In late June, with Rep. Jamaal Bowman fighting for his political life, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders headlined a rally in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, in an unsuccessful effort to save his campaign. This was nothing out of the ordinary for the two socialist progressives. They look out for their own.
Bowman had gotten in trouble in his racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse New York district by taking a hard line on Israel’s war in Gaza in response to pro-Palestinian activist requests/demands. But when the time came to have his back in return, those activists didn’t just fail to show up, they actively harmed his campaign, protesting AOC’s effort to save his electoral career.
Instead of rethinking their approach in the wake of Bowman’s defeat, the Democratic Socialists of America—the very same group that helped AOC shock the world by bumping off entrenched incumbent Joe Crowley—has officially disowned her.
DSA’s efforts on behalf of AOC are the stuff of political legend, recruiting a taqueria bartender at Flats Fix in New York City’s Union Square, to primary a top-ranking Democratic member in the House, and then propelling her to victory. She was outspent by Crowley 10-1! There’s a whole Netflix documentary on her unlikely campaign victory.
DSA was appropriately pleased with the results, headlining their post-election statement, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, The Political Revolution Continues!” A 2021 article on the DSA site called her, “DSA’s foremost socialist superstar.”
AOC is, indeed, a rare political prodigy, and one with a high ceiling. And DSA doesn’t have a lot of other success to their name. As of now, there are only five DSA members in the House. But Bowman has been defeated, and odds are even that Rep. Cori Bush will lose her August 6 primary. Rep. Summer Lee of Pittsburgh, another party rising star, has already left the organization. It would behoove the organization to rally around its biggest success.
While the local DSA chapter has endorsed AOC, the national DSA did the exact opposite, essentially excommunicating her from the organization last week.
“We recognize that AOC has taken many courageous positions on Palestine such as co-sponsoring several House Resolutions (3103, 786, 496), naming Israel’s genocide as well as opposing House Resolution 894,” read their statement. “However, members have raised their concerns regarding a number of her votes, including a vote in favor of H.Res.888, conflating opposition to Israel’s ‘right to exist’ with antisemitism. AOC also co-signed a press release on April 20, 2024, that ‘support[s] strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems.’”
However you might feel about the war in Gaza, it wasn’t enough for AOC to call it a “genocide” and otherwise voice support for the Palestinian cause. She rightfully defended Israel’s right to exist and for its civilians to be protected from Hamas and Hezbollah rockets, and that was enough to bring down DSA’s ban hammer.
I’ve proposed a common-sensical two-part test for waging effective politics:
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If you have public support, do politics.
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If you don’t have public support, persuade.
Helping AOC get elected was a stunning example of the first prong, and one that DSA could’ve used to build on their successes, expanding their movement by building an inclusive, expansive organization. I’m not a socialist, but what DSA was building was exciting and well within the parameters of a robust and effective American left. It was helping move discourse leftward of its current right-of-center frame (also known as “moving the Overton window”).
But somehow, between 2018 and last week, DSA lost the plot.The publication City and State New York wrote about the rift at national headquarters. “But some within the organization’s national leadership were reluctant to re-endorse the progressive member of Congress,” they reported. “In May, DSA’s ‘Red Star’ caucus, which describes itself as a ‘revolutionary Marxist caucus within the DSA,’ published a post titled, ‘Endorsing AOC is a Bridge to Nowhere.’ That post accused Ocasio-Cortez of abandoning DSA and faulted her for encouraging DSA members to support President Joe Biden’s reelection, despite Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.”
So the national DSA is essentially governed by “revolutionary Marxists”? Oh well. It was nice knowing them. (Seriously, read that story. It’s a fascinating real-time example of how movements can self-destruct from the inside.)
As AOC continues her inevitable rise, the DSA’s overly restrictive purity test from the literal political fringe has lost them a powerful ally and advocate, and serves only to relegate them to irrelevancy.
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