Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14) recently appeared on Jon Stewart’s podcast - The Weekly Show With Jon Stewart. I strongly recommend listening to the entire episode, because so many incredible points were made about the current state of the Democratic Party, but I’m going to focus on this clip particularly for this post.
I came across this clip from the account, Unusual Whales 🐳, with this caption attached ⬇️
BREAKING: AOC has said there is insider trading in Congress.
"It's so crazy... we're supposed to act like money only corrupts Republicans? Give me a fucking break."
Operating a politics and news account, I come across information all the time that makes that above statement not really surprising, but I do think there’s an incredibly important point that needs to be made here.
We’ve normalized this reality for far too long
As we enter another Trump administration, I’ve seen so many people this week feeling gutted, angry & flat out confused about what’s going to happen next. All fair reactions mind you, but I think we’re all stuck begging for some sense of a direction out of this mess.
With executive orders flying off the shelves & outlandish statements coming a mile a minute, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the shockwaves in the news cycle this week.
I too have become victim of the whiplash, with so many particular stories I could talk about, the overwhelming nature of it has left me with an extreme sense of choice paralysis.
So, as I’ve been doing my best to make sense of everything, I keep coming back to one particular question internally…
What are we supposed to do?
It’s this question that has driven me into a state of shock, because to be frank, I haven’t discovered the answer yet.
However, with that being said, I may not have the answer, but I want to discuss what is absolutely not the answer
We cannot appoint another establishment Democrat to lead this Party into the future
The current makeup of the Democratic Party, is one that is too cozy with the billionaire class of America. As we move forward with our fight against fascism in America, there is no chance of victory behind a Party that cozies up to the same oligarchs that are currently financing the Trump administration.
We’re finally starting to hear a similar sentiment from members of Congress like AOC, Rashida Tlaib & Ro Khanna. Each of them in their own way has come out and criticized the current leadership hierarchy of the Democrats & called for change.
This isn’t just about a “younger” brand of leadership, or “someone who is popular”, this is about ideology. The kind of ideology that centers the everyday person & challenges corporate power.
We can’t fight the corporate class in the halls of Congress, if our representatives are taking donations from them, having dinners with them & rigging the economy against us, but in their favor.
There’s no future with this current version of the Party, that ultimately will benefit the working class.
There’s no way to combat the conditions that gave rise to Donald Trump, while maintaining the status quo.
What’s next?
We’re about to fall into another cycle of constant outrage, as we all consistently react to the news cycle of Donald Trump.
It will be easy to get lost in that rage, but this is the point of caution that I hope everyone will take away from this…
We cannot just accept any “leader” that emerges to navigate the party forward.
The only way forward from this madness is to directly confront the corruption on our side. The Democratic Party as currently constructed, needs to be torn down entirely.
No “opposition party” should be
Doing insider trading
Taking millions from corporate powered Super PACs
Telling us the economy is actually doing fine (which is what we heard relentlessly in the 2024 campaign cycle)
Please remember that, when the DNC inevitably rolls out their future list of “approved candidates” for us to choose from.
We deserve better than this current version of the Democratic Party.
We have to demand better.
Until next time,
Desmond
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