Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Fetishizing “Identity Politics” can pay big, at times

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a torchbearer of alt-left, far-left identity politics, angry millennial, community organizer, and Bernie Sanders alumna just won New York’s 14th congressional district (one of the 435 congressional districts in the US).

Ocasio-Cortez has been campaigning on a platform of well-sounding slogans for her constituency, including:

• social justice,
• racial justice,
• universal jobs guarantee,
• guaranteed minimum wage,
• the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
• protection and eventual citizenship for people illegally in the U.S.(the so-called dreamers, TPS recipients whose temporary protected status has ended or will end soon, etc),
• tuition-free public college,
• the abolition of student debt,
• medicare for all,
• gun control,
• harsh anti-Israel rhetoric,
• etc

A member of Democratic Socialists of America, a far-left party which holds that capitalism is built on white supremacy as well as male supremacy, Ocasio-Cortez has been endorsed by several influential organizations of the far-left political spectrum, including advocacy groups, political action committees, along with news and commentary networks (e.g.: The Young Turks, MoveOn, Justice Democrats, Brand New Congress, Black Lives Matter, etc).

Her campaign video begins with her claiming that “women like me aren’t supposed to run for office” (a very common self-victimization mantra among hardcore supporters of identity politics) and in a Vogue interview from two days ago, Ocasio-Cortez has claimed: “…we need to really examine the historical inequities that have created much of the inequalities — both in terms of economics and social and racial justice — because they are intertwined. This idea of, like, race or class is a false choice. Even if you wanted to separate those two things, you can’t separate the two, they are intrinsically and inextricably tied. There is no other force, there is no other party, there is no other real ideology out there right now that is asserting the minimum elements necessary to lead a dignified American life.”

Matt Bennett of the center-left Third Way has noticed that: “in this Year of the Woman and Year of the Outsider, it is very tough to be neither. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez deserves credit for knocking off a titan. But her win had more to do with the nature of her very blue district than it does with national politics”. These observations, though mostly correct, fail to point to the elephant in the room: that fetishizing Identity Politics can pay big time (as lots of politicians both on the far-left and the far-right of the political spectrum have already noticed) . Well sounding slogans can help too, but they are far from enough in very diverse and easily polarized communities.

Identity Politics, however, is a much deeper phenomenon and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (to her merit) has been quick to recognize its power. OK, maybe not as quick as Donald Trump, but still.

A 20 something years old, socialist, Latina beating a 56-year-old white man is the most 2018 thing to happen this election cycle, in majority minority constituencies, as long as, during the election race, you can demonize your opponents with impunity.