America has been headed toward this point for some time. Former President Barack Obama recognized the value of being “a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” It was no accident that his record in the Senate was comprised largely of minor legislation passed by unanimous consent or voice vote. Or that for all the mileage he got from opposing the Iraq War in his presidential campaign, his record on the issue in the Senate was more opportunistic.
There also was an element of this in President Donald Trump’s success as someone with no experience in elected office. Granted, he had a long record of public statements, but if he once attacked Pat Buchanan and the GOP as “too crazy right,” few cared. Trump was to be taken seriously, but not literally.
This populist attitude now represents the governing faction in the GOP. It is also where the energy is within the base of Democratic Party following Hillary Clinton’s defeat.
Accordingly, it is no wonder that Ocasio-Cortez became an overnight political sensation. It was not only that she scored an upset over a quite traditional incumbent like Joe Crowley, or that she is attractive and likeable. It was also that Ocasio-Cortez, having no personal track record in politics, was free to be the living embodiment of a Democratic Socialists of America flyer pasted on a lamppost.
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