In Tuesday’s Washington Post, Max Boot, the former imperialist cheerleader now d/b/a Never Trumper extraordinaire, addressed one of the nation’s pressing problems: the popularity of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, rookie congresswoman from New York and subject of a current conservative obsession bordering on a full-on manic episode. I admit, I was dubious about AOC. I thought that her joining Bernie Sanders in trying to submarine Sharice Davids in a Democratic primary was an obviously avoidable blunder, and I thought the hype surrounding her upset of Joe Crowley far exceeded the actual political accomplishment.
But then, for reasons we will get to in a minute, the entire conservative movement decided to make her a national brand, and it did its job splendidly well, and then she did the rest. Did they actually think that a collection of aging gray-boys was going to out-heckle a former NYC bartender? Did they think they were going to beat someone of her age and obvious savvy on social media? (Didn’t getting whipped like rented mules by the Parkland survivors teach them anything about that?) She literally danced in their faces, and then she danced in their faces again. And people loved it in ways the gray-boys will never understand.
She’s still a rookie. She will make rookie mistakes. But already she’s been shrewd enough to realize what a favor the Republicans are doing her by helping build her brand, and she was shrewd enough to push Nancy Pelosi just far enough before backing Pelosi for Speaker. And, when she cast her vote for Pelosi, the Republicans in the House chamber booed, and looked even more ridiculous.
Admittedly, I’ve never seen anything quite like this before. True, as our politics have become more personality-driven, a phenomenon that tracks through history almost precisely with the improvement of communications technology—FDR was the first radio president, JFK the first television president, and, arguably, Barack Obama’s was the first Internet presidency, leading inevitably to the Twitter presidency* that afflicts us today—it becomes easier to create a face for your political moment, or to have one created for it by someone who doesn’t have your best…
