New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is hustling to win over left-wing critics who say the progressive leader cares too much about mainstream approval and is too cozy with senior Democrats.
Between the lines: If Ocasio-Cortez’s diplomacy is successful, it could be more difficult for any potential 2028 presidential candidate to run to her left — but moderate Democrats argue it also could make it tougher for her to win a general election.
Despite her recent efforts, some loud voices on the left — including people who have worked closely with her — have gotten under her skin by continuing to question her progressive bona fides.
Zoom in: In recent weeks, Ocasio-Cortez has tried to repair her relationship with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Many members of the group opposed her support for giving Israel defensive weapons, including the Iron Dome missile system, during the war in Gaza — which she has called a “genocide.”
In July 2024, national DSA leaders withdrew their endorsement of her for the elections that year, arguing that she’d conflated “anti-Zionism with antisemitism and condemned boycotting Zionist institutions,” which the group considered a “deep betrayal.”
The intrigue: AOC also has had a fraught relationship with some progressives who helped launch her political career.
Her first chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, co-founded Justice Democrats, a group that helped Ocasio-Cortez with her insurgent House campaign in 2018. Chakrabarti is running for Congress in former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco, but Ocasio-Cortez pointedly hasn’t endorsed him in the June 2 primary.
She’s indicated she believes that some of her early allies on the left have taken too much credit for her upset House victory eight years ago, and she’s distanced herself from them over the years, people familiar with the dynamic told Axios.
Nothing is going to change if everyone pretends that the symptoms go away when a democrat is in office.
Oh. So, you really didn’t understand anything I said, huh?
I’m not buying that the president is only useless when he’s not selling weapons to your favorite person for your favorite activity.
Yeah. You really don’t understand what I’ve been saying. Whatever, buddy. Stay ignorant. I don’t care.
And since it’s not pro-genocide, you’ve been ignoring what I’ve been saying. Biden broke the law when it suited him. It only suited him to sell weapons for genocide.
Which is why you’re carrying water for him and acting like anyone who isn’t head over heels ecstatic about how BIDEN. BROKE. THE. LAW. TO. SUPPORT. GENOCIDE. never watched Schoolhouse Rock as a kid, as though that has any bearing on what biden considered enough of a priority to break the law over, versus what he was willing to be bound by the law over.
That wasn’t even what we were talking about. You just keep making it about that, because you have no idea what you’re actually arguing about.
I have repeatedly told you that I am not a Biden supporter and don’t agree with his policies on Israel…at all. You just keep ignoring that, and continue to accuse me of holding positions that I don’t. That is the definition of a strawman argument, and it shows a lack of intellectual integrity on your part.
What I am telling you…that you also don’t seem capable of understanding…is that if you want any of that to get dealt with, you will need to address Congress. Not the president. Even if you want Biden to be held accountable for his actions over Israel…you need Congress to do that. Everything you are complaining about is Congress’s job to fix.
Me saying that, over and over again, is NOT “carrying water for Biden”. It is not being “head over heels for Biden”. That is the stupidest, most lazy take you could possibly have. You aren’t even trying to use your brain. You’re just saying shit that you think sounds principled, but really just comes off as hopelessly ignorant.
If you would like to talk about the successes of Democrats in Congress in working with biden to block his campaign promises, we can. If you would like to talk about how many times they approved weapons for genocide, we can do that too. But in the context of biden, the fact remains that biden broke the law for netanyahu and not for the American people. That shows where his greatest priority lies.
He was perfectly happy to accept the limitations imposed by HoW gOvErNmEnT wOrKs when he chose to not fire the parliamentarian so that the poor could have higher wages. He was happy to accept limitations when he decided to wait out the clock before starting the process to reschedule cannabis. He was endlessly diplomatic with Manchin while he killed Build Back Better. But he spent a year and three months breaking the law openly and brazenly to sell weapons to netanyahu, as it became more and more undeniable to everyone that this was a genocide. And there’s no way biden didn’t know from the very beginning.
He broke the law for netanyahu. For genocide. But not for workers. Not for Americans. That’s who he is. That’s all he is. That’s all he’s ever been, that’s the culmination of his entire career.
If you want to talk about accountability and congress’ unwillingness to do so for trump, let alone biden, we can have that conversation. But I will NEVER accept Congress as an excuse for biden’s behavior, partly because he ignored congress to accomplish his only goal in life, but also because there is no excusing his behavior.
Now tell me I don’t know how anything works again. Gaslighting never gets old.