AOC’s Right. The Democratic Party is Not a ‘Left Party’.
By: Lauren Elizabeth
Tags: Government, Democrats, Democratic Party, Politics, Leadership

AOC’s Right. The Democratic Party is Not a ‘Left Party’.

Her statements were seen as controversial, but they reign true.

Photo via AOC on Instagram

Regardless of how you feel about her ideas, there is no denying that freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is emerging as a powerful force in the halls of the United States Capital building. Inspired by Bernie Sanders and his presidential run back in 2016, AOC gained nation-wide attention after her entirely grassroots funded campaign defeated Joseph Crowley, one of the most powerful incumbent democrats in the House. Since then, AOC has not shied away from critiques of the special interests operating within the Democratic Party, and calling in to question the true “motives” of her colleagues who bend to their will.

Earlier this month, AOC once again made statements that generated ardent pushback from the conservative members of her party. In the midst of an audience-viewed discussion, she said:

“We don’t have a left party in the United States. The Democratic Party is not a left party. The Democratic Party is a center, or a center-conservative party. We do not advocate for…we do not…we can’t even get a floor vote on Medicare for All. Not even a floor vote that gets voted down. We can’t even get a vote on it. So this is not a left party. There are left members inside the Democratic Party that are working to try to make that shift happen…there are a lot of true believers that we can capitalism our way out of poverty in the Democratic Party. If anything, that’s probably the majority…that assessment is flawed.”

As can often be the case, the truth in this instance certainly hurts for those who don’t want to believe it.

The argument that the Democratic Party isn’t a left party is only controversial to those operating within its structure who have simply decided this is just the way it is. In reality, there is no denying that the money that has corrupted nearly every aspect of our government, and intentionally prevents the Democratic Party from actually functioning as a political organization truly representative of the left.

The party that was once the party of FDR, the new Deal, social security and Medicare, evolved over the decades in to a party that has chased after the Republican Party in pursuit of money that will get legislators re-elected. How can we honestly call a party that has been so heavily influenced by money taken from health insurance and pharmaceutical companies that they won’t even hold a floor vote on Medicare for All a “left” Party?

Sure, they aren’t as far to the right as Republicans. But that is about all that most of the Democratic Party is willing to offer. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have even shown us we can’t trust them to protect social security. If Democrats were actually representative of the left, “vote blue no matter who” would not even be a slogan, considering we wouldn’t have to remind ourselves that a weak center-conservative Democrat is better than the Republican alternative.

That being said, as AOC pointed out that does not mean that there are leftist members of the Democratic Party, putting in real work to make it a party more representative of leftist values. But if we can’t even get a floor vote in the House on Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, or a majority of the members to acknowledge that capitalism might be the problem as opposed to the solution, can we really call it a leftist party overall?