Conclusion:
If only the Senate rules could be changed to prevent the minority of Republicans from blocking liberal legislation propounded by Biden and the Democrats, she suggested, the United States would bloom like a garden. She did not bother to note that it was Senate Democrats who refused to limit the filibuster and that Biden himself supported this decision because he was seeking bipartisan agreement with the Republicans, along with his stated aim of maintaining a “strong Republican Party.”
Most importantly, Ocasio-Cortez said nothing at all about the central policy of the Democratic Party and the Biden administration—the war in Ukraine against Russia. The administration and congressional Democrats have repeatedly backed new arms packages to Ukraine, expanding the scope of the war and escalating the risks of a full-scale military confrontation between the United States and Russia, threatening the world with the prospect of a nuclear holocaust.
The cost of the war is being placed squarely on the backs of American working people, in terms of cuts in social spending and attacks on democratic rights, beginning with the right to strike.
In December, Congress approved the legislation banning a rail strike, including the votes of AOC and two other DSA Democrats. Biden’s Department of Labor is now moving to impose a sellout deal on the West Coast longshore workers and to block a strike by 340,000 UPS workers at the end of this month. Within days, Biden is expected to announce the appointment of a White House representative to oversee the auto industry contract negotiations. In each case, Biden has relied on the union bureaucracies, backed by the DSA, to block any struggle by the rank and file, while readying the use of federal coercion through legislation or injunctions if they fail to do so.
Ocasio-Cortez is now the dean of a growing faction of Democratic members of Congress linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). She is regularly given a platform on the Sunday television interview programs. AOC is also moving up within the leadership of the House Democratic Caucus.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Governance Committee, has named her as his deputy, an indication of his political confidence that she will cause no trouble to the Biden administration should the Democrats regain the majority in the House of Representatives.
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