Democrats Blow It in Passing Over AOC for Powerful Role

This will be hard because it involves some unapologetic criticism of Nancy Pelosi, a woman who has essentially dedicated her life to moving the Democratic party forward, with some success, in passing a lot of progressive legislation that helped working-class and poor people. And To. Be. Sure. – Pelosi alone doesn’t bear the blame for where we stand. But a campaign to install Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“AOC”) as Minority Leader of the powerful House Oversight Committee failed this week due to Nancy Pelosi using her remaining political capitol to install moderate Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) to the position. Pelosi believes Connolly, as a moderate, is best suited to represent the Democratic party going forward and broaden its appeal to voters generally. Normally I would agree, or – at least, I’d admit that Pelosi would know better than me and defer. Normally.

I do know this. I know that I have watched video of AOC being the single most prepared member of that committee such that she made better use of her five minutes than I’ve seen in a long time. I also know that when she did so, she wasn’t some fire-flinging crazed liberal so much as a prepared, principled, citizen – concerned about the future. Below, I found just one example in which AOC looked more than just very prepared, but someone who brought the exact “Yes or No” questions that even Republicans would likely support. Indeed, one can see that Mark Zuckerberg was uncomfortable:

And the above video wasn’t even the one I was looking for in trying to find an example of various hearings where AOC came with documented proof at her side and began asking yes or no questions. Again, these are hearings in which her political philosophy – as a strong progressive, is moved aside, nearly irrelevant to someone who is simply very prepared and wants very important questions answered with a “yes” or “no” in hearings – the type of hearing in which most representatives spend the entire time talking.

On simple merit it would seem that AOC should have been considered apart from possible concerns about her being a progressive and not listed as a moderate. Even the committee vote was very close:

House Democratic steering vote margins:

Agriculture
Craig – 34
Costa – 22
Scott – 5https://t.co/NtrTiBCnb3

Natural Resources
Huffman – 44
Stansbury – 17https://t.co/6v5YxtzXMw

Oversight
Connolly – 34
Ocasio-Cortez – 27https://t.co/WYhWqcwo2d

Caucus votes tmrw

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) December 16, 2024

This should be considered with the following statement as framed by Mediaite: 

Pelosi is using her remaining political capital to try and reposition the Democratic Party to what she sees as a winning posture for future elections and clearly has no faith in progressive stalwart Ocasio-Cortez to broaden the party’s appeal.

“Reposition the Democratic party” such that it is stronger and broadens their appeal. That sounds very sensible. And normally I would completely defer to Pelosi’s assessment. Except at this point, someone has to acknowledge that no one is winning anything nowadays by being more moderate across the middle in an attempt to broaden a party’s appeal. During the run up to Republican primaries, we saw over and over again polls demonstrating that the majority of Republicans favored someone “other than” Donald Trump, in some combination of support for DeSantis, Haley, or even Ramaswamy. In ever the Iowa 2024 Iowa caucus, almost half of Iowa’s Republicans voted for someone besides Trump. And yet Trump won – the GOP didn’t move to broaden its appeal, it went with its own hardliner and won.

I have said that I think the Democrats have blown it by focusing too much on identity politics and I actually believe that more so than ever. I think the focus should be on pounding economic relief and opportunity for everyone – and that means helping a lot of conservative, white, working-class poor too, not just the people we normally support. I think the focus should be on promoting union rights, workers rights, increasing wages, increasing subsidies not to the rich but poor, universal pre-Kindergarten, all of it – and do it as radical progressives fighting the establishment. Do not apologize. If you don’t get economic freedom and relief for the working poor passed, nothing else matters.

This seems to be a time in which the best way forward is to throw away what used to be conventional wisdom about democratic “tents” and broadening a base of ideas. Bernie Sanders is so far left that he can’t even call himself a Democrat (He runs as an Independent and calls himself a “Social Democrat”) and yet Bernie Sanders had and has far more appeal among some Trump supporters. “Bernie bros” like Joe Rogan supported Sanders in 2020 while supporting Trump this year. I am not sure that moving to “moderation” wins a damn thing anymore. People saw the “third-way” from 1990 until 2020 – and the only thing that happened is that the middle class fell further behind than ever.

I think what wins is a move to what you unapologetically believe and a refusal to bow to entrenched interests, a willingness to push back at the perceived establishment. I think it is also critical that Democrats – who have clearly lost this four to twelve year window, must now move toward appeal to the next generation. Forget Baby Boomers (Sorry), and even begin to forget us in Gen-X, it is time to allow the Millenials and Gen-Z take over because, well – whatever we handed them is clearly destroyed. We see a stacked SCOTUS, and the other branches of government all in one party’s hands. Whatever else we can argue, after all hope and change, after build back better, after all of it, here we are, awaiting Project 2025, martial law, retribution, the destruction of the FBI-DOJ, using the military to put undocumented immigrants in camps (And wait until you see the economic devastation to all – including Trump’s most fevered supporters – of such a movement, our country’s economy will grind to a halt) causing even more unrest, all of it. That’s where we stand and that’s what we’ve handed every Millenial and Gen-Z voter, conservative to liberal – I am not sure a bet on a moderate so as to “broaden the party’s appeal” is what we’re after.

I think it is best to look at what is happening across the landscape and go with someone who is A) Highly, impressively, astoundingly, effective and prepared as a talented and young politician, someone who would – by all accounts – prepare the committee with just as much commitment and “can do” spirit, along with B) Someone who is anti-establishment, young, and believes what she believes and really doesn’t care what you think about it. Believe it or not, people on the Right are far more disposed to listen to AOC and her case for economic relief to the working class than they are to Nancy Pelosi.

From everything I see, there is no benefit to be had by yearning for a moderate middle that no longer exists. We are now entrenched in identity politics such that we “identify” with a “tribe” more than beliefs, you don’t necessarily know what your tribe believes but you definitely know your tribe – and so it’s best to put someone in place who will be extremely effective in preparation, is someone who is young enough to be visible and in tune with the majority of other young politicians and influencers, and someone who believes what she believes such that she won’t be seen as working for the establishment or moderate middle. That person is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Amazing that I wholly disagree with Nancy Pelosi. This was a good shot that I believe was missed because once again the Democrats run to perceived safety while ignoring reality and using a two-decade old playbook that was irrelevant in 2016, and only more so now.

To the extent it matters, I also know that there are other major factors that went into where we stand now. I just know that while Pelosi is to be lauded for all she did in her career, given the last six years and where the country stands now? I am not sure she is best-positioned to advise going forward. Missed opportunity IMO.

God Bless:  I can be reached at [email protected] and on “X” at @JasonMiciak and now follow along on Bluesky 

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