Since upsetting 10-term Congressman Joe Crowley last June in the Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez has become The Left's new darling and The Right's bete-noire.
At the time of the upset, I saw her as someone who would serve in Congress for 10 terms with no discernible improvement to her district:
Let's say that Ocasio-Cortez is elected to Congress for ten straight terms. I submit to you that in June 2038 that everyday will get harder for working families in the Bronx and in Queens to get by, the rent will get higher, health care will cover less, incomes will stay the same but Ocasio-Cortez will be doing just fine for herself.
Six months later, I think it is clear that Ocasio-Cortez is going places (barring any unforeseen stupidity like taking a bribe). Democrats see her as the future of the party and Republicans have demonstrated a visceral reaction to her before she's even cast her first vote in Congress.
It is pretty damn silly for the Right to think that a video of her dancing while a student at Boston University is going to ruin her political future. Indeed it has done the opposite.
Assuming Trump is re-elected on November 3, 2020, I predict that Democrats will turn to her as their standard bearer the day on November 4, 2020. She turns 35 less than a month before the 2024 presidential election thus making her constitutionally eligible to run for office. If this comes to pass I believe she will be elected the 46th President of the United States. Electing Ocasio-Cortez President is the wet dream of identity politics. She would become the first female President, the first President of Latin American descent and the youngest person elected President.
Should this come to pass I hope Ocasio-Cortez will have gained a greater understanding of the world. She claimed Israel's May 2018 killing of Hamas terrorists "a massacre". When challenged by Margaret Hoover in an interview on PBS' Firing Line, she admitted, “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.”
Perhaps she will learn as Texas Congressman and likely 2020 Democratic hopeful Beto O'Rourke has where it concerns Israel. But O'Rourke strikes me as more centrist and pragmatic while Ocasio-Cortez appears to be dogmatic socialist. Of course, to quote Churchill, "A man of 20 who isn't a socialist has no here. A man of 40 who is still a socialist has no head."
But as Donald Trump has proven one need not have knowledge to be elected President. If know nothings are prepared to vote Trump into the White House why wouldn't social justice warriors do the same with Ocasio-Cortez? Her packaging might look friendlier and more appealing, but once opened up all we are left with is wrapping paper. All of which makes defeating Trump in 2020 that much more urgent. Needless to say, barring any acquisition of maturity and wisdom, I hope I am wrong about my 2024 prediction.
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