Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to lend her credibility to the Biden-Harris administration’s false narrative around Gaza was a stinging slap in the face.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19, 2024. (Jacek Boczarski / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Twenty sixteen was the start of a monumental political shift on the American left. Bernie Sanders’ promise of political revolution electrified a disaffected generation of voters yearning for a complete overhaul of the status quo. The ensuing movement went on to elect a handful of members of Congress as well as hundreds of similarly inspired democratic socialists across state and local governments. None were able to capture the movement’s frustration with the Democratic Party and the political establishment, or the hope of creating something new, more than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Her victory in 2018 had a profound effect on the democratic socialist movement. Groups like the Democratic Socialists of America swelled in size, with thousands of new organizers hoping to replicate the success of her victory in New York. The game plan seemed clear: While the left pushed for change in the streets, Ocasio-Cortez and her allies would bring the priorities of the movement to the halls of power. She proved how effective this strategy could be with her famed sit-in in Nancy Pelosi’s office with the Sunrise Movement. Ocasio-Cortez also used her newfound clout to help expand the Squad and back progressive challengers to the party status quo—including Sanders.
Ocasio-Cortez is a once-in-a-generation political talent. She has an innate ability to communicate with a broad audience about the struggles working-class people face, and to link those struggles to a movement for institutional change within the Democratic Party. Now, though, it’s hard to escape the sense that her partnership with the movement that carried her into office is fading.
This shift was on full display on Monday night, when Ocasio-Cortez gave a rousing speech in support of Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention. The crowd, many of whom might have viewed her as a mortal enemy just a few years ago, cheered wildly for her. And the speech was tailored to please as broad an audience as possible.
References to Medicare for All, Green New Deal, and taxing the rich were virtually absent. The brightest burst of populism came when she tore into Donald Trump as a “two-bit billionaire union buster.” Though the speech was powerfully delivered and contained encouraging vestiges of radicalism, the contrast with the Ocasio-Cortez of earlier years was palpable.
But the biggest, most dismaying indication of the widening gap between Ocasio-Cortez and the democratic socialist movement might have been the way she chose to handle the issue of Gaza in her speech.
Her only reference to Gaza was a line in which she credited Harris with “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bring the hostages home.” The moment was quickly clipped and posted to TikTok by the Harris campaign—a clear attempt to use one of the most popular young, left-wing politicians in the country to win over younger, left-leaning voters concerned about Gaza. “💙 @Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” the campaign account commented.
But Ocasio-Cortez’s statement was simply not true. There have been no indications that Harris is playing a central role in any ceasefire negotiations. And there is mounting evidence that those negotiations are more fantasy than reality.
Moreover, while Harris may have called for a ceasefire, the actions of the Biden-Harris administration have consistently enabled genocide. Just last week, as famine in Gaza continued and the reported Palestinian death toll rose to over 40,000, the Biden-Harris administration approved an additional $20 billion in military aid for Israel. The administration has placed practically no limits on acceptable behavior for the Israeli regime and has used stronger language to condemn campus protesters than the blood-soaked Netanyahu government. Harris has not distanced herself from any of these decisions.
Given that reality, any Democratic politician who claims this administration is meaningfully working to end this conflict is either misinformed or lying.
It would have been galling to see anyone engage in this fiction. But to see Ocasio-Cortez—a movement politician and a self-described democratic socialist—do so was a genuine blow. Worse: It was an outright betrayal.
Reasonable people can disagree about the value of Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to work a more inside track within the Democratic Party. There are undoubtedly benefits to having someone like her moving up the ranks, and she could very well help elevate a whole host of progressive causes.
But Gaza is not just any cause. It is a red-line, defining issue of our time, and Ocasio-Cortez has found herself on the wrong side of it.
Given her skill as a political synthesizer, Ocasio-Cortez could have used her time to plot a new course for the Democratic Party on Gaza. Poll after poll shows that Americans, especially those in swing states, overwhelmingly favor a ceasefire, and disapprove of the administration’s handling of the conflict. She could have spoken about the pain that Americans, particularly Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Americans, feel. She could have called for an arms embargo against Israel. And even if she felt she couldn’t take such a bold step, she didn’t have to help Harris push a narrative that is not true. She could have done what Bernie Sanders did in his speech on Tuesday night, when he said, “We must end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages, and demand an immediate ceasefire.” When one considers the realm of what is possible, even at a DNC speech, it is hard not to feel entirely let down.
On the same day that Ocasio-Cortez spoke, thousands rallied in the streets of Chicago to demand that not another bomb be sent to Israel on the US dime. DSA-backed Chicago alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and DSA National cochair Ashik Siddique spoke about the importance of ending US support for a genocide that a Democratic administration has backed to the hilt. The movement was clear about its demands: permanent ceasefire now, arms embargo now.
In order for an inside-outside strategy to be effective, you usually want to see the demands of the outside be articulated clearly and fearlessly on the inside. Instead, Ocasio-Cortez opted for an intensely disappointing and borderline-sickening approach.
Even Joe Biden went further than Ocasio-Cortez by saying that the protesters “have a point.” Ocasio-Cortez didn’t mention the protests at all. To be outflanked by Biden in that way was outright embarrassing.
Being asked to speak at the DNC is a milestone for a self-identifying democratic socialist politician. It is an opportunity to talk to millions of working people who are looking for a vision, for someone to speak truthfully about the issues they face and the horrors they are witnessing.
I like to think that the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of 2018 would have been able to rise to that occasion and speak with clarity on behalf of the movement that sent her to Congress about the rights of all people, especially those subjected to the worst excesses of the American empire. Instead, we saw the 2024 AOC. She tacked away from the movement in favor of her own rising star within the Democratic Party and gave left-wing credibility to an administration facilitating the genocide of Palestinians without hesitation.
It now seems clear: She still does great things as an ally, but I fear that the era of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a movement standard-bearer is coming to an end.
Kareem ElrefaiKareem Elrefai is an Egyptian-American union negotiator and an organizer with the New York City Democratic Socialists of America.