Democratic New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bashed former President Donald Trump throughout her speech at the opening night of the Democratic National Convention Monday, while highlighting Vice President Kamala Harris’ promises to working class Americans.
The conflict is between climbing the leadership ladder within the institution (which periodically means compromising your constituents to ingratiate yourself with leadership) and serving your constituents with relatively little influence in party leadership (which means being strident but ineffectual, because you’re not in a powerful committee).
In order to climb, AOC has repeatedly been forced to downplay issues and vote in ways that alienate her from her constituency. And that’s what lead to her predecessor’s downfall.