Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) (AOC) has hit the 2020 campaign trail with Bernie Sanders. The freshman congresswoman from New York has frequently been seen with the octogenarian from Vermont since she endorsed him a few weeks ago. Comments on their myriad of social media posts are replete with calls from the Right for her to be voted out, and that people can’t wait for AOC to no longer be a part of public life. Everyone should buckle their seatbelts, though, because AOC will be with us for the rest of her life.
AOC represents a D+29 district located in the Bronx and Queens; the district has been a Democrat stronghold for nearly a century. AOC was the first truly successful story of the Justice Democrats&#8217; plan to shift the Democrats leftward: Primary an entrenched, moderate Democrat in a deep blue district and bank on low turnout. This worked once in her favor, but it&#8217;s highly doubtful that the same trick can be used against her.
Currently, AOC has two challengers in her congressional district&#8217;s Democratic Party primary in June, both on her political right. Considering that the latest Democratic primary election in the area, the Queens district attorney race, almost yielded a 27-year-old socialist with no prosecutorial experience (losing by only a few dozen votes), AOC&#8217;s district is not very interested in moving back towards the Democratic center. At least not without significant contributions of both time and money from the New York political machine.
That political machine, though, is fully invested in AOC, as they know she is the future of the Democratic Party (as stated by none other than Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez himself). She has already raised $3.3 million for her re-election campaign. To steal the seat from Democratic veteran Joe Crowley, she only needed $2 million. If internal polling shows that she has any trouble from the Democrats, she is poised with enough cash to handily win that primary.
As of the general election, historically that district has zero interest in voting Republican. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-a-glass-of-water-with-d-next-to-it-would-win-ocasio-cortezs-district">Nancy Pelosi herself said</a> that a “glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name” in that district. At the same time, Republicans are definitely more interested now than they were before.
In 2018, AOC’s Republican challenger raised a little over $8,000, which yielded him 13.6% of the vote. This time around, there is a much more contentious primary, with five confirmed candidates already from very diverse backgrounds. Compared to 2018, those candidates have raised some impressive numbers so far, around $950,000 collectively. But raising a third of what AOC has raised and overcoming such a huge point gap may be one miracle too many.
There’s no shot that AOC decides to resign at some point to pursue another career. Historically, Democrats leave office when they retire or are kicked out. Of the longest-serving members of Congress of all-time, the top 10 are all Democrats. For all the talk of the new freshman Democrats, if you break down the House of Representatives by longevity, the average Democrat has been in office at least one term longer than has the average Republican. If you remove those sworn in in 2019, Democrats have been around two terms longer, by average. Of the 28 members of the House who announced they are not seeking re-election, 20 are Republicans and only eight are Democrats.
AOC clearly looks at Bernie Sanders as a role model for her own political aspirations. From her perspective, why shouldn’t she? He has made a very successful living being the village kook, and is now a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president. The path to getting rich and popular while accomplishing nothing is easier in politics than in any other profession. He’s been living on the public dime for 38 years, and only won his first election when he was 40. AOC has an 11-year head start on her mentor, so she can easily be in office for five or six decades, possibly with a future in the Senate or in a Cabinet position.
There are two avenues that the Right can take with a character like AOC. The first, and probably the easiest, is to accept the fact that AOC will be in politics. This route means that the Right will have a foil to argue against — someone so radical and so powerful that her mere presence in the opposition will drive voters to the polls, just to vote against her. The second, more difficult path, is probably the one that Republicans need to take to ensure political future throughout the country. That is to appeal to the innate conservatism of those who reside in urban areas.
Demographically, AOC’s district is 49.80% Hispanic, 18.41% white, 16.24% Asian, and 11.39% black. This is a prime testing ground for spreading conservative messaging throughout urban areas across the country. Family, law and order, education, religion, and prosperity are strong messages. This route will take a generation, at least, to take hold, but this is where Republicans can take a page out of the Justice Democrats&#8217; playbook. There are almost 350,000 registered voters in that district. Roughly a third actually come out to vote. Chipping away at socialist support and driving out the vote are the way forward for this, and many more, urban areas. While this may not drive her out of office, it will send a strong message in the surrounding areas and throughout the country that there are no districts that Republicans are conceding.
There is a lot of noise coming from the 2020 Republican primary candidates in AOC&#8217;s district. While this will be a tough road for the eventual nominee, the fight is worth having. Most likely, however, AOC will be in the public sphere for a long time to come. The only difference will be that, in the future, she may be the “moderate” of the Democratic Party.
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AOC in Iowa

HILL: The Only Way To Keep AOC Off The Public Dole Forever

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Leftism

Progressivism

As we celebrate the independence for our great nation, founded in the everlasting principles of freedom, unity and trust in G-d, the Democratic National Committee put out a statement that spells only doom and gloom for the country. The statement was crafted by DNC Chair Tom Perez. Perez&#8217;s statements are in bold:
Nearly two and a half centuries ago, a band of patriots gathered in Philadelphia to declare that &#8220;all men are created equal.&#8221;
Perez&#8217;s first obfuscation comes in his first sentence. The Founding Fathers didn&#8217;t only declare that &#8220;all men are created equal.&#8221; They said, &#8220;We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.&#8221; The omission of the fact that these truths are self-evident reveals the ideology that the Democrats have, which is that your rights and your freedoms were given to you by government. This directly contradicts Founding principles. Rights and Freedoms are given by G-d, and the only thing government can do is take them away. This explains why the Democrats are embracing socialist ideology, which thinks that free college, free health care, free housing are all rights. They think that since government gave free speech, free religion, ability to defend yourself, etc. . . . , government can give anything. This is simply not true.
Our nation has changed dramatically since those words were first written on parchment. Generations of brave Americans &#8212; from servicemembers to civil rights activists &#8212; have fought to expand the promise of equality for more Americans and move our country forward in its march toward a more perfect union.
The word &#8220;expand&#8221; implies that the Founding Fathers had no intention of providing freedom and equality for all, rather they were only referring to a certain group. You must be a historical ignoramus to believe this. While the issue of slavery was still prevalent at the time of the signing, and women were denied voting rights (both showing that government can only remove rights, not give them), these were hard-fought issues in the 18th century that an intellectually honest person can only look at through their lens. There were many Founders who knew that the creed of the country was not fully realized at the time of the founding of the country, and foresaw a time where these ideals would be realized. The implementation of that ideology has not always been perfect, but the promise of equality has been there since the beginning.
The phrase &#8220;march toward a more perfect union&#8221; is also incredibly disingenuous. In the preamble to the Constitution, it says &#8220;We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union &#8230;&#8221; The more perfect Union was formed in 1789, when the Constitution was ratified. The Democrats are marching toward a different Union, one that does not adhere to the founding principles that we celebrate.
As we celebrate our nation&#8217;s independence, we recognize that America&#8217;s founding promise remains out of reach for too many families.
Here comes the doom and gloom. America&#8217;s founding promise was, according to this article, the one that &#8220;all men are created equal.&#8221; While over the centuries we have pushed to realize this truth, we have not always been perfect. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve had the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th amendments. As you will see, Perez will do nothing to elaborate actual ways that government is denying equal rights to citizens.
Too many members of our society are still struggling to find a good-paying job or get the health care they need.
The DNC isn&#8217;t stupid enough to complain about jobs and insurance, with the Trump economy doing so well and Obamacare going down in flames, so they moved the goal posts. Now it&#8217;s a &#8220;good-paying job.&#8221; They need to divide the country. They need to make people angry. &#8220;Sure, under the Obama administration you didn&#8217;t have a job, but now you should be getting paid MORE! Forget about the fact that their policy prescription of raising the minimum wage is causing unemployment around the country. Forget about the fact that there are more available jobs in the country than people available to fill them. Forget about the lowest unemployment for Black Americans ever recorded. You are still struggling, vote for us.&#8221; That is their pitch.
Now it&#8217;s &#8220;get[ting] the health care they need.&#8221; It&#8217;s not coverage anymore. During the Obama administration, it was all about coverage. As long as your name has a check mark next to it on a big list that says &#8220;Insured,&#8221; mission was accomplished. Except the jury came back, and the coverage is terrible. Premiums are skyrocketing and you can&#8217;t keep your doctor. So the DNC is moving the goal posts so the American people forget the mess they made.
Too many women, LGBTQ Americans, people of color, and people with disabilities still face inequality and injustice across our society. 
You can practically hear Oprah calling out to each identity group that Perez mentions. &#8220;You&#8217;re a victim, and you&#8217;re a victim. Everyone is a victim!&#8221; Democrats can&#8217;t win on policy, they can&#8217;t win on ideology. So they divide Americans by identity and call them victims. Please, Tom, elaborate on the empirical evidence that this is true. Anecdotal cases don&#8217;t work on people who think long enough to know you&#8217;re lying to them.
Everywhere we look, our most fundamental values are under attack.
&#8220;We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America&#8221; &#8212; Barack Obama, 2008.
That was an attack on our values. What Perez doesn&#8217;t like is basic Republican governance.
Thousands of children have been separated from their parents at our southern border.
Really? What happened? Did they violate federal law by entering the country illegally and had to go to a detention center? Did the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals rule in 2016 that children couldn&#8217;t stay in a detention center because it was too inhumane? Did the Republican Congress try to sit down with the Democrats to fix it? Did the Democrat Minority Leader Chuck Schumer refuse to deal with Republicans, telling President Trump that he can just fix it with a pen? Did he do this before or after he accused Trump of being too authoritarian? Perez isn&#8217;t crying for the separated children, he is campaigning for open borders.
At our highest court, workers&#8217; rights are being taken away &#8230;
Lie. Supreme Court ruled that NON-MEMBERS of a union were not forced to pay dues. Seems like a pretty basic freedom.
&#8230; voting rights are under assault &#8230;
Lie. Allowing states to purge their rolls and have people register to vote is not an &#8220;assault.&#8221; It&#8217;s a basic right for states to handle their own records in a responsible manner. Or maybe people got sick of their dead grandparents voting for Democrats.
&#8230; Muslim Americans are being discriminated against for their faith &#8230;
Lie. The travel ban is based on country, not faith, as over 90% of the world&#8217;s Muslim population is not affected by the ban. Also, the State Department said that it does not affect American citizens.
&#8230; and women&#8217;s right to choose is under threat like never before.
Lie. Even if Roe is overturned, which is a leftist scare tactic, the issue would be kicked down to the states. Additionally, it is always amusing to see that the Democrats think that the only thing women care to choose is the ability to kill their unborn child. How about the right to choose which school their kids go to, or how they want to defend themselves, or any number of the dozens of choices that women need to make every day that are not defined by their uterus? Women care about more than abortion, and it&#8217;s time for the Democrats to learn that.
The Democratic Party believes that all people are created equal &#8212; no matter who they are, where they come from, who they love, or how they pray.
How about how they vote? Maxine Waters wants to harass any member of the Trump administration for having the temerity of going shopping or getting gas. We all remember Hillary&#8217;s &#8220;deplorable&#8221; line. Under normal circumstances, this may have been a unifying sentence, except it came after dividing up the country by race, sex, and sexual orientation first.
As we celebrate our nation&#8217;s independence, Democrats reaffirm our commitment to fighting for the values of inclusion and opportunity for everyone.
Perez started this by misquoting the Declaration of Independence, so I guess it&#8217;s fitting that he ends it by ignoring the values that the Declaration talks about. You can&#8217;t be &#8220;inclusive&#8221; without excluding those who disagree with your methods. You can&#8217;t provide &#8220;opportunity for everyone&#8221; without taking something from someone. What you can do is get out of the way, and allow the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence to light the path:
&#8220;We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.&#8221;
Moshe Hill is on Twitter at @TheMoHill

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HILL: The Only Way To Keep AOC Off The Public Dole Forever

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