Wednesday, June 27, 2018

House Dems Get Their Wake-Up Call

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Republicans in Congress had their wake-up call back in 2014 when Eric Cantor, their number two in the House of Representatives, lost his primary to an unknown upstart, and last night Joe Crowley, the number four congressman in the Democratic caucus suffered the same fate.  In both cases the party's base sent a loud message that if members of Congress want to keep their positions of power and prestige, then they had best stay connected to the people they represent.

Congressman Joe Crowley, who had aspirations to be Speaker of the House, had his political career castrated when he lost the primary yesterday in New York's 14th congressional district to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.   The surprise winner is half Crowley's age.  She developed her political chops working as a grass-roots organizer for Bernie Sanders.  Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina whose race and ethnicity were more closely aligned with the diverse district that selected her over Crowley,  ran as a Democratic Socialist and positioned herself far to the left of the twenty-year incumbent.  Crowley, for his part, seemed to assume that he would easily defeat the challenger, and he ostensibly campaigned by ignoring her.  He even went so far as to send a surrogate to face her in a debate.

Crowley's nonchalance was a colossal political error.

New York's 14th is a strong Democratic district and Ocasio-Cortez is expected to win the seat handily in November.  Congressman Crowley has already endorsed her.  In January, barring an even bigger surprise, she will take her seat in the United States House of Representatives.  Ocasio-Cortez will bring her liberal agenda the the floor of the House, and she will also bring her youth and energy.   Expect her to make some noise - and hope that the old farts who run the Democratic Party in the House have the good sense to listen.   They have had their wake-up call.


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