With calls for President Joe Biden to take his name out of contention for the 2024 Democratic nomination swirling, some commentators are searching for a suitable replacement to be the party’s standard-bearer.
In an opinion article published by The Hill on Tuesday, Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins posits that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) would be the best option for the party.
“When Barack Obama came out of nowhere to win his Senate seat in 2004, it almost felt preordained. As if he was the person we had been waiting for to breathe fresh air into the Democratic Party,” Hopkins wrote.
He continued, “Flash forward to 2018, and the meteoric rise of a 29-year-old bartender from Queens feels eerily similar. She has been unafraid, unapologetic and unwilling to bend to the will of Washington. She is a force to be reckoned with, and in 2024 Democrats are going to need her force to reckon with Republicans.”
The column went on to describe the progressive star as “less of a personality and more of a movement” as well as “smart,” “photogenic,” and “the face of the rising progressive movement.”
“The simplicity with which she talks about everyday struggles hints that she’s not just a persona for consumption. She isn’t beholden to corporations, is a prodigious small-dollar fundraiser, and could out-Trump Trump like no other politician has been able to,” Hopkins added.
He went on:
“AOC has the ability to tell the story of her generation. She’s Barack Obama if Barack Obama was an actual progressive. I love Obama, but he was a moderate who sounded like a progressive.”
Well, she has the ability to tell a story of her generation. A lot of millennials feel that they have been severely disadvantaged, that their parents and grandparents messed up the country and left them with a poor economy as they were saddled with thousands and thousands of dollars of student loans, a housing market that’s out of reach, and an environment where greedy corporations and banks are the winners keeping the little guys down. Essentially, it’s everyone else’s fault that they are where they are today.
That is a story of her generation.
But it is not the story. There are also plenty of millennials, and younger people, who chose not to go to fancy private universities and come out buried in college debt with a degree in gender studies, who are working at fairly decent jobs for their age, who went to outlet stores for clothes and drove older cars and lived with roommates for a period of time so that when they were older, they would have enough to own a home and a nice car and nice clothes.
Check out some of the reactions below:
Is "The Hill" now "The Onion"? https://t.co/4cPbLb8y2K
— N. Orange Co., CA (@monchie_rjg) August 2, 2022
Dear Lord in heaven, please deliver unto us a mighty meteor https://t.co/7J3Ot1jvJm
— Jon 🔬 (@JonnyMicro) August 2, 2022
Just stop. https://t.co/rqMo3Dtv1m
— Christopher Bouzy (spoutible.com/cbouzy) (@cbouzy) August 2, 2022
Alternative headline: “Democrats admit they have no shot in 2024” https://t.co/6stPf0q85I
— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) August 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/kayatweetsstuff/status/1554674344030257156
While Hopkins is right that Ocasio-Cortez “represents the possibilities and opportunities that make our country great,” she would shoot herself in the foot by constantly acting like a victim and someone who is beaten down rather than using her story to highlight the possibilities in America.
After praising the New York Congresswoman’s ability to “embarrass a bully like Donald Trump,” Hopkins writes, “There will be no going high when they go low anymore. It appears the only rule is there are no rules, and AOC is ready to enter the cage and fight for our democracy.”
Yes, because right now, that’s what we need in this country: even more full-grown, adult politicians who act like children in the midst of a level 10 break down in Walmart when they are told “no” running for president.
“There will never be another Barack Obama, but I have a feeling we’ll be saying the same about AOC. When opportunity meets preparation and history creates the moment, the cream of the crop always rises, leaving everyone else behind,” Hopkins concludes. “Democrats want a fighter, not a politician. They want someone who punches back and isn’t afraid to say what they mean.”
Again, Ocasio-Cortez’s rise from a bartender to Congress is an impressive story. And she does seem to genuinely want to help people and make the world better — even if her policies are wrong.
But her repeated decision to shun her success story by constantly turning herself into a victim and making mountains out of molehills about even the most insignificant slight, as well as her far-left policies, seem more like they would be poison for a presidential campaign than an accelerant.
