Ocasio-Cortez Exposes a Few Truths About the US Congress

 Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

This is a pleasure and Sen Ocasio-Cortez will be respected and liked by millions of Americans for this, after all, what's not to like about it. it is refreshing and connects to how people feel and think about the rotten US political system, she is speaking what's on people's minds. It makes her appear more human, but by raising this question of legality it inevitably undermines the propaganda that it is personal character flaws and corruption that is the problem with the body politic as opposed to the system itself even though she doesn't really verbalize that or map out a plan for change.

It will make overconfident sections of the US bourgeois that have not been able to gauge the mood in society and whose arrogance contributes to this overconfidence, attack her even more virulently exposing them further. It also places pressure on the power in her own party.

It is important that she is doing this. We pointed out in earlier posts that while this blog does not support the Democratic Party the positive aspect of her electoral victory would be that it would increase tensions between the left and the right wing in the Democratic Party. What she is doing is helping facilitate a split in the Democratic Party with all the possibilities that could result including the formation of a new left party in the US.

I must mention here the importance of social media in the struggle for the consciousness of the working class. It cannot replace mass gatherings, face to face connections, but it is impossible today for information to be kept totally hidden, there is constant leaks of state information encouraged by the presence of the Internet, whistle blowers are everywhere.

While it is good to see this, I think that more people than we think are aware of what she reveals here. Americans know how rotten their social system is, they are victims of it. What they do not know is what can be done about it. So even more important than Sen. Ocasio-Cortez' exposure, helping make the con game a social fact, is the answers to her own questions, solutions to the problems she raises here.

What can be done to stop what is a dictatorship of capital over US political and economic life? What is the alternative? This is what will have to be laid on the table.

The Democratic Party as the dominant party of capitalism will not overcome crises it itself has created. So far we have had Pelosi make it clear the Democratic Party is capitalist as its policies are and will be and this has not been taken up in a major way by the DSA candidates. From what I've seen, the Green New Deal that Sen Cortez is campaigning for does not confront capital or go anywhere near far enough in reversing what is a looming environmental global catastrophe. Will she reach that wall ahead, will she lead a split as she learns along the way? 

Here and here are earlier posts about this issue and how FFWP argues how important is is to break from this party and also build a powerful direct action mass movement out of which a truly independent working  class political party can arise. Meanwhile it's refreshing  to watch this but feeling good is not enough.