House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has her hands full. She’s the leader of a party of far-left-wing lunatics, but insists that Democrats want to be in “the mainstream.” She has to deal with members whose increasingly anti-Semitic comments are not only embarrassing but alarming.
And she has to manage her relationship with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
AOC wants to get rid of about half the Democratic caucus in favor of electing more socialists. Of course, this would mean primarying many of Pelosi’s friends and colleagues. The party leadership will eventually be forced to deal with AOC’s apostasy, but in the meantime, she is the most reliable headline getter in the Democratic Party. Whatever she says is amplified by her millions of Twitter followers.
But in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez has very little influence, according to Pelosi.
In a “60 Minutes” interview, correspondent Lesley Stahl pointed out the different groups within the House Democratic caucus. “You have these wings — AOC and her group on one side,” Stahl said.
“That’s like five people,” Pelosi interrupted.
Stahl corrected the snarky remark, saying that the “progressive group is more than five.”
“Well, I’m progressive — I’m a progressive, yeah,” Pelosi responded.
Yes, she is “progressive” but she’s smart enough to try and hide it. Not so AOC, whose off-the-wall proposals and statements are damaging the entire party.
Seven Democratic House members, including Ocasio-Cortez, are supported by the progressive political action committee the Justice Democrats, which Pelosi could also have been referring to.
On several occasions now, Pelosi has downplayed any splits within her ranks — and also tried to dim some of Ocasio-Cortez’s star power.
In a recent interview with USA Today, the House speaker pointed out that votes are more significant than Twitter followers — a remark that was also interpreted to be a dig at AOC.
“While there are people who have a large number of Twitter followers, what’s important is that we have a large number of votes on the floor of the House,” Pelosi said.
This is very true. Ocasio-Cortez has less influence than even some other freshmen members. In fact, there are many on the right who believe we should ignore AOC because she is entirely inconsequential.
Again, this is true. But Ocasio-Cortez is a danger not because of who she is but because of what she represents: the dark future of the Democratic Party. She is the most prominent example of what the U.S. has to look forward to if she and her like-minded “democratic socialists” are able to gain power.
These are people who are fully capable of destroying constitutional government — and they’d be proud to do it because they believe it would be done for a “good cause.” They want to recreate America using principles alien to our values and beliefs.
They are few in number now. But ignoring them would only cause their numbers to grow. Pelosi realizes that AOC is electoral poison for the party, but is restrained from openly slapping her down because of her popularity. Eventually, Pelosi and other establishment Democrats are going to have to deal with AOC and her wild-eyed posse of socialists, or see their power slip away.
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