Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez riles Democrats by refusing to pay party dues
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez owes $250,000; reaction from New York congressional candidate Scherie Murray.
Anti-Trump media darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has a long history of making outrageous and completely delusional claims, but her latest ridiculous comment might be her nuttiest yet.
During an interview conducted at an event celebrating Martin Luther King Day, Ocasio-Cortez –a self-described socialist – claimed that despite criticism from conservatives about the socialist nature of the modern Democratic Party, “We don’t have a left party in the United States.”
“The Democratic Party is not a left party,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The Democratic Party is a center or a center-conservative party.”
AOC DECLARES DEMOCRATS A 'CENTER-CONSERVATIVE' PARTY: WE DON'T HAVE A 'LEFT PARTY' IN THIS COUNTRY
As evidence, Ocasio-Cortez said she and her fellow “Squad” members failed to get House Democratic leadership to agree to bring a “Medicare-for-all” bill to the floor of the House for a vote.
“We can’t even get a floor vote on ‘Medicare-for-all’ – not even a floor vote that gets voted down,” the socialist congresswoman said. “We can’t even get a vote on it. So, this is not a left party.”
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Ocasio-Cortez’s “center-conservative party” claim is laughably dumb. The batch of comrades currently running to become the Democratic Party’s presidential is the most radical in American history.
Among other things, some of the leading Democratic candidates have called for destroying the entire fossil fuels industry, forcing everyone to abandon their gasoline-powered cars, and empowering the federal government with the ability to retrofit every home and business building in the country for green-energy compliance and “safety” – whatever the heck that means.
Some Democrats have also called for a new system of publicly-owned banks, universal basic income programs, “free” college tuition and college debt “cancelation,” giving convicted felons and illegal immigrants access to government welfare programs, gun bans, and forcing more than 140 million Americans now enrolled in a private health insurance plans to lose their coverage in favor of a government-managed program.
And don’t forget about the mountain of new taxes on businesses, business owners, investors, and even some in the middle class that Democrats have been demanding to pay for programs that could, in total, cost close to $100 trillion over 10 years.
Does this sound “center-conservative” to you?
With all this in mind, it seems more than a little strange that Ocasio-Cortez would knock the Democratic Party for being too conservative.
So what’s the real motivation behind AOC’s statements?
Although it’s tempting to laugh off Ocasio-Cortez’s comments and use them as proof that she’s clueless about even the most basic political realities, there’s a much better explanation for what’s going on here.
AOC isn’t attacking the Democratic Party because she actually thinks it is “center-conservative,” but rather because she’s working feverishly to transform an already progressive party into one that will only tolerate full-blown socialism.
The best way to do that is to normalize extremist policies so that those Democratic voters who have traditionally seen themselves as center-left can in good conscience back proposals once considered too socialistic for a country that has largely embraced free markets and individual liberty.
If AOC can convince Democratic voters that “liberalism” is akin to government taking over most of a society’s economy, then America’s entire political landscape will shift in favor of Ocasio-Cortez’s brand of socialism.
The only way for AOC’s plan to work is to force her fellow Democrats in Congress to comply with her socialist agenda. She’s using every ounce of influence she has to make that happen.
In addition to taking advantage of the tremendous glowing news coverage the 30-year-old freshman congresswoman has received in much of the media, Ocasio-Cortez is using her power as a top Democratic fundraiser to bully non-socialists out of the party.
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Despite the fact Ocasio-Cortez has raised millions of dollars – more cash than just about any of her colleagues in the House—she refuses to pay dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Instead, she’s using her fundraising talents to back far-left candidates she likes, including primary candidates running in congressional districts already represented by a Democrat.
In total, Ocasio-Cortez has raised more than $300,000 for radical progressive and socialist candidates. For example, in September she endorsed candidate Marie Newman, who is running to unseat incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. Newman is a socialist who supports the Green New Deal and “Medicare-for-all.”
It’s too early to tell whether Ocasio-Cortez’s strategy will pay off in the long run.
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If a socialist or socialist-lite candidate loses to President Trump in November, it could spur a profound shift in the attitudes of many in the Democratic Party, moving Democrats closer to the center than they are now. But it’s just as likely that a socialist victory could be viewed as a mandate to move even further in Ocasio-Cortez’s direction.
We likely won’t know until 2021 what the future holds for the Democratic Party, but one thing is certain: Regardless of what occurs in the months and years ahead, Ocasio-Cortez will continue to fight to reshape the party of John F. Kennedy into the party of Karl Marx.