016 election to the hated and despised Donald J. Trump.
Realizing that she couldn’t possibly mount a next-in-line-type candidacy for the 2028 Democrat nomination, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has thrown together the next best thing – try rounding up support from liberal race groups, pit them against each other and everyone else, and emerge from the scrum smelling like a rose?
When you’ve got nothing else meaningful to say about yourself, you stoop to the lowest point of concurrence.
In an opinion column titled, “Ocasio-Cortez appears to be recreating Obama’s multi-racial voter coalition”, the always unintentionally entertaining Juan Williams wrote at The Hill last week:
“Wouldn’t it be something if the 2028 presidential contest came down to the two most visible post-boomer Latino politicians on the national stage? While Ocasio-Cortez stands to inherit Sanders’ activist base, Trump is now frequently noting the enthusiastic response Rubio receives from Republican audiences.
“If Rubio ultimately inherits the MAGA mantle, however, he will also inherit the controversies that come with it — particularly on immigration and the administration’s approach toward Hispanic communities. Each represents a different vision of America’s future. First, each will have to raise their voices to get their voters to the polls.
“Ocasio-Cortez is making a big noise now in all quarters of the Democrats’ coalition. The 2026 race is getting hot. The 2028 campaign has already begun. Democrats are listening to a promising Latin beat mixing with the Black gospel thanks to Ocasio-Cortez.”
In AOC’s case, it’s more like Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s unintelligible (to English speakers) drivel vs. Gangsta rap. As Williams touched on in his column, the New York congresswoman has been making the rounds in Democrat race cliques lately, hoping against hope she’ll be the one to emerge as the leading Democrat presidential candidate in 2028.
And why not? The others rumored to be planning or considering a bid in the next presidential primary nominating round aren’t exactly setting the political world on fire. It’s funny how Democrat shills like Juan don’t even delve into the philosophical/ideological distinctions between the contenders; instead, the squawkers talk about the person’s ethnicity and gender and then plug in a set of assumptions from there.
It’s not who they are; it’s what they are.
Example? How about, Kamala Harris is a black woman! Therefore, black women naturally gravitate to her and the others compete for second place among the Democrats’ most loyal voting bloc!
As a believer in the value of debating all ideas – even bad ones – Juan Williams is certainly entitled to his opinion, even if his writing often stirs chuckles and guffaws from his common sense-type readers that weren’t intended.
By the sound of it, Williams appears to be a fan of AOC, which begs the question, why? Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has made herself into a national political celebrity since her arrival in Congress however many years ago. She took senile old coot Bernie Sanders’s kook-fringe socialism beliefs, slapped a solid social media presence on them and embarked on a journey to try and make socialism and extreme environmentalism sound palatable.
All while using her good looks to propel her “movement”. Put it this way, if AOC looked like Pramila Jayapal or Rosa DeLauro or Maxine Waters, would we even be having this conversation? Democrats have definitely become less picky in their search for eligible female standard-bearers, but Ocasio-Cortez’s fame has been driven by her relative youth and camera-friendly appearance.
The words coming out of her mouth are secondary. Her statements are all the same, typically demonizing those who disagree with her or, in the alternative, painting a spurious reality about the causes she supposedly supports.
The Democrat “surface looks” phenomenon doesn’t end with AOC, either. The male-identifying Democrats are also further along on the spectrum of physically attractive, too, as “Governor Hair gel”, Gavin Newsom and Pete Buttigieg could fit in tightly at a gathering of the “beautiful people” as well. They may not be candidates to cast in a Hollywood blockbuster, but they’re far from homely.
So AOC’s got that going for her, which is nice.
But there has to be more. The primary reason why Democrats have become so superficial in their quest to discover and elevate the next potentially electable candidate is because there’s very little, if any, subjective policy difference between their candidates.
Remember back to the 2020 Democrat primaries where the candidates were asked to explain their healthcare proposals outside of Obamacare? Or tax plans? Or views on (insert issue here) to set themselves apart from the others? It was as though the moderators read from a notecard and the chirping sound of crickets filled the theater.
Everyone knew that senile Joe Biden would emerge the winner. Bernie Sanders may have won the first several primaries, but there was no way the Democrat establishment powers-that-be were going to allow a self-identifying socialist from Vermont to lead them against then-President Donald Trump. Democrats chose Biden purely because he “fit the suit” and could be trusted to (mostly) spout the party line when prompted. The onset of COVID in 2020 only solidified their selection, as every Democrat was in agreement that Biden would be hidden away so that Trump could be set free to wage a rhetorical war against the lockdown advocating health safety bureaucrats.
It was a lose-lose situation for Trump, and he still almost beat them. Many reputable conservatives insist Trump won the election. But that’s a topic for another time.
It’s curious to see Juan Williams suggesting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be the eventual Democrat nominee primarily because she’s Hispanic, while Marco Rubio is often mentioned as the heir to the MAGA throne. And, of course, Rubio has a Hispanic surname and he technically isn’t “white” like JD Vance or some of the other rumored Republican possibles.
Marco Rubio has a Cuban background. AOC’s is Puerto Rican. The fact their ancestry both originates from a similar geographic region is about where the comparison ends. Rubio gained fame from being elected, more or less, as a Tea Party candidate who used his savvy political talents to run for president in 2016 and remained relevant in the upper chamber led by Mitch McConnell.
The fact Rubio improved his standing with conservatives serves as an example for other Republicans who might’ve been “branded” at some point in their careers and then emerged even stronger to earn favor as a possible presidential candidate.
AOC gained fame by throwing mud at establishment Democrats and implied that they weren’t militant or aggressive enough in pushing for redistributive policies and soak-the-rich class envy. She further teamed with other leftist radical women to form “The Squad” and were summarily beaten down by the real ruler of the party roost, Nancy Pelosi.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t a leader; she’s an attractive former bartender chick who’s used her staying power to rise through the Democrat ranks and now believes she’s presidential material because she’s old enough (under the Constitution) in addition to being female (check!), from a safe Blue state/district (check!!) and the establishment media loves her.
They know she’s good for a quote.
Juan Williams and other similarly inclined Democrat pundits will surely be disappointed to see AOC flameout when she invariably runs up against superior political talent in the Democrat party. All Democrats may believe the same things, but some of them are better at spinning the fibs, distortions and half-truths into digestible bites for their voter blocs.
AOC just doesn’t have it. She’s never had it, in fact. And, kind of like cackling Kamala Harris, there’s no way to coach her into having a political presence. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ain’t no Barack Obama.
Democrats will go on attempting to expose their next presidential ticket leader. Or someone new could jump out at them. But flavors-of-the-moment haven’t done well in American politics. Just ask Michael Bloomberg if you don’t believe it. Democrat pundits will need to keep making lightweight wannabes like AOC sound good. It’s an unenviable task, isn’t it?
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .