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.
What did he “promise the left”? As far as I recall, he promised that “nothing would fundamentally change”. No?
And still, he managed to govern to the left of basically every other President in the last 40 years. That’s still not even close to where we should be…but it’s still better than what Obama did. And it was a total 180 from Clinton.
I’m not a fan of Biden. But, his domestic policy was at least not moving things farther right. His foreign policy however, was absolute shit. Only Trump could have made things worse…and he has. A lot.
Raising the minimum wage. Family leave. Childcare. Revisiting the public option. Rescheduling cannabis at the federal level.
Oh, man. So, you’re one of those people who just doesn’t understand how laws get passed?
Biden can promise all kinds of stuff with the full intention of getting it all done…but the president themselves, has very little authority to actually do any of it, without Congress. That doesn’t mean he lied to you. It just means that not all of it made it through Congress.
That’s why you have to use some critical thinking when you listen to what any presidential candidate is saying. These “promises” all demonstrate the direction a president wants to take things…but in the end, it is always up to Congress to get it done. Anyone who genuinely thinks the president has the authority to just “do stuff”, doesn’t understand basic civics.
Funny how he didn’t need congress when he wanted to sell weapons for genocide.
He didn’t need congress to reschedule cannabis. He just chose not to. He didn’t even pursue revisiting the public option. Didn’t even mention it while in office.
Oh man. You just buy every excuse as long as you get what you want. Which is genocide and nothing the fuck else.
It’s neat how conveniently selective his power to just do stuff also lines up with the only things centrists want: blocking progressive legislation and selling weapons for genocide.