When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley by 15 points this June, she gave Washington’s insider class a new folk hero.
Crowley was now an all-of-a-sudden former Bronx-Queens congressman, former chairman of his caucus, and former presumed successor to Nancy Pelosi. When he and his electric guitar took the stage as the “surprise guest” at Politico Playbook’s summer bash after his loss, some wondered: Is this what awaits fallen Democrats of the old order? Welcomed home to the bosom of the Beltway, something of a wounded soldier but mostly a clown? The woman who cut Crowley down to size is a new breed of hero herself. But for a very different set.
Ocasio-Cortez, at 28, is an age-appropriate symbolic leader for the sub-millennial generation of self-styled socialist-sympathizers who’d held out hope for a Bernie Sanders presidency. Sanders was robbed, they believe, and it’s guys like Crowley who bear the blame. She’ll run virtually unopposed in November. (Her Republican opponent Anthony Pappas has said he is “realistic” about his chances in the heavily Democratic district.) Before long, she’ll be another socialist voting with the Democrats on Capitol Hill.
By Alice B. Lloyd
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American Consequences 45
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