Some Dems float idea of primary challenge for Ocasio-Cortez [View all]

[PatrickforO]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has infuriated colleagues by aligning with a progressive outside group that’s threatening to primary entrenched Democrats. Now some of those lawmakers are turning the tables on her and are discussing recruiting a primary challenger to run against the social media sensation.

At least one House Democrat has been privately urging members of the New York delegation to recruit a local politician from the Bronx or Queens to challenge Ocasio-Cortez.

“What I have recommended to the New York delegation is that you find her a primary opponent and make her a one-term congressperson,” the Democratic lawmaker, who requested anonymity, told The Hill. “You’ve got numerous council people and state legislators who’ve been waiting 20 years for that seat. I’m sure they can find numerous people who want that seat in that district.”

The New York delegation has eyed Ocasio-Cortez with skepticism ever since last summer when the 29-year-old self-described democratic socialist shocked the political world and defeated then-Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) in what many thought would be a sleepy primary race. Crowley, a Queens powerbroker and affable House Democratic Caucus chairman, had been considered a possible future Speaker.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/427364-some-dems-float-idea-of-primary-challenge-for-ocasio-cortez

Somehow I don't think these anonymous ones are going to have much luck. Unfortunately, real democracy happens when people at the local level have a real say in policies that affect them. If someone purports to represent the interests of those people, but does not actually do so, then what should the people do?

I don't know much about the 'outside group' that AOC is aligned with, but I do know people on the ground are getting pretty fed up, and in poorer districts downright revolutionary. If we want to right this giant ship called the United States, then we are going to have to have a real plan to address global warming, and to redistribute wealth around human need rather than human greed.

I write a lot and have often told conservatives to just throw the middle class a bone - give us single payer healthcare and strong old age pensions. Then, I've gone on, you can screw us for another 75 years, just like the Republicans ate away the New Deal for the last 75 years.

See, if change doesn't happen fast enough, then this is what we'll see. Now I'm sure many of you will feel downright outraged I've even put this out, but my point is this: If groups like this have arisen, then it seems the mainstream party must find a way to bring them into the tent, not fight them, because fighting them won't work. They'll just get bigger and be more of a thorn in the side.

I'm thinking we all need to take a page from AOC's book and begin a real concerted effort to educate people around these complex issues instead of relying on corporate-owned media's 8-second sound bytes. Americans ARE capable of understanding things like why the primacy of the shareholder is like a corrosive acid that eats away at the very fabric of our society. They are capable of understanding why we should repeal the giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. They are capable of understanding why taxes aren't a bad thing unless they go for things that don't actually help the people who pay them.

Well...blast away, I guess...