Democrat’s across the spectrum are think hard and trying NOT to run off in the wrong direction after the Ocasio-Cortez, win in Queens, NY….
“The turmoil on the left mirrors that of Republicans in the first two years of Mr. Obama’s administration, when Democrats controlled all the levers of government and left the Tea Party-inflected Republican Party to thrash around in impotent protest, raging with an energy that eventually propelled it back to power,” the N.Y. Times’ Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns write.
The big picture: “But some Democrats see the moment in even more sweeping terms, akin to the era following the Vietnam War and Watergate, when the reaction to a controversial Republican president triggered a moderate and liberal backlash. That movement delivered dozens of new seats, but it also unleashed a generational changing of the guard that jolted party leaders.”
I’m all for being on the left.
But I’m not for either
(a) not listening hard enough to those who already vote (almost the exact reverse problem of liberal leaders like Joe Crowley and Rep. Jeffery Cohelan, the Oakland Democrat whom Ron Dellums unseated in the 1970 primary) or
(b) putting forth proposals that aren’t just bold ,i>(remember when gay rights was a suicide position no sane candidate would touch with a barge–pole ?) but unrealistic and unsellable.
Each Congressional district is different. In most, a socialist won’t win. Cortez’s District is extremely Democratic.
Sanders was a rare exception of a Socialist who COULD win, but I think his time, if ever, was in 2016. I don’t think he would be the best choice for 2020, I do think for Dems to win, they have to retake the economic message which I felt was inadequate in 2016.
Ocasio-Cortez has little to do with Socialism and a LOT to do with a Latina pounding the pavement while a old time incumbent failed to show up to debate or work his district which had turned from white to brown……..