Democrats Are Looking For a New Face. Is It AOC? – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sat down with me in a debugged prison cell to assert on deep background that she has no aspirations for a prominent leadership role in the Democrat Party, I wouldn’t believe her.

She’s been spending the last several years developing the kind of smooth, self-assured persona that Democrats — at least since the Obama era — seem convinced wins them elections and garners the support of Americans. (Of course, she’s not the only one; Gavin Newsom has that affected personality down pat.) Now, in the post-Trump conflagration of the Democrat Party, it all finally seems to be paying off. 

CNN published a poll Sunday revealing that, out of 1,206 Americans contacted by phone, 10 percent of them thought AOC “best reflects the core values of the Democratic Party.” That may not sound like a large percentage, but she led the rankings, coming out ahead of Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Hakeem Jeffries, Barack Obama, and Gavin Newsom. (READ MORE: The Democratic Party Is Collapsing)

To anyone who keeps a close eye on politics, that probably comes as something of a surprise. After all, AOC has publicly been at loggerheads with Democratic leadership. Even as recently as a year ago, she praised the “young people” at Yale and Columbia universities who engaged in violent antisemitic pro-Palestinian protests, even though party leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton denounced the same protests in no uncertain terms. 

“I have a weird relationship with the Democratic Party. I don’t believe in a two-party system, but I also understand the Democratic Party is a coalition and if we want the party to change, the balance of the coalition has to change,” she told Latino USA during a recent podcast. “But right now, you open the hood on the Democratic Party, what you have is, I think, a bit of a power struggle over the last couple of years.”

Power struggle. That’s one way to put it. At this point, that power struggle has resulted in a destructive conflagration in the Democratic Party. In the words of Abraham Lincoln (who stole it from the Bible), “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The Democrat Party is — as the last several months have amply demonstrated — no exception.

The thing about these kinds of seismic political shifts that take down parties is that when the flames finally settle down, there are usually new leaders with new ideas. AOC is angling to be one of those leaders. 

That CNN poll tells us two important things about the direction of the Democratic Party. The first is that the country views the party as entirely progressive — the kind of progressive that equates to implementing green taxes that destroy American businesses and using the government to fund transgender education for preschoolers. To put it more simply, the country looks at the contingent of the party that leans the furthest left and ascribes those beliefs to the whole party. 

Given the results of the latest election, that’s a good thing for Republicans. That same CNN poll found that just 29 percent of Americans view the Democrat Party favorably, compared to the 54 percent who view it unfavorably. Even when the prices of imported goods go up and eggs can’t be found on grocery store shelves, Americans may just hold on to the idea that it’s better to have a government that embraces common sense rather than one that seeks to indoctrinate their children in ideologies that destroy both the individual and society. 

The second takeaway is that Democrats have apparently not learned their lesson. Again, the CNN poll found that 57 percent of Democrats or Democrat-leaning independents thought that the role of their elected officials in Congress was to “[w]ork to stop the Republican agenda.” (Evidently, the fact that the majority of voters voted for the Republican agenda isn’t enough to let them have it.) 

If you, as a Democrat, are looking around for a leader who is good at opposing the Republican Party and Donald Trump, AOC isn’t a bad candidate. The Washington Post, for one, certainly seems inclined to consider her; its pages recently called her “anti-Trump fervor” “passionate and creative,” and listed her among the Democrats leading the way in resisting Trump’s second-term agenda. (READ MORE: The Ocasio Convention)

We’re still in the early days of the post-Trump conflagration sweeping through the Democrat Party, and it’s difficult to tell who will come out on top when all is said and done. A party run by AOC is unlikely to ever garner widespread support from Americans (she is a member of Democratic Socialists of America, which advocates for an end to capitalism and private property), and she and any of her colleagues with an ounce of political smarts know that. What remains to be seen is whether the temptation to find a leader who will simply oppose Trump and the Republican agenda will be too strong. 

Of course, if AOC becomes the new face of the Democrat Party, that might just be the best news of the century for Republicans. 

READ MORE: Why Conservatives Need a Long-Range Vision