Coming off a stinging defeat in last year's election and faced with record low approval ratings, the Democratic Party has apparently decided to go even further left. Failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz recently held a rally in Texas alongside Beto O'Rourke where he lamented the party didn't go woke enough last year, and also criticized "old white guys" (such as himself, supposedly) for "disappointing us on a regular basis." At the same time, far-left Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has been all over television making outlandish statements, including mocking Governor Greg Abbott for being in a wheelchair.
But the biggest rising star on the Democrat stage is New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). She's been barnstorming the country alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders on the "Fight Oligarchy" tour, and a recent poll showed her leading Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer by nearly 20 points in a hypothetical New York Democrat primary. Veteran political strategist Dick Morris believes AOC may even be a presidential candidate for the Dems in 2028.
"There is a desire in the Democratic party...for generational change," says Doug Schoen, longtime Democrat strategist in a recent Fox News interview. "This to me is a warning shot across Senator Schumer's bow and indeed to all Democrats who have been in Congress for many, many years."
Republicans are not as worried about AOC's rise to prominence. "I consider Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to be the leader of the Democratic Party," says Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy to Fox News. "As I've said about her before, I think she's the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle."
"Our plan for dealing with her is called Operation Let Her Speak," he continues.
For veteran Democrats like Schoen, the party's current predicament is no laughing matter. "The American people want to move in the direction Donald Trump is moving---they probably don't want to move as quickly as he does," says Schoen. "But they see my party as rudderless, leaderless, without a message or strategy, and out of touch with the American people."
Photo: AFP