I like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If I had any money, I would donate to her campaign. But she is not, as Jacob Silverman claims, "an inflection point in Democratic politics."
She probably won't be elected, and if elected probably won't serve more than a term or two, but if she survives, she'll be corrupted by power. Everyone becomes corrupted, no matter how idealistic they start out.
I don't mean corruption in the legal sense; I'm not saying she'll eventually take bribes or something like that. But the Democratic party and the House of Representatives are institutions, and every institution exerts a powerful moral force on its members, and expel those who fundamentally resist its moral core. And the moral core of the HoR and Democratic party is to preserve corporate capitalism at any cost.
If elected, her choice will become plain: appease the corporations and retire to a cushy job on a few boards of directors or as a lobbyist, or oppose them, be buried, and go back to waiting tables for subsistence wages. Courage doesn't enter into it: it's not "courageous" in any sense, it's just pointless stupidity, to sacrifice oneself for no gain. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is not going to drag the Democratic party one inch towards even New Deal social democracy, much less a socialist utopia.
I kinda hope she does sell out. She's not going to change anything, so she might as well cash in. Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery a lot more comfortable.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
4 comments:
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and I are around the same age. Both of us came into adulthood during the Great Recession. Both of us suffered thru not only the recession, but all the articles in all the rotten papers cruelly kicking people like us while we were down, labeling our entire generation "lazy" when the reality was we were working twice as hard to get half as far (if that). She is not going to sell out. She is proposing a job guarantee, which is a right to a job. Which means no more unemployment and no more rotten papers kicking the unemployed when they are down. She is going to get elected, and she is not going to be the only one. There will be more of her down the line.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope you're correct, Dustin.
ReplyDeleteDustin's statements sound exactly like the Bolshevik revolution which ushered in Communism to the USSR: everyone promised a job, a place to live, etc. etc. all paid for by the government; take a look at the history of countries that practice communism: it is not a pretty story
ReplyDeleteUnknown: you clearly know nothing about communism, Bolshevism, this blog, or much of anything else. If you have something of substance to contribute, do so. Otherwise, your comment is entirely unhelpful.
ReplyDelete