Daily Kos: AOC Broke with Bernie because She can do Math
She was even more explicit in this NY Times interview a couple of weeks ago. “There’s so much emphasis on making outreach as conflict-based as possible,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “And sometimes I even feel miscast and understood. Because it’s about what tools you use, and conflict is one tool but not the only tool.”
…What is clear, however, is that AOC has decided to tack more practical. It’s actually the smart political play. It doesn’t mean she’s a sellout, which is what the usual suspects are calling her after reading that article, it just means that she has plans to rise up in the party. The sky is the limit, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that I see a President Ocasio-Cortez as a real possibility. But getting there means building bridges, because guess what—the Bernie left will never have power as long as it insists on black-and-white us-versus-them politics that limit them to a pathetic 30%. Ideologically, we’re a majority of our party, from things like Medicare for All, to war, to racial and gender justice, we’re the majority. And yet the Democratic electorate picked a nominee who is … problematic on all of that stuff. Why? Because Joe Biden spent a lifetime building bridges. All the political correctness in the world won’t get you elected if people think you’re an asshole.
So AOC basically decided to keep building the movement with honey rather than vinegar. If you care about progressive politics, that’s a good thing. What’s more important? That progressive ideas win, or that Bernie himself win? Any movement that rests on a single individual is not a movement at all, but a cult of personality. Yet too many people are overly invested in that cult of personality.