Progressive challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrartes with supporters at a victory party in the Bronx after upsetting incumbent Democratic Representative Joseph Crowly on June 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Scott Heins/Getty Images)
Few political machines are as well-oiled as New Yorkās Democratic Party, and it just lost to a movement. Journalists and party leaders, take note.
By Richard Eskow / 06.28.2018
āRED ALERT,ā read the New York Postās headline after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezās victory over high-ranking Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley. They competed in the Democratic primary for New Yorkās 14thĀ congressional district, which covers parts of Queens and The Bronx. The subhead read:
āYoung socialist upsets King of Queens, shocking Dem establishment.ā
Powerful Democrats were undoubtedly rocked by the unabashed left-populistās triumph over one of their own. But theirs was not the only āestablishmentā to be caught off-guard by the outcome. The mainstream political press had all but ignored Ocasio-Cortez and her groundbreaking campaign.
Still Dissing Sanders
That was no surprise to anyone who remembered the mainstream mediaās treatment of Bernie Sandersā 2016 presidential run ā which quickly cycled from under-coverage to dismissal, with barely a breath in between ā or the coverage of this yearās Democratic primaries, which have featured repeated dismissals and premature obituaries for the partyās left wing.
One of the districtās hometown papers, the New York Times, is a case in point. Less than a week before Ocasio-Cortezās primary, the paper ranĀ an article on Sanders and Our Revolution, the organization inspired by his 2016 campaign. The article acknowledged that Sandersā āpolicy agenda has caught on widely among Democratic candidates and succeeded in moving the party to the left,ā but said he āhas struggled so far to expand his political base and propel his personal allies to victory in Democratic primaries.ā
Nobodyās saying that now. But it was already a debatable view of the partyās left wing when that story went to press. Kara Eastman had already won an upset victory over establishment-backed Brad Ashford in Nebraskaās 2ndcongressional district. John Fetterman had already defeated an establishment-backed candidate, in the Pennsylvania primary for lieutenant governor, with Sandersā support.
Three insurgent candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) had won Pennsylvania State House primaries. Lee Sanders, a DSA-backed candidate who was inspired by Sanders to enter politics, had been elected Virginiaās House of Delegates late last year.
Nevertheless, the Times article said that Our Revolution āappears to be flailingā and āhas had only marginal success,ā because āfewer than 50 percent of the more than 80 candidates it has endorsed have won elections this year.ā
Whose Revolution?
Another, more accurate, way to describe Our Revolutionās record would have been to say that it had won nearly half its races, even though it often faced well-established political machines with greater financial and institutional resources.
That winning streak has just been extended. Ocasio-Cortez, who was endorsed by both DSA and Our Revolution, defeated the fourth most powerful Democrat in the House, despite being outspent 10 to 1.
After her victory, the Times ran aĀ profile of Ocasio-CortezĀ that appeared to tacitly acknowledge its own failure to cover her during the primary.
āBefore Tuesdayās victory catapulted her to the front of the political conversation,ā it read, āMs. Ocasio-Cortez seemed to find readier audiences with outlets such as Elite Daily, Mic or Refinery29 ā websites most often associated with millennial and female audiences ā than with national publications.ā
After aĀ social-media firestormĀ about that paragraphās implications ā millennials and women are both national phenomena, after all, and both populations are often treated dismissively by mainstream media ā the sentence was changed. It now refers to ātraditional publications.ā
Either way, the oversight was glaring ā especially since Ocasio-Cortez is a local candidate for the Times.
The Rising Left Electorate
Ocasio-Cortezās defeat of Crowley shows that the organizerās approach to electoral politics can work. While Crowley raked in money fromĀ deep corporate coffersĀ ā after years spent trimming his political opinions to optimize donor cash flow ā Ocasio-Cortez eschewed the party establishmentās model of raising money for costly media buys and expensive consultants. Instead, she relied on small-dollar donors and an activist-based, community-centered ground game that carried the day.
āWe beat a machine with a movement,ā she said.
That model is likely to send chills down the spines of the politicians, apparatchiks, and consultants who run the Democratic Party today. If it continues to be effective, it will render their roles obsolete, especially since most Democrats want to see the partyĀ replace its current leaders and move to the left.
If these Democrats wanted a glimpse of their partyās future, they would have read the Harvard-Harris poll referenced in the last paragraph, along withĀ another recent pollĀ showing that most millennials want government to play a strong role in the economy ā and most millennial Democrats have a favorable view of socialism. If they had, they might not have been as shocked by Crowleyās defeat.
Ocasio-Cortezās candidacy puts the lie to the party establishmentās claim that there is a conflict between class and identity politics. A millennial Latina woman, she campaigned on a working-class platform of social ā and socialist ā change. Her candidacy reflects, and embodies, the fact that the partyās ārising electorateā ā black, brown, female, and young ā isĀ more left-leaning than older and whiter Democrats. (Polls show that the āBernie Broā canard is, demographically as well as politically, a lie.)
These voters donāt want the corporate-friendly candidates that big money buys. Democrats should stop chasing paydays and start chasing people instead.
The Long Game
Ocasio-Cortezās win was not the Democratic leftās only June 24 victory. Ben Jealous, the former NAACP head who campaigned for Sanders in 2016, defeated the establishment-backed candidate and won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Maryland with the support ofĀ Progressive Maryland, a Peopleās Action affiliate, as well as Sanders and Our Revolution. University professor Dana Balter unseated the party establishmentās candidate in an upstate New York congressional primary.
Also noteworthy were the leftās near-wins. Popular movements rarely win decisively on the first go-round, especially when theyāre challenging a wealthy and well-entrenched establishment. I typically takes years to consolidate power and rack up decisive victories.
āThis isnāt a baseball game,ā Sanders said of his, and the populist leftās, fight against the establishment. But, even if it were, it would be too soon to declare a winner. We havenāt even reached the seventh-inning stretch.
How to Cover a Revolution
Media coverage of this yearās Democratic voting isĀ oftenĀ misguided, butĀ one paperās coverageĀ of the June 26 primary got it exactly right:
āā¦ Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was not the only liberal insurgent ā or the only young candidate of color ā to rattle the entrenched Democrats in the city. In Brooklyn, Adem Bunkeddeko nearly unseated Representative Yvette Clarke, a veteran incumbent from a local dynasty; he lost by barely 1,000 votes. And Representative Carolyn Maloney drew less than three-fifths of the vote against another first-time candidate, Suraj Patel.ā (emphases mine)
This paragraph demonstrates the right way to cover a growing insurgency. It notes that Bunkeddeko nearly won his race, and that a large chunk of Maloneyās constituents voted for her populist opponent. Thatās the trajectory new political movements often take at first: they begin with an upsurge in votes against powerful incumbents, before growing into winning majorities over time.
The paper that ran this thoughtful and well-balanced analysis? The New York Times.
The Machine Stops
The Times also reported recently that New Yorkās former Republican mayor, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, plans to spendĀ up to $80 millionĀ supporting Democrats in Congressional races this year. The article, written before the June 26 primary, says that Bloomberg āindicated to aides that he only wants to support candidates who share his relatively moderate political orientation, avoiding nominees hailing from the populist left.ā
The report says that Bloomberg āhas conferred regularly with Representative Joseph Crowley, of Queens, who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House.ā Not for long, he isnāt.
Establishment Democrats are addicted to big-donor money. Like any addiction, it feeds on itself, until the addict wrongly comes to believe that life would be impossible without it.
Bloombergās money can buy a lot of oil for the establishmentās machines. But few political machines are as well-oiled as New Yorkās Democratic Party, and it just lost to a movement. Journalists and party leaders, take note.
Originally published by Common Dreams under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.