If Joe Biden wants party “unity” then he better come across with some serious concessions to the radical left. First-term lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks her rock star popularity with the younger progressive crowd gives her some weight to throw around inside the Democratic Party. If Quid Pro Joe wants her endorsement, he needs to ante up.
AOC demands concessions
When she stood in as his surrogate during the impeachment circus, AOC’s tried to hijack Bernie Sanders’ campaign. It was clearly an attempt to push him even further left than the card-carrying member of the Socialist Party already was. It backfired.
The voters clearly chose the moderate Biden but if he expects her to help him win, then there has to be some major far-left concessions. AOC argues that, “figuring out what” unity “looks like” is part of a larger conversation. One that includes “Bernie and Warren and other folks.”
New York’s ultra-progressive freshman lawmaker grudgingly agreed to stand behind Joe Biden but she’s clearly is not happy about it. “I’ve always said that I will support the Democratic nominee. But unity is a process,” AOC hedges. “It’s up to Biden how enthusiastic” her support will be, Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times.
Biden won’t talk to her anyway
She doesn’t have any immediate plans to join Biden for a unity rally, because so far, Biden’s team won’t talk to her. She hasn’t ruled one out though. “I have not talked to the vice president.” She told the Times that if a unity rally does happen, it will have to be on her terms, or forget it. She would rather see things to get “uncomfortable.”
“There’s this talk about unity as this kind of vague, kumbaya, kind of term. Unity and unifying isn’t a feeling, it’s a process,” AOC mused. “The whole process of coming together should be uncomfortable for everyone involved — that’s how you know it’s working.”
Biden, she insists, “is only doing things he’s comfortable with.” To her, that’s not nearly enough. She’s demanding that Biden make solid concessions to the progressive socialists in the party. Things like amnesty for illegals and “lowering the Medicare age” don’t go nearly far enough. “It’s “almost insulting” she complains. According to Ocasio-Cortez, Biden didn’t win “because of his agenda.” He won through sneaky back room deals. She may give lip service to supporting him but she’ll never respect him.
“I want to respect his win,” she insists. but he won “because of his coalition building,” not because Americans are afraid of “Medicare for All.” Instead of “throwing the progressive wing of the party a couple of bones,” Ocasio-Cortez says the conversation should be about “how we can win.”
She thinks that the coronavirus will turn Democrats into progressive zombies who will rise up to defeat President Donald Trump. “In this moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if what we’re seeing with coronavirus didn’t further change people’s views in further support of a progressive agenda.”