Monday, June 11, 2018

Socialism Goes Viral in the Bronx

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
There is a very dangerous political race in the Bronx.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appears to be a very, very skilled demagogue, making promise after promise to voters and no analysis of how the promises are going to be paid for. And for good measure, she promotes a broad-based hate of the rich.

Zaid Jilani at The Intercept reports:
BRONX ACTIVIST AND community organizer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is challenging longtime New York Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in his primary on June 26. By all measures, the former Bernie Sanders organizer is an underdog, going up against the powerful chair of the House Democratic Caucus who has more than $1.6 million in cash on hand (Ocasio-Cortez has raised around $200,000).

But in a social media-focused campaign video released on May 30, Ocasio-Cortez sought to turn this money gap into a liability for Crowley — telling a story about her life and the lives of thousands of other working-class New Yorkers who continue to be squeezed by the high cost of health care, education, and housing.

“This race is about people versus money,” Ocasio-Cortez says in the ad. “We’ve got people. They’ve got money.”

Within a day, the video had over 300,000 views.


She may not win this time, but she will be trouble in the future. She is attacking the crony Democratic Party from the extreme left.

And the Trump-fueled growth in membership of the Democratic Socialists of America is also going to be a problem.

More from Jilani:
What you may be surprised to find out is that the video was produced not by Hollywood video production veterans or high-dollar political consultants, but by a ragtag pair of socialists based in Detroit.

Last year, Detroit-based Democratic Socialists of America activists Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes formed Means of Production, a media production company that works exclusively for the working class. (DSA has since endorsed Ocasio-Cortez.)

Both were veterans of other communications firms and were troubled by the fact that many of these firms worked both for progressive candidates and corporations working against the very same causes.

“It just didn’t compute to us that the same people creating working-class propaganda are creating essentially propaganda for corporations,” Hayes said.

“We did this, really, with the goal of building kind of an effective, functional left media structure,” Burton explained.


-RW  

1 comment:

  1. It's amusing how these people are all about voluntaryism, until they get hold of the state's guns.

    ReplyDelete