She was also opposed by the union establishment, especially the AFT's strong arm in NYC, the United Federation of Teachers. This, along with Janus, the recent wildcats, the Wiki exposures which showed NEA's boss Garcia and AFT's Weingarten rigged their internal endorsement processes for Clinton, and their love for Pelosis/Feinstein, puts the union hacks in rather sticky positions. NEA has its rep assembly starting in two days. The NEA staff is terrified of the implications of Janus which could easily lead to a 20 percent loss in membership, as it did in Michigan. This, to them, means jobs, cozy income, wonderful health benefits, expense accounts, all the reasons people become staff. That means the usually loyal and obedient staff might not serve their role over time, adding more internal contradictions for the school union top leaders.

She is now a squicky cog in the Democratic Party machine. Soon enough someone will apply oil to bring it back to order.

Color me skeptical. She said many of the right things but our monied fascist masters are masters of deception. I'll consider her a young female Bernie Sanders until she proves otherwise.

I will consider her either politically illiterate or massively inept. Either way, she can be manipulated in the direction the machine wants her to go.

Unless she's an unusually strong and knowledgeable person, I agree.

No one is that strong. No one.

My view is this. Humans think they can control the environment , but they are , in the most, to stupid to understand that the environment controls them. The current "you can be what every you believe you can be" mantra song in Western hallways.

That being said. her real fight is against the Democratic Party Machine. That is the environment she is now in. She is not in control if it. It controls her. She will bend.

Skip, you just may be wrong on this one.

OK, lets see. We can now both watch her political tendencies come out to shine.

Quick reaction here in Rhode Island to the latest Supreme Court attack on organized labor. The head of the AFL-CIO ,George Nee ( I recall him when he was a more idealistic labor activist with the United Farm Workers ) had a tense press conference this afternoon covered by the local radio station. Said Nee :
[ " We have received very quickly, very strong support from our congressional delegation and Governor Raimondo,” George Nee, president of the Rhode Island chapter of the AFL-CIO, said at the news conference. “When you’re in a fight, it’s good to know you have friends." ]
Yep , turn once again to the " friends of labor " in the moribund Democratic Party.
In reality they are such treacherous enemies of the working class -with " Wall St. Gina " Raimondo leading the pack.
You can read about this type right here on the World Socialist Web Site.

Same thing as Bernie Sanders.

Many on the pseudo-left premise their Pabloite tendencies on realpolitik. They think that taking a principled, uncompromising stand for systemic change has no chance of success. Working within the Democratic Party to reform it, they say, is the only path that can bring relief to the sufferings of the working class.

It is not always clear that these individuals support capitalism or US imperialism. Bernie Sanders obviously backs imperialist policies, but does Jill Stein? She says not. Many on the pseudo-left might think they are socialists, but feel compelled to compromise with the capitalist establishment to get anything substantial accomplished.

They're wrong. Once in power they shed their idealism and start cashing in for personal advancement and gain. They're pressured by the leadership to fall in line, and they do.

Do they deliberately try to sheepdog voters into the Democratic Party to quell popular discontent and forestall a radical movement to oppose capitalism? Some might, but I hazard to say not all of them. Many of them are naive and poorly educated on the subjects of Marxism and political history. They believe that a new New Deal could be put in place that would make capitalism tolerable and lay the foundation for a transition to socialism in some indeterminable future.

History has proven that belief to be false. Only a militant working class movement organized on a platform of socialist revolution has any chance of pulling humanity back from the ever-approaching abyss.

[reposted]

The indeterminable future is the forever-postponed future. Social democracy has been postponing it since the publication of the Communist Manifesto.

"They're wrong. Once in power they shed their idealism and start cashing in for personal advancement and gain. They're pressured by the leadership to fall in line, and they do."
This is sadly true of the the RI AFL-CIO labor leader George Nee - once an activist for the United Farm Workers and close ( a body guard ) to Caesar Chavez.
Today he sucks up to the " friends of labor " Democrats.

"Do they deliberately try to sheepdog voters into the Democratic Party to quell popular discontent and forestall a radical movement to oppose capitalism?"

i'd say that it's not that they set out to do so... but through their actions that is the functional outcome of their support.

when the time finally comes, when they've crossed that line from representative of the working class... into tool of the oligarch, that it's been so slow... so gradual that they scarcely recognize it themselves.

I agree with main thrust of your comment. Just have an issue with: "when they've crossed that line from representative of the working class..." Don't see Ocasio-Cortez or any like "progressive" figures, within or in the orbit of the Dems, as ever being representatives of the working class or even posing as such! Her political history and identity politics emphasis (which is factually covered in Isaac's objective, balanced article) is clear.

Sad but true. Will Cooper you have articulated a very unhappy truth. Thank you for clearing things up.

Local Rhode Island talk radio this morning SHOCKED by the unexpected primary victory of a " socialist - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez . The mainstream news media would have us believe that " socialism " is forever anathema within the United States.
Before the bigshot newsman came on all I heard was " socialist " victory in New York - a devastating blow to the Establishment of the Democratic Party. And that young woman was a disciple of Bernie Sanders !
The bigshot " celebrity " only referred to Alexandria Ocasio -Cortex as a " liberal " and " progressive ". For him " socialist " still bordered on the taboo, the officially " dangerous " and sinister un-respectable.
But no " socialist " survives " as a serious socialist in that snake pit of the Democratic Party. It will reform YOU quicker than YOU will reform this ruling class controlled party.
Whenever I comment elsewhere about the ruling class controlling BOTH the Democratic Party and the Republican Party some anonymous troll invariably asks : " Have you had your meds this morning ? "
Was that not a STALINIST tactic : DISSENT = mental instability ? Is that a " conversation " -a snarky remark "
You will see in the coming election season how the ruling class tries to control the parameters of public debate . To be sure, CAPITALISM will not be up for debate - not even with " socialists " like old Bernie Sanders still around.
The " liberal " Democrats will all agree on the wickedness of Donald Trump and his base of " deplorables ". They might even scorn ordinary " civility " - which never hurts revolutionary socialists. They won't say STOP WORLD WAR III , cut the military budget . In fact, JUNK THE WAR MACHINE !
" Liberal " fascism in the USA will at least have a kinder and gentler face- like Hillary Clinton's .

Democrats have money. Republicans have money. Their only problem is that everybody hates them.

Crowley just took it for granted that he would win, seemingly oblivious to the enormous changes that have taken place in Northwest Queens over the past 5-10 years.

For a site that is otherwise excellent, you all can be so full of piss and vinegar sometimes.

How dare socialists criticize Democratic Party politicians masquerading as socialists.

Same here.

You mean for the sake of opportunism they should give up their principles ????

But do phlegmatic types make good revolutionaries ? Was it Chairman Mao who said : " The revolution is not a tea party " ?
I am not turned off by " middle class civility " in any case.
Way back in tumultuous 60s the local "Trots " were famous for wearing suits and ties, short hair, speaking and writing standard English, and a drug free life style - at least when running for governor or senator. Yet THEY were the real revolutionaries and they were a key to the success of the anti-war movement.
But back then I was also fond of those talented rebels Jerry Rubin and Abbey Hoffman and talk about " piss and vinegar " , " Revolution for the Hell of It ".
But Lenin was right anyway: " Ultra - Leftism is an Infantile Disease ".
Poor Abbey committed suicide ( so thought William Styron in his book on depression " Darkness Visible " ) and Jerry Rubin sort of sold out.
So many YIPPIES evolved into YUPPIES .

Swine over 30?

She says in the interview with Greenwald that she thinks "the role of Russian interference was aggressive in the election."

There you go. She's a fake.

it's a smoothly produced/edited video
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

see her interview with Glenn Greenwald

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Ocasio-Cortez is taking principled stands that are very rare these days. She doesn't seem to be at all a warmonger or immigrant-hater like Clinton and Bernie. The Democratic Party is deeply corrupt, but in an era of global reaction, just being an honest person means a lot - so I'm glad she won! DSA will remain impotent but at least there may be one young socialist with a voice in Congress to speak out against the fascistic ICE raids.

Unfortunately, "being an honest person" was not part of the deal here, thus the vague populist language in her campaign. But let's imagine it was for a moment. Is it all really so bleak then that we have to hang onto hope by our fingernails, hope that a former aide to a Kennedy, who lyingly painted on the thinnest veneer of progressive politics and called it socialism, might help the pitiful poor workers in NYC? This is a deeply demoralized viewpoint. The workers of NYC are an immensely powerful social force. Such a viewpoint fails to recognize the revolutionary capacity of the working class, which is the core of a scientific socialist perspective.

It is the SEP's brazen insistence on the working class's independence from the thoroughly criminal Democratic party -- a party that stands by, and insists on civility, as concentration camps are erected in this country -- that seems to rankle many who want to muddle about in the center as the water rises.

Outside of American politics she seems to be politically literate. So any principled stand she takes is confined to a rather small set of notes.

No. The working class needs not only a fighting socialist program but political clarity. Ocasio-Cortez and the DSA exist to confuse and obfuscate the working class from the task of dismantling the two-party system and declaring its own political independence. They must be exposed by revolutionary socialists, as Sanders has been exposed, as *props* of this party of austerity, censorship and war.

"Incredible: Rachel Maddow played down the victory of Ocasio-Cortez by reminding viewers that not too many people voted in the election. Kid you not."

That doesn't surprise me in the least. In fact I'm surprised Maddow didn't blame the Russians.

:-) C'était bien drôle, Citoyen! Évidemment les russes sont à la base de toutes les misères des Démocrats. Maddow est la porte-parole médiatique de Nancy Pelosi.

It is a quotation, I have provided the link to Angry Arab's twitter, but it is not here.

Even more telling, at least to me, was what Ocasio-Cortez had said in May about Zionist mass-murder of Palestinian protesters in Gaza
"This is a massacre.

I hope my peers have the moral courage to call it such.

No state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters. There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else.

Democrats can’t be silent about this anymore."

Looks like people in USA are not so much against calling a Zionist crime a crime!

They never were. She only expresses the tiniest peep of how millions here feel about the daily murder of Palestinians by the Israeli state. But if elected, the Democrats will pull her into line. I am sure that process began as soon as the election results were in.

Likely the first order of business.