Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) may be uninformed, poorly educated, and without scruples. But she's the frontrunner in some polls for the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nomination and is well-positioned to ride the growing wave of radical-left energy now taking over the Democratic Party all the way to the top.
Getting past superficial profiles of her, AOC has many gifts and a jungle savviness about politics that makes her a formidable opponent for any Democrat who's been mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.
Her clownish social media gimmicks aside, this is a woman with a plan. And Republicans who underestimate her do so at the party's peril.
Mark Halperin, a veteran of several presidential campaigns, writes in The Free Press, "AOC boasts three indispensable factors for a successful presidential race: national name recognition, the capacity to raise tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, and insatiable media interest."
A Democrat Trump? Don't laugh it off. She's paling around with Bernie Sanders and will likely inherit his very large, very sophisticated political movement. In that, she'll have a leg up on Trump, who didn't have much of an organization when he started running for president in 2014.
AOC maintains one of the largest digital footprints of any politician in Congress, with a combined social media following exceeding 23 million across major platforms. It doesn't matter if they're all brain-dead millennials and Gen Zers. They don't care about "issues" the same way that older voters might consider before deciding who to vote for. It's all about "feelings" and "vibes." And AOC knows how to tap into that zeitgeist.
An iconic face of the zeitgeisty progressive movement, a fundraising dynamo on a first-name basis not just with cable news hosts but with producers, network executives, hair and makeup folks, and popular influencers as well, AOC showcases other en vogue traits. She is a young outsider railing against the establishment. She is a master of the attention economy, a social media wizard with a keen sense of timing. She is bracingly gruff and tart, unafraid of conflict and controversy, and comfortable in the eye of the storm. She is widely considered gorgeous, with a sharp fashion flair. She possesses ineffable magnetism that catches attention; when she appears on any television or tablet, she compels viewers to turn up the volume to find out what she is saying.
AOC understands that modern politics is part ideology, part organization, and part show business, and she does not pretend to be offended by the performative superficialities of the profession. Most politicians say they hate the circus while making sure they are standing in the center ring. AOC genuinely enjoys the circus. She is soulful, sincere, winking, ironic, and a ham all at the same time.
Many Republicans have a hatred for AOC that's so rabid they can't acknowledge her obvious political gifts and the threat she poses. This is suicidal. She will be a formidable opponent in 2028 if she doesn't stumble over her own stupidity.
Her obvious weak spot is foreign policy. Her recent efforts to create a foreign policy résumé resulted in an embarrassing appearance at the Munich Security Conference in February. Halperin notes that "even an intensive course in national security and foreign policy might leave her vulnerable to a career-stalling gaffe."
That's because talking about foreign policy with simple-minded talking points or stumbling over a "what I believe" question shows a shallowness voters will recognize immediately.
Foreign policy is not simply a matter of expressing the ideologically accepted values. Presidents have to know things. They have to understand NATO, China, deterrence, nuclear doctrine, intelligence, trade, alliances, sanctions, the Middle East, the history behind the current crisis, and the interests behind the public rhetoric. They have to know enough to tell when the generals, diplomats, and intelligence officials sitting around the table are right, and when they are protecting their own bureaucratic interests.
At Munich, AOC at times seemed like someone who had learned the broad strokes but was not particularly capable of comprehending or interested in the intricacies. A presidential campaign would ultimately unmask that weakness, and her opponents would run with it as far and fast as possible. Furthermore, her Munich stumble laid bare the broader question of gravitas. AOC has spent her entire national political life as an insurgent legislator. She has never been a governor. She has never run a large executive branch. She has never had to balance a state budget, manage a natural disaster, command a National Guard, negotiate a major bipartisan agreement, or make the kind of lonely executive decision for which there is no politically easy answer.
She's got a little more than a year to change that impression. The frightening possibility is that it might not matter as much as it has in the past. The younger voters are far more impressionable and have less ability to recognize a lightweight like AOC. Her communication skills will only take her so far, as long as her voters don't question the intellectual basis for her ideology.
Personally, I believe 2032 will be her year. If she's the nominee in 2028, she will lose and lose big.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats desperately try to stop it.
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