“people really want the Democratic Party to fight for them”

The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez interview in the (ugh) New York Times is a must read:

I’ve been begging the party to let me help them for two years. That’s also the damn thing of it. I’ve been trying to help. Before the election, I offered to help every single swing district Democrat with their operation. And every single one of them, but five, refused my help. And all five of the vulnerable or swing district people that I helped secured victory or are on a path to secure victory. And every single one that rejected my help is losing. And now they’re blaming us for their loss.

Biden may have finally won the election, but in both the House and Senate the Democrats either lost seats or won less than expected, leaving the possibility of a divided government open. This unexpected result was of course immediately blamed on “the left” and Black Lives Matter and other centrist bugaloos, but as AOC points out, the actual leftwing candidates won. And, as she also points out in the interview, a lot of the losses by more rightwing candidates were due to just plain incompetence: not spending enough money, not spending it on the right channels, just plain not running a proper campaign.

If the party believes after 94 percent of Detroit went to Biden, after Black organizers just doubled and tripled turnout down in Georgia, after so many people organized Philadelphia, the signal from the Democratic Party is the John Kasichs won us this election? I mean, I can’t even describe how dangerous that is.

What AOC is careful not to say here is that the Democratic Party’s establishment finds it less important to win than it is to keep their left in check. Medicare for all, the New Green Deal, Black Lives Matters may be vote winners but the Democratic establishment opposes these policies just as much as the GOP does. In general, they’re content to be the junior partner to the GOP in America’s political duopoly, only getting in power once the Republicans have fucked up too much and the country needs a cleanup again. Democrats winning elections with actual leftwing policies is the last thing they want.