A mutant daughter of social media Trump and institutional firebrand Gingrich

Strip away the polemics and I agree with some of the key arguments in AOC: Shadow Speaker by Julie Kelly.

Even though the wealthy, septuagenarian from San Francisco now wields the speaker’s gavel, it is the bartender-turned-representative Millennial from the Bronx who possesses the power. Ocasio-Cortez essentially is this Congress’s shadow speaker, agitating the Democrats’ policy agenda and creating her own caucus of diverse, radical soulmates. Further, she is the poster girl for a left-lurching Democratic Party. Democrats now view socialism more positively than capitalism, according to an August 2018 poll and also want to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service as they impeach the president.

Ocasio-Cortez is earning the media attention and adoration other politicians can only dream of having. Hours before she was sworn-in on January 3, a cute video surfaced of Ocasio-Cortez dancing with friends in college—putting an “I’m just like you” face on her dangerous left-wing ideology. Her Twitter posts go viral immediately; other politicians now are trying to emulate her unpretentious approach on social media, such as when she whips up a quick dinner while talking about political issues to her 1.3 million Instagram followers. (In a cringe-worthy Instagram video this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren popped open a beer in her kitchen and chatted about her newly-formed presidential exploratory committee. Let’s just say it didn’t go over as her handlers had hoped.)

It was easy early on to dismiss AOC as a millennial lightweight. Her achievements were vestigial and in advocacy rather than anything in the real world. In that regard she looks a lot more like Obama than any other progressive candidate on the scene. Because it is so easy to dismiss the incoherence and evil of her philosophical positions, it is easy to dismiss her as an idiot. And likely she will end up being a flash in the pan.

However, reading this article brought to mind a thought which I suspect would appall AOC and her ilk. Who does she most remind me of? Two men. She is the millennial version of Donald Trump combined with Newt Gingrich absent the commercial and intellectual heft of either.

She has Trump's exceptional mastery of social media and the capacity to make the mainstream media dance to her tune. It is unclear whether she has Trump's capacity to use that talent in a long-running 3-D chess game of strategy. She also appears to share with him the same whisker-like sensitivity to their respective bases. The difference being, of course, that he is attuned to the half of America which defends our nation, works our factories, plows the fields, and raises families while she is attuned to the much narrower electoral sliver of latte sipping, still-discovering-ourselves, youthful idealists and the worshippers of the wisdom of youth.

Newt Gingrich was similarly attuned to his base, the large percentage of Americans who were proud of our system of government and disgusted with the dysfunction and ineffectiveness of our politicians. He rode a wave of populism to become the young firebrand of the House of Representatives, not as a powerless freshman but as a king-maker. He disrupted and then was sidelined. He didn't have the social media savvy of Trump and AOC, principally because there was no social media. But he was equally an outsider disrupting the establishment across the board. Every establishment politician hated him but for radically different reasons.

Gingrich is similar to AOC in another fashion. He brought fresh sparkly new ideas to Congress and compelled the establishment to dance to his tune. He was all the more effective for being a deep and knowledgeable thinker. AOC does not appear to share that trait but she does bring fresh sparkly new emotions to Congress and is compelling the establishment to dance to her tune.

AOC appears to be a mutant daughter of social media Trump and institutional firebrand Gingrich.

The other point that this article brings to mind which I have not seen much discussed is that of generational change. Gingrich was riding the generational shift from the Great Generation politicians to the Baby Boomer politicians. AOC is present at the transition from the Baby Boomers to whatever melange will follow. Schumer, Warren, McConnell, (Pelosi and Biden at a stretch), all baby boomers who control the establishment. Whatever the youthful idealism of that particular cohort, it has not translated into better political leaders or superior governance. Can't say for certain that they are the worst political class ever, but certainly they are in the final four if not the playoffs.