 In an interview with the New York Times, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke about the negotiation process with regard to Build Back Better and the so-called bipartisan infrastructure proposal, AKA the corporate toll road bill. And she had a lot of really interesting things to say as it relates to the Democratic Party's failure to deliver on a lot of the things that were promised. So we're gonna talk about a couple of portions that stood out to me here, but here's the first thing that I wanna talk about here. She says, I think that if we passed the Build Back Better Act as the House passed it, that we have a shot to go back to our communities and say we delivered. But that's not to say that this process has not been demoralizing for a lot of folks because there were enormous promises made, not just at the beginning and not just during the election, but that continued to be made. And this is where I have sounded the alarm because what really dampens turnout is when Democrats make promises that they don't keep. And I think that that's pretty obvious as to why making a promise and then subsequently breaking that promise is just bad politics, but she breaks it down. She specifically cites this claim that Joe Biden made via Twitter where he said that we're gonna replace the lead pipes in America. But she explains how the infrastructure proposal or the bill that was now passed, it doesn't actually have enough funding to replace every single lead pipe in America. So if you tell people that their lead pipes will be replaced and they're still not drinking clean water, if they're still lead in their water, then they're gonna see that and acknowledge that you lied to them. So you can't make these promises if you're not actually going to deliver. And she doesn't cite this example specifically, but one thing that stood out to me is how Democrats to rally support in Georgia, they ran on $2,000 checks and as soon as John Ossoff and Raphael Warnack won, the tune changed like that. Well, it went from 2,000 to 1,400 because you already got the 600 with Donald Trump. So 600 plus 1,400 equals 2,000, except that's not what you ran on. You ran on $2,000 checks. And I remember the mailers that Raphael Warnack sent out that were just fake $2,000 checks. So the message was clear. So when you keep making these promises and under delivering, that's going to undermine trust with your base. Now, AOC goes on to explain one fatal flaw within the Democratic Party and primarily that's their refusal to listen to their base. She says, the talking points are not enough. Yes, is childcare great? Absolutely, universal pre-K, this is something I'm deeply, deeply supportive of. But we also have too much of a top-down strategy when it comes to our base. We're always giving them the medicine and telling them what they need to accept as opposed to really monitoring where the energy is and being responsive to it and allowing that to shape our strategy. And this is a really important point because there are numerous examples that point to the Democratic Party is just refusal to listen to their own base. For example, we see what's going to happen when it comes to recreational marijuana. It will be legal nationwide. The only question is when that's going to happen. But Democrats aren't jumping on that bandwagon. It's a winner. Electrally speaking, this is a winner. But they're not doing that. You see a ground swell of support for canceling student debt, but yet we see no action there. This is something that Joe Biden can do unilaterally but he's choosing to not act when it comes to healthcare reform. In the 2020 election before the pandemic hit, this was the number one issue for a lot of Americans, healthcare. And rather than trying to lean in to the enthusiasm that you see with Medicare for All, Democrats said, no, we're going to support a public option instead. And they're not even going through with that. Now we see no talk of a public option. So this is something that is a huge issue. The Democratic Party, unlike the GOP, never listens to its base. Whereas with the GOP, it doesn't matter how insane their base is, they listen to their base. Now a lot of the issues that their base supports are manufactured, right? Right-wing media will tell them that CRT is bad and masks are bad, but it doesn't matter. The GOP listens to their base more so than the Republican Party. It's why you see so many Republicans keeping their mouths closed about Donald Trump. We all know that Kevin McCarthy and these Republicans hate Donald Trump, but yet they won't actually condemn or few will condemn the lies about the 2020 election because they know that the GOP base will rip them new assholes if they dare to speak out and tell the truth about the election. So they just pander to this base. They do what the base wants. The base is clearly driving the party to the extreme right, but with the Democratic Party, I mean, they're not budging. They're not listening, not even a little bit. And that's really, really frustrating. Now AOC also critiqued Joe Biden and this was a great thing to point out. She says, there is an enormous amount of executive action that they're sitting on that I think is underutilized on student loans. We've got executive action on the table with respect to climate. There are certainly things that we can do with immigration. So why are we taking this as a legislative compromise when the opportunity is so much greater or when Biden could just do this stuff with a stroke of a pen and it's just reminding us that he's choosing not to. And that's a really important point. So Joe Biden doesn't even have a very ambitious policy when it comes to student debt cancellation. You have him saying, I'm only willing to cancel 10,000. But then you have the Senate majority leader like Chuck Schumer saying, actually you should cancel 50,000. And you have people like Bernie Sanders saying cancel all of it. But yet Joe Biden won't even do the bare minimum and cancel 10,000. Now he's saying, you know what? This needs to be accomplished legislatively. I'm not gonna do this with my pen. Why? This is an easy victory. It's something that you can brag about in 2022 and 2024. Canceling $10,000 of student debt isn't going to meaningfully impact people's lives. But will it help? Absolutely. So he's leaving this victory on the table for no reason. Now finally, AOC speaks to their excuses and the rotating villain. And what she says here is really important. You've gotta give me something to work with with my communities. And you're not. How can I make the argument that they should turn out again? And this notion that saying we're not Trump is enough, this is such a deeply demoralizing message. Democrats have a trifecta and have been unable to pass voting rights protections. And so people can wring their hands and say, but mansion all they want or but the filibuster all they want. But at the end of the day, what people see are the results of their actions and the result of investing their time. We are up against political nihilism. The idea that nothing we do matters because as long as I live in the Bronx, the political reality of this country is that no one's going to fight for me. That is why it's so important that we take some of these risks for our base. And she's exactly right. But because the Democratic Party, overall, not everyone in the Democratic Party, but most members of the Democratic Party, especially Democratic Party leadership, because they're not willing to take these risks, well, they're leading us to witness a bloodbath in 2022. And even if they did everything that they needed to do politically to deliver and actually transform people's lives, even in a minor way, it's still going to be an uphill battle in 2022 because of the way that districts are being redrawn thanks to gerrymandering. So they could help. They could maybe minimize the bloodbath if they just do a little bit more, but they're never willing to go the extra mile. They won't even do the bare minimum. We get crumbs. And that's it. And that's just not sufficient. Until they actually get their act together, then we're gonna see this pendulum swing back and forth. It's gonna be Democrats, then Republicans. People will see that the Democratic Party didn't really deliver so they'll not turn out and then people will just allow Republicans to win. They'll be crazy and then we'll go back to Democrats seeing how crazy the Republicans are. They won't deliver. I mean, the cycle will continue. And there's a reason why democracy breaks down in countries with a weak opposition to the far right. I mean, look at Turkey. Erdogan as a far right figure was able to consolidate power because the opposition, the liberals were weak. They were feckless and we're seeing the same thing happen. Again, here in the United States, it's like a slow motion train wreck and they're not doing anything to stop it, but it is important to see public figures like AOC use her platform to condemn her party's failings. Point out the inadequacies of the Democratic Party because we need to know that there's at least someone on the inside who understands it. I might not agree with everything that AOC says and does, but because she at least gets it, I think that that does matter. The one thing that I would add to this is that even though she's speaking out against the Democratic Party and highlighting their flaws, which is important, it's good to be introspective, I would like to see more of a focus on the structural flaw that is crippling the Democratic Party's ability to act. And that is the corruption, the dark money, the money just more broadly speaking that's out in the open, money has corrupted them. And many Democratic Party officials are just useful idiots for whatever industry they've been bought off by. So I think that if the squad retooled their message and they continue to advocate for policies but also highlighted the corruption in the system that leads to these political outcomes, I think that would be a lot more, people would respond to that more. But having said that though, I'm glad that she's speaking out because everything she's saying here is absolutely on point and I agree with her 100%.