A Different Bronx Tale

So there is a new star in the Democratic Party. Or is there?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Upset winner over New York City’s new power boss. Twenty year veteran Congressman Joe Crowley, strong enough to ‘appoint’ Corey Johnson, Speaker of the City Council and self-important enough to think he could unseat Nancy Pelosi as Minority leader in the House of Representatives, looked like Goliath taken down with a slingshot from the little David: a lovely, street-smart Puerto Rican Bronx girl…who advertises herself as a Democratic Socialist ala Bernie Sanders.

Since Bernie is a one man party who only hears his own voice or people talking about him, we understand that groups of young people who admire the idea of democratic socialism, came into New York to help her canvass the streets, knock on the doors and generally look terrific as Crowley went about his business, ignoring her, being the Boss. Losing.

Ocasio-Cortez talks the new game. The Democratic Party has to go back to what made it a real political powerhouse: standing for some policies that count while working for the little guy not playing with the corporate guys or the game of population segments. She speaks forthrightly about some big expectations like government-backed job guarantees, a single healthcare payer like Medicare for all and free college education but she knows those are goals…policies to work for and don’t come automatically with the election of a person who believes in these things.

Most of all she seems to be what she says she is…a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx; knows who she is; knows that lightning has struck; knows that not everybody can knock off a top well protected politician in his prime; knows that she has a chance to matter.

But does she?

What can she expect from a Democratic Party lost in the woods; atrophying; gutless, corrupt?

Not much.

The media may love her now but if she thinks she is going to be welcomed with open arms by the most corrupt Democratic Party in the nation, she is about to get a lesson in politics and government – hardball with a capital H.

ONE-PARTY BOSSES

Crowley is only 56. That makes him a ‘kid” compared to Schumer, Sanders, Biden, Pelosi. He is considered the young blood of the party…which indicates just how much of a blood transfusion that party needs.

Crowley is not going anywhere but right back to Congress. Goliath might have fallen with one sling shot but Democratic politics in New York is no Biblical allegory. Crowley got a little lost but he knows the way back and there are lots of techniques he can use to make that ‘back’ possible.

The Democratic Party leadership will be solidly behind him no matter what one or two of them might say now to congratulate Alexandria. If she looks to any of the aforementioned leaders for help, she will be looking into a chasm. They have an agenda all their own which doesn’t include her. That goes for the Clintons and most certainly US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. We think she’s smart enough to know that the sisterhood only goes so far. When any competition is involved, it all dissolves quickly and quietly.

So for instance, this brand new Congressperson will get committee assignments so far removed from the world that she knows that she will have to work hard to get to her newly acquired constituents..and have what she does relate to them.

Crowley will not only run in two years, but he will fix the mangled job he did this time failing to recognize that part of his district had swung Hispanic in a very big way. Suddenly the district boundaries will change and the district will have far more to do with white, Irish Queens than it does the Hispanic Bronx.

And because New York is a one party city and State, changes will be made quietly and with little opposition or even noise to accompany those changes.

Such so-called progressives as Cynthia Nixon will have moved on after losing the Democratic primary for Governor to Andrew Cuomo and being dropped from the race by the Working Families Party who will once again endorse the man they love to hate as they did four years ago.

The other so-called progressive voice in New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio will be by then deeply concerned about what he’s going to do after leaving office. Having lied so often to the city about so many things because of his numbing incompetence he’ll know that no one will be listening anymore as candidates scramble to run for Mayor once again.

MORE THAN SPUNK

No matter what she does Ocasio-Cortez will find the race for reelection even more challenging than the one she has just completed so successfully. When you are a nobody till somebody loves you, the second time around is a far tougher journey. That truth is more than a string of song titles. It means that if she is to last she will have two years to build a constituency around her able to take the full weight of what the Democratic Party will do to her. She will need friends from outside the party who can provide far more money than anyone did this time.

She will have to build an audience of support and ferocity able once again take on an establishment this time armed and ready to take back what it lost.

There are lots of ways to do that but it will take work…hard work with lots of hours looking ahead to the race in two years. She can’t and shouldn’t be a one-race wonder because forces of power are leveled against her.

She has got to use media with great skill and cleverness. Broadcast media, social media..media in every form to begin to build the forces able to stop the Democratic Party from taking back what they think belongs to them.

Because the Party will be her enemy she must take steps to deal with every single action they take to make her candidacy meaningless in two years. It is a tall order but there is every indication that she has the inner strength and fortitude to know her enemy and to take them on.

She’ll need a brain trust she can count on. She’ll need to find surrogates now to work on areas that she did not win. They will certainly be part of a new Congressional district. And she needs the foresight to know whether Maspeth Queens is a place she needs to visit.

There are forces in New York able to help her. We hope she is that smart enough to find them.

And we think she is.