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Flash back to 2009. A number of Republicans, stunned by Obama’s election as President, begin a grass-roots movement to take back their party. The movement gains momentum and, over the next several elections, Republican officeholders find themselves in the fight for their political lives. Except it’s not against Democratic rivals but against members of their own party. Voters took to the polls and long-term incumbents soon found themselves tossed out of office. Sound familiar? It should. Except it isn’t Republicans seeing their party torn apart. This time, it is the Democratic Party, thanks to the Democratic-Socialists. It’s time to get out the popcorn and to sit back and watch what happens in the next installment of “How the Democrats Turn”.
No one batted an eye when Bernie Sanders, self-described “independent” and hero of democratic-socialists around the country, ran for president on the Democratic ticket. Not even the Democratic National Committee seemed bothered, In fact, it embraced Bernie, offering him up as their sacrificial lamb to the anointed one, Hillary Clinton. What they didn’t foresee was that, by giving Bernie a national platform, they gave his political ideas legitimacy. In doing so, they brought on their own form of the Tea Party and, if you don’t mind my saying so, it couldn’t happen to a “nicer” political party.
Where the Tea Party fought for lower taxes and less government involvement, you now have candidates like these running for office.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district. Crowley served the 14th for 10 terms.
““Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview on PBS’s Firing Line. “Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their family.” Think about that for a moment. Now consider this from the Democratic-Socialist darling:
Tuition-free higher education is a worthwhile investment with profound benefits to society.
Kudos, @nyuniversity. I hope we vote for more candidates who support tuition-free public college so that we can catch up to other nations that already offer it.https://t.co/0DKPcQGsTd
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) August 19, 2018
Funny, isn’t it. She wants to catch up with those other countries but she doesn’t tell us how she’s going to pay for this “free college”. Like any good socialist, she doesn’t tell us it will come out of our pockets, hoping we won’t realize it. What’s surprising is how many people are buying into her shtick and that of other candidates like her.
But she’s not the only one. New York–and I never thought I’d be saying “poor New York” when it came to politics–also has Cynthia Nixon. The actress-turned-politician is doing her best to model herself after Ocasio-Cortez, straight down to head-shaking comments. First, we have her strategist Rebecca Katz, claiming working conditions are “notoriously sexist when it comes to room temperature, so we just want to make sure we’re all on the same page here,” when it came to air conditioning during a debate with her opponent, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo. She also got in trouble with the unions, who should be her biggest backers, with this comment: “The unions have to understand … with the deals that they have now,” she said, “you can’t hope to make improvements to the trains in a fiscally responsible way … Everybody’s got to pull together, and everybody’s got to make sacrifices.” Naturally, it didn’t take her long to back off the comment and start demanding “sacrifices” from the wealthy. She’s such a good little Democratic-Socialist, always demanding other people sacrifice and switching rhetoric to meet the demand.
As laughable as Ocasio-Cortez and Nixon can be, and as much of a teddy bear as Bernie tries to be, the Democrats should be wary of what they represent to the party. In Pennsylvania, four Democratic-Socialist-backed candidates won their legislative primaries. Two of them defeated sitting Democratic congressmen. In other words, they defeated the establishment.
The latest in this trend, if it can be called a trend yet, to win is Ocasio-Cortez backed Ayanna Pressley.
https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1037155938606698496
Pressley defeated 10-term Representative Michael Capuano in yesterday’s primary. If she wins in November, she will become the first African-American female to represent Massachusetts in Congress.
Just as the media warned the Republicans about the Tea Party candidates, now they are beginning to warn the Democrats about at least some of the Democratic-Socialists the party seems to be embracing. The difference this time? As the CNN article shows, they aren’t worried about what will happen to the country should the DNC allow the party to continue its rapid downhill slide into Socialism. No, they are worried about the DNC allowing untested candidates out into the wild.
Not that I can blame them when you have candidates like Ocasio-Cortez asking our children, OUR CHILDREN, to rally against President Trump.
Whether or not this trend of seeing Democratic-Socialist candidates defeating sitting Dems continues is something we will have to wait and see. There are still several primaries left to be decided. But, if this is the Democratic version of the Tea Party, let’s hope it isn’t nearly as successful as the Republican version was. Otherwise, this country may be in for a world of hurt, both at home and internationally. It is yet another reason why it is so important for us to get out and vote come November. This slide has to be stopped and voting is the only way to put on the brakes.
PBJ89 says: This has been my concern about these things. Everyone is laughing it off and making fun of Ocasio-Cortez, but that is *exactly* what the Left did to Trump.
And he won. And it can’t be denied that a factor in his winning was all the coverage he got from the press.
When Obama won in 2009 the Left thought they would be in control for 100 years. There were books written about the death of the Right. I can’t help but feel like Trump’s win has made the Right just as cocky as the Left in 2009.
I don’t want to think about what the Left will do if/when they regain power again. We can’t let our guard down.
Amanda Green says: Yep. Everyone laughed at the Tea Party the first round of elections. Then the second round came and so many who’d held office–whether local, state or national–found themselves out on their ear. The Dems are doing that now and look what’s happening. Conservatives need to remember the lesson and not fall victim to it in 2020 or beyond.
WILLIAM J FRANCIS says: Sadly, far too many Americans seem to be in favor of getting all the “free stuff”. What is really sad they do so without knowing (or the media reporting) that the only way for the “free stuff” to become available is for taxes to rise for EVERYONE, not just the “rich”.
Remember this, in order to “give” you anything you don’t have to pay for the Government must steal the money to pay for it from someone else.
NateWhilk says: “No, they are worried about the DNC allowing untested candidates out into the wild.” Such as Hillary. Who DID win the popular vote. But being arrogant, stupid, and a Democrat (but I repeat myself), she forgot about the Electoral College. She made an unforced error, and we got Trump. The Dems won’t make that mistake again.
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