So naturally, as the political rumor mill pivots to the question, “what about AOC?” in the 2028 presidential conversation, the Democratic establishment has already entered panic mode. And like clockwork, they’re sending out their usual suspects to the Sunday shows, cable news roundtables, and the op-ed pages of legacy media to do what they do best: suppress progressive energy before it becomes a political liability to the status quo. You can practically hear the establishment whispering, “We love her passion, but she should really use her platform as an ‘effective surrogate,’ not a serious candidate.”
Translation: “Thanks for mobilizing young voters, brown folks, and people with student debt. Now please get out of the way so we can nominate Kamala Harris again and lose with dignity.”
This is that “not learning the lesson” I warned about. It’s like terrible remake: the same movie, different cast. And once again, the Democrats are spending more energy undermining their own than actually preparing to defeat an ascendant right-wing movement threatening democracy.
Because here’s the thing: AOC’s populist agenda is a friend to you—the average American trying to afford a dentist visit and a carton of eggs at the same time—but it’s a mortal enemy to the elite political class. Medicare for All? Student loan forgiveness? Wealth taxes? That’s not policy to them, that’s violence against the cocktail party circuit. And right on cue, here comes Dr. Jason Johnson.
Yes, that Jason Johnson. You probably haven’t heard from him since MSNBC last trotted out their racial progressive hitman. But just like Batman, when a populist voice starts gaining traction and the signal goes up, he re-emerges and with one mission: stoke division between progressives and liberal Democrats.
When Johnson, joined by Joe Crowley (who lost his last election to AOC), starts speaking, I get 2016 flashbacks. I remember the “Bernie Bro” narrative that was carefully crafted and force-fed to the American public. It was the idea that Bernie Sanders’s campaign was nothing more than a Reddit thread run by angry white guys who refused to shower or vote for Hillary. This narrative—let’s be honest—was a lie. A lie that conveniently ignored Sanders’s longstanding advocacy for racial justice and growing cross-racial support, and instead painted him as the patron saint of privileged white college students.
As a proud Bernie Bro (yes, I said it), who happens to be young, Black, and bisexual, I knew then what I know now: Sanders’s policies were for all of us. He was fighting to break the rigged economic and social contracts that have trapped Black and brown folks at the bottom of the pyramid while Wall Street climbs on our backs. But that truth didn’t fit the narrative, so it was discarded. What mattered was control—by any means necessary.
In 2016, the establishment wasn’t subtle about it either. Hillary Clinton had an inside track. It was “her time,” after all. Never mind that Sanders was polling higher among independents, turning out first-time voters, and actually talking about the structural issues suffocating working people. No, Hillary had the “experience,” even if that experience included decades of triangulation and Goldman Sachs speeches.
Fast forward to 2020: Sanders runs again. He wins early. Then suddenly, a bunch of moderate no-names at the time—Pete, Amy, Beto, that billionaire no one asked for—miraculously drop out and coalesce behind Joe Biden faster than you can say “electability.” And then, of course, came the gaslighting. The same media figures and DNC loyalists told us that Joe—the man who told Black voters “you ain’t Black” if they didn’t support him—was somehow the candidate more “in touch” with communities of color than Bernie Sanders, the guy who marched with MLK and actually has a racial justice platform.
That wasn’t about “winning.” That was about preserving power. Biden didn’t become the nominee because he was the best candidate—he became the nominee because they owed him, and he was the safest bet to maintain the class hierarchy within the Democratic Party. It’s the same reason they love moderates so much: moderates don’t threaten to tax their donors. Moderates believe change comes in 30-year increments and that healthcare is a reward for surviving capitalism, not a human right. Moderates smile politely while the world burns.
So here we are again, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becoming too powerful to ignore, and suddenly, the knives are out. But this time, they may have a harder time using the old playbook.
Unlike Bernie, AOC isn’t a 70-something Jewish man from Vermont. She’s a young, charismatic, Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx who talks like the people she represents and backs it up with policy receipts. She’s fluent in both economic justice and Instagram, speaks in complete sentences, and can simultaneously grill billionaires in committee hearings while tweeting about her skincare routine. She is, quite frankly, the establishment’s worst nightmare: popular, unapologetic, and effective.
The usual critiques don’t stick. You can’t accuse her of being out of touch with communities of color—she is the community. You can’t paint her as some radical outsider—she’s a sitting Congresswoman who won her seat by defeating a ten-term Democratic incumbent. And you can’t dismiss her as inexperienced when she’s spent her political career doing what most politicians only pretend to do: listening to her constituents and fighting like hell for their interests.
So, what’s left for the Democratic establishment to do? Well, they’ll try to co-opt her, neuter her momentum by offering her speaking slots and advisory roles while quietly backing a “safe” candidate like Buttigieg, Harris, or whoever they think is this cycle’s Biden. They’ll send out pundits to caution us about her “electability,” as if the person who lost to Trump the first time would be any better.
But here’s the good news: the playbook is getting old, and voters are getting wise. Gen Z is organizing. Millennials are aging into political power. And the people most impacted by the failures of this system are no longer waiting for permission to lead—they’re running for office. Even if the Democratic Party is trying to oust David Hogg for supporting them.
AOC isn’t just a name being floated—she’s a rising tide. And if Democrats don’t stop clinging to the myths of moderation and start listening to the people fueling their base, they won’t just lose an election. They’ll lose the future.