The evolution of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a political force in American politics is fully apparent from just two speeches. The first was delivered at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, two years after the insurgent progressive from New York was elected to Congress. In it, Ocasio-Cortez declared her “fidelity and gratitude to a mass people’s movement working to establish 21st-century social, economic, and human rights” and pledged to “recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny, and homophobia, and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past.” The brief speech was essentially a laundry list of leftist principles that would appeal largely to her own supporters rather than to everyday voters—narrowcasting rather than broadcasting.
Ocasio-Cortez’s performance last night at this year’s DNC could not have been more different. Connecting her personal biography to populist policies, the 34-year-old congresswoman electrified the crowd of Democratic Party faithful and left them thunderously chanting her name. Gone was the jargon of elite progressive circles, replaced by accessible and memorable one-liners about herself and Kamala Harris. “I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed trampling on our way of life,” she said. “Ever since I got elected, Republicans have attacked me by saying that I should go back to bartending. But let me tell you, I’m happy to—any day of the week—because there is nothing wrong with working for a living.”
[Read: The exception to the rulers]
There are some prosaic reasons for the stark contrast between these two speeches. The first was given without a live audience during the coronavirus pandemic, at a convention where Ocasio-Cortez had been tapped by the Joe Biden campaign to unite the left behind him, not to unite the Democratic Party itself. But there is also a more significant reason the AOC of 2024 has diverged from the AOC of 2020: She now has her sights set on shaping the future of the Democratic Party for years to come.
The paradox of Ocasio-Cortez is that she contains two personas that sometimes seem at odds with each other. There is the bartender from the Bronx—an everywoman who took on the political machine and won—and there is the Boston University–educated activist who speaks in the language of a graduate-student seminar. The conflict between these characters exists more in style than in substance. But in politics, the way you speak reflects whom you aspire to reach. And in recent years, Ocasio-Cortez has elevated her aspirations, seeking to speak not just for a leftist movement but also for an entire party.
Once an outsider staging sit-ins in Nancy Pelosi’s office, she is now an insider invited onstage during prime time at the DNC. Ocasio-Cortez accomplished this not by abandoning her progressive principles, but by playing politics to advance them—accepting a seat at the table and making her case there. Formerly a factional leader against the Democratic establishment, she has positioned herself as a bridge between the party’s mainstream and progressive wings. And unlike less successful members of “the Squad,” she has transformed herself into a power broker rather than marginalized herself as a perpetual protester. Her political choices, like her rhetorical choices last night, are those of someone who seeks not to fight the Democratic Party, but to lead it.
Ocasio-Cortez’s turn has not gone unnoticed—or unopposed. Last month, the Democratic Socialists of America rescinded their endorsement of their former standard-bearer over her insufficiently anti-Israel politics. In reality, Ocasio-Cortez has been a consistent critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the Biden administration’s approach to the conflict. But she has also acknowledged and condemned anti-Semitism within the anti-Zionist movement and spoken with Jewish leaders about the issue—an unforgivable offense to some of her erstwhile allies and a reversal of her past reluctance to critique progressive activists.
By choosing to engage with those who disagree with her on Palestine and attempting to navigate the complexities of the issue with mainstream Jewish voices, Ocasio-Cortez failed the DSA’s purity test. But it was not her or her views that were marginalized as a result. On the DNC stage, Ocasio-Cortez was the first speaker to reference Gaza, calling for both a cease-fire and “bringing hostages home.”
[Read: The left’s self-defeating Israel obsession]
Afterward, even some of her most inveterate critics in the political center were compelled to compliment the caliber of her performance. Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the New York State Democratic Party, has previously said that Ocasio-Cortez’s “far left” brand of politics can’t win across the state. For her part, she’s repeatedly called for his resignation. But speaking today with New York Democrats at a delegation breakfast, Jacobs reportedly quipped, “I thought [Ocasio-Cortez] was outstanding last night. Don’t tell her I said that, will you?”
If Ocasio-Cortez manages to maintain her trajectory and escape the pull of factional infighting, the day may soon come when political players like these discover that she doesn’t need them—they need her
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