How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Became a Lightning Rod

Time: “The woman everyone calls AOC is as much a villain to the right as she is a hero to the left… Many House Democrats resent her celebrity and worry it overshadows efforts to reach the moderate voters who propelled the party to the majority. Privately, some admit they’re also a little afraid of her.”

“That’s because Ocasio-Cortez threatens the status quo, bringing a youthful impatience to a set of policies popularized by Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, like Medicare for All and tuition-free public college…. She’s not thinking about how to keep the Democratic majority for another two years; she’s thinking about how to define the agenda for the next two decades.”

“But this is the paradox facing the Democrats: Ocasio-Cortez represents a merging of movement and electoral politics that hasn’t permeated the rest of the Party, let alone the rest of the country. The ideas generating the most enthusiasm among the party’s very loud, very online left flank don’t necessarily win elections…. So evaluating Ocasio-Cortez’s success depends on the time frame in which she is judged. Will she help deliver Medicare for All and a Green New Deal in the next two years? No. But having the debate is already making a difference in how D.C. does business.”