Just when you think Democrats can’t get any more clueless, they start pushing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as their standard-bearers.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez recently held a rally in Denver, Colorado that seemed to attract a sizeable crowd. The event is part of the “Fight the Oligarchy” tour the two leaders have embarked upon. Sanders in a post on X claimed that about 34,000 people were in attendance.
Thank you Tucson and the more than 23,000 people who came out to see me, @AOC and Rep. @GregCasar.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 22, 2025
In just 5 events, we had over 86,000 join us to stand up to authoritarianism & oligarchy and stop any bill that slashes Medicaid to give billionaires even more tax breaks. pic.twitter.com/gcbiD5nrT2
.@AOC was in Arizona on Thursday with Bernie Sanders, lying to her audience as she talked about politicians lying to the American people.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) March 21, 2025
She talked about the middle class at the same time she is being investigated for having illegals on her congressional staff.
AOC also lied… pic.twitter.com/BjFQA2TMyt
This has led to speculation about the two politicians’ future in the Democratic Party, with many suggesting that they might become even more prominent in the progressive movement.
While addressing the crowd, the two politicians spouted the usual far-leftist talking points, which seemed to land well with this particular audience. Now, it appears all eyes on are Sanders and AOC.
The New York Times noted that after the Democrats’ shellacking in the 2024 election, the far-left wing of the party is considering how to move forward. It seems they believe that this might be their time to shine after the moderate establishment wing took a serious beating last year.
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But now, as Democrats find their legal and fund-raising institutions under attack from the Trump administration, their base voters furious at their congressional leadership and their party’s popularity at a generational low, progressives are also staring down the prospect of a post-Bernie future.
A movement politician with a large and devoted base of supporters, the 83-year-old Mr. Sanders has signaled that he does not intend to run for president again. The question now is who will lead the network he built from scratch into the next presidential election and beyond.
Interviews with nearly 20 progressive Democrats about the left wing’s future revealed a faction that sees the ideas Mr. Sanders has championed — reducing the power of billionaires, increasing the minimum wage, focusing more on the plight of workers — as core to the next generation of mainstream Democratic politics.
Though there is little agreement about who will emerge to guide progressives into a post-Sanders era, virtually everyone interviewed said there was one clear leader for the job: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
If AOC is to take up the mantle as the leader of the socialists in the Democratic Party, she might have a few options, according to The Times. She could either shore up her influence in the House, take a shot at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) seat, or even make a run for the White House.
Indeed, Sanders himself seems to have given her his blessing.
“Alexandria has been doing an extraordinary job in the House,” he said. “You can’t sit back. You can’t wallow in despair. You’ve got to stand up, fight back and get involved in every way that you can. There’s nobody I know who can do that better than Alexandria.”
The Democratic Party is in dire need of leadership. Sanders is clearly too old to fill this void. As of this moment, the only other politician who could possibly have the charisma to champion the party is California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who seems to be laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run in 2028.
However, if the party as a whole rallies behind AOC or another far-leftist politician, it would show it still has not learned its lesson.
For starters, AOC has been a vocal advocate for Sanders’ more authoritarian policies such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. These extreme policies are sure to alienate moderate Democrats and Independents. To put it simply, these policies are not nearly as popular as Ocasio-Cortez would have us believe.
It is also worth noting that when Sanders ran on these ideas in 2016 and 2020, he did not fare so well. Yes, the party did interfere and ensure Hillary Clinton became the nominee, but it was still clear that going full socialist was not a winning strategy even among Democrats.
There is also the Republican elephant in the room. If AOC were to run for president or perhaps become a galvanizing figure on the left, it would almost certainly energize the right just like the prospect of having former Vice President Kamala Harris did. The notion that the far left has taken over the Democratic Party would become a reality, one that the right would use to great effect.
Yes, AOC has charisma. There is a reason why she is the Democratic Darling, after all. There is no doubt that she will continue to rise on the left. But America is not quite ready for a Party of AOC just yet.
