Jeg vil idag gjengi en antikkel av Chris Cillizza, CNN
If you got up to get a drink or go to the bathroom or sneezed or blinked, you might have missed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's role in the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.
The New York congresswoman, who is without a doubt the most popular figure among the party's liberal left, was relegated to a 90-ish second speech in which she put forward Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' name for the Democratic nomination. It was a purely symbolic effort, since everyone -- including AOC and Sanders -- knew that former Vice President Joe Biden had more than enough delegates to be the party's nominee. And while it wasn't a surprise (we knew days ago that Ocasio-Cortez was speaking for a very short amount of time) it was somewhat shocking to see just how shunted to the sidelines she was.
In her very brief time in office since she won a Democratic primary in 2018, Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most recognizable Democrats in the country. She has 8.3 million Twitter followers -- more than any other House member, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Ocasio-Cortez has 1.5 million followers on Facebook. (She said in 2019 that she had stopped personally posting on the site.) She has 6.1 million followers on Instagram. Hell, she's on "Animal Crossing!" She is beloved by liberals, loathed by conservatives and viewed very warily by the Democratic Party establishment in Washington. And it's that last group that, I think, made a very short-sighted calculation when they doled out speaking times -- and days -- and relegated one of the party's brightest stars to a decidedly un-glamorous time and job.
It's very clear to see what they were thinking, of course. Ocasio-Cortez is not only a major Republican lightning rod but also someone who hasn't been, uh, exactly supportive of Biden. She was a prominent supporter of Sanders. In April, she told The New York Times that she had never spoken to the former vice president and, while acknowledging he would be the nominee, said that "he didn't win because of policy -- I don't think he won because of his agenda, he won because of different factors." (Ocasio-Cortez also drew some attention for not mentioning Biden at all in her brief speech.) Why, given all of that, reward her with a prime speaking slot? So that she could run down the version of the Democratic Party that Biden not only represents but also helped build during his five decades in elected office? To hand President Donald Trump and his supporters a club to beat Biden over the head with?
On its face, that logic makes sense. Conventions have been -- since they began -- about rewarding your friends and punishing your political enemies. To the victors go the spoils, and all that. But even while I totally get why the Biden convention gave AOC's speech the treatment they did, I still think it was a major slip-up -- and a fundamental misunderstanding of where the power in the party is moving.
Ocasio-Cortez, whether you like her or not, is already a major power center with the Democratic Party. A 30-year-old Latina with an unapologetic liberal view of the world, she is the face of the emergent Democratic Party -- one that is less male, more diverse and less moderate than the one that Biden represents.
To effectively put her in the corner while handing over time to the likes of former Republican Colin Powell as well as Democratic elder statesmen like Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Chuck Schumer (all of whom had more speaking time than AOC on Tuesday) seems to be a major misread of where things stand among Democrats right now.
(Sidebar: Yes, I know Biden beat Sanders, the liberal champion, for the 2020 Democratic nomination. But Sanders is demographically similar to Biden, and a less effective and powerful messenger for liberal causes than Ocasio-Cortez.)
In treating Ocasio-Cortez shabbily, the Democratic establishment hasn't made her go away. Or reduced her power within the party. They just made her supporters angry. Maybe this is all water under the bridge in a week or a month. Ocasio-Cortez herself took the high road in a tweet after her speech, writing: "Congratulations, @JoeBiden
- I deeply look forward to fighting for our future together and reclaiming our democracy in November."
Look not only to her words, but also to her actions in the coming months or years to see how AOC really felt about all of this. She has repeatedly refused to rule out a 2022 primary challenge to Schumer, the current senate Minority Leader, and is also being actively discussed as a potential presidential candidate if Biden wins in 2020 but doesn't run for a second term in 2024.
It would have been smart of Democrats to play the long game, then, with Ocasio-Cortez at the party's convention this week. Since no matter what they do, she is very likely to be a major operator in future high-profile fights within the Party. Instead they played the very short game, denying her a platform that approximated the space she occupies in the party. They may come to rue that decision.