John Fund reports for National Review Online on the political prospects for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Two years ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a 28-year-old former Bernie Sanders organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Then she won a shocking primary win over Joe Crowley, the No. 4 ranking House Democrat, in a New York City district that had turned Hispanic but been ignored by Crowley.
Now, in Tuesday’s primary, AOC faces a moderate challenger who says it’s AOC who has become a distant figure to her poor Bronx and Queens constituents, one more interested in superstardom and her 7.3 million Twitter followers than in bringing jobs to the district.
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former business-news anchor on CNBC, says AOC should have backed Amazon’s proposed second headquarters in her district, with its 25,000 new jobs. Instead, AOC was the project’s loudest opponent, and she took credit for its demise in 2019. …
… Caruso-Cabrera says that “Medicare for All is not the answer,” and she calls AOC’s Green New Deal “divisive policy.”
During their last debate she also accused the incumbent of being a “divisive” and “polarizing” figure within the Democratic Party. …
… Ocasio-Cortez responded in kind, arguing that Caruso-Cabrera is a mere pawn of Trump donors — she has been a Republican for most of her life, AOC emphasized, and lived in Trump Towers until six months ago.
But it’s Ocasio-Cortez who has spent $6.3 million on the race, hired 40 staffers, and gained the support of the public-sector unions. She has become “La Pasionaria” of the Woke Movement (“La Pasionaria” was the moniker given to Dolores Ibárruri, the famous Communist leader of 1930s Spain), and she’s the driving force behind the radical Green New Deal, which would reshape the nation’s economy and seek to eliminate carbon emissions.
But for all her charisma, AOC has a juvenile and slightly dark streak.
