The DSA recently interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). And then the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) criticized AOC from the left. Note for the curious: the WSWS is a small Trotskyist news site. As we’ll see, the WSWS offered less an informed critique than a string of informal fallacies.
But that comes later. For now, let’s take a look at AOC and her politics. What can we learn from the DSA interview and WSWS response?
DSA Interviews AOC
The DSA focused mostly on the basics in its interview, especially AOC’s path to the DSA and then running for Congress. As she tells her story, it’s messy. But, hey, that’s life. She tells the story in a conversational way, and – as with many people – there’s no single, clear reason AOC got involved.
She moves on to discuss electoralism and movement building, which is where I think we can draw some conclusions for political work. AOC presents herself as one who initially held a skeptical attitude toward electoralism. But as she got more involved in DSA, the electoralists won her over because they had ready-made projects for her.
That’s fine. As an anti-electoralist myself, I’ll say that’s on us. People fall into these traps because we don’t have projects for them. Even people who say they prefer organizing work turn to electoralism by default.
AOC does discuss deeper movement building, in particular her support for Hunts Point Produce striking workers. But it comes off as more of a one-off action or even afterthought than a top priority. And she often lapses into the kind of ‘human rights’ language I associate with liberal and progressive ideas rather than socialist ones.
Finally, there’s that whole spat about Joe Biden…
WSWS Does Not Like AOC
…which is where the WSWS enters. In January 2020, Genevieve Leigh presented a classic ‘AOC is sheep dogging for the Democrats’ take. She placed DSA in the same camp, though she cited the DSA’s ancient history – a classic genetic fallacy. And then there’s Eric London’s infamous reaction piece to the AOC interview with DSA. That’s probably the one that brought readers to this post. Mostly, London published a silly hit piece where he repeats Leigh’s criticisms and then hones in on AOC’s remarks against anti-Biden leftists.
But WSWS sloppiness doesn’t mean there aren’t problems with the AOC interview or things worth thinking about critically. So let’s have a look.
In discussing Biden, AOC says, in effect, that leftists who criticize Biden as making ‘no progress’ are engaging in a ‘privileged critique,’ as well as bad faith criticism. She also asks them what message they’re sending to the ‘Black and brown and undocumented members’ of their communities.
There’s a lot wrong with this, and I used quotes to get at AOC’s rhetorical moves. For one, AOC assumes leftist Biden critics are white, male, and native-born. In some cases, that’s true. However, many of Biden’s harshest leftists critics literally are the very ‘Black and brown and undocumented members’ AOC distinguishes from Biden critics. And so, AOC’s criticism looks like a non-starter if she wants to apply it to Biden critics as a group. In drawing this distinction and using it to shield Biden from critique, AOC harms some of the very movement building we saw in the last section that she decided not to make the focus of her work.
But to ask a deeper question: what kind of politics does AOC’s interview reveal? What’s she doing out there? What might her political future look like?
Between and Beyond Sanders and Warren
Here’s a tentative answer to those questions: AOC positions herself both between and beyond Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Likely in the service of a (maybe gradual, maybe not) political path to the presidency.
She brings a fresh approach to politics, providing a fresh working-class story for the 21st century. And she’s a Latina in a still very white political world.
On some issues and in some ways, AOC sits to the left of both Sanders and Warren. A post at Fivethirtyeight, for example, called her (and The Squad) a ‘Super Progressive’ and contrasted her to the ‘Very Progressive’ Sanders and Warren. On issues like foreign policy and immigration, AOC consistently stands well to the left of Warren and a bit to the left of Sanders. We also see it in language and emphasis, where AOC has a better developed understanding of intersectionality than either Sanders or Warren (or Harris or Biden, et al.).
So, there’s some truth to this. But I find a few caveats. One, AOC isn’t the Squad member furthest to the left. Rashida Tlaib likely holds that distinction. But two, deeper political forces pull AOC to the right and will continue doing so.
Justice Democrat or Leftist?
Those deeper political forces concern AOC’s base and her party affiliation. She found a base when she ran for Congress – a big one both local and national. But that base sits almost entirely within the Democratic Party. AOC – and Justice Democrats more broadly – push the Democratic Party to the left (or try to do so). But they do so via an ‘internal’ critique. They always stay within the party and never seriously threaten to leave it or act as an outside power.
It’s on that issue where WSWS brings something to the table in its critique. AOC and Justice Democrats find votes and support among lapsed Democrats and progressive Democrats more broadly, not among political independents, disaffected leftists, or consistent non-voters.
These things limit AOC and will continue to limit her. She has to play ball with the Democratic Party. This means she’ll likely never be able to criticize the Democratic Party as harshly as Bernie Sanders did in, say, the 1970s and 1980s. It also limits her potential to change the Democratic Party to the extent Sanders did in the late 2010s. For Sanders, his independence allowed him to stake out more radical positions and accomplish interesting things, especially as the mayor of Burlington. AOC has a long road toward any of that.
Ambiguity in the Politics of AOC
And so, I see ambiguity in the politics of AOC. I think she wants to eventually run for President. But I also think she wants to keep her options open to other electoral (and non-electoral) routes.
In thinking about electoral politics, sometimes AOC sounds like a juiced-up, better thought out version of Warren’s politics. At other times, it sounds like she’s taking Sanders-style social democracy to a broader and more effective coalition. At yet other times, it sounds like she’s building something totally new.
As leftists, it’s worth watching to she where she goes. Warren-style progressivism, in any form, will limit AOC’s ability to build a national coalition. And even if she builds one, it will limit her ability to implement anti-capitalist left ideas. But her other possible avenues sound more promising.
