Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is a bomb-thrower. She’s a fighter. She’s an attack dog for the far left of the Democratic Party. She will hurl zinger at Republicans. She’ll also shoot inside the ship. Her fundraising and backing of primary challengers against members of her own party have long been a contentious subject for the party brass. In New York, her main enemy is not the Republicans, but the state Democratic Party. So, what of her legislative record? It’s bad. How bad? Think of the then-Baltimore Colts when they drafted John Elway back in 1983. Elway didn’t want to play for them for a simple reason: the franchise was a disaster. On the Hill, AOC has a knack for tossing bills against the wall. None of them stick, which is why a new study found that she’s one of the least effective members of Congress (via NY Post):
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the least effective members of the last Congress according to a new survey from the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking — a joint project of Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia.
AOC introduced a total of 21 bills which the center defined as “substantive” — but that is where the story ends. Her legislation received no action in committees, no floor votes, and none ever became law, according to the center, which takes its data from Congress.gov.
“She introduced a lot of bills, but she was not successful at having them receive any sort of action in committee or beyond committee and if they can’t get through committee they cannot pass the House,” Alan Wiseman, a Vanderbilt political scientist and co-director of the center, told The Post.
“It’s clear that she was trying to get her legislative agenda moving and engage with the lawmaking process,” Wiseman added “But she wasn’t as successful as some other members were — even among [other] freshmen — at getting people to pay attention to her legislation.”
[…]
Among the bills that failed were a federal overhaul of public housing, a ban on fracking, and a mandate to provide full federal public benefits to illegal aliens.
Democratic House insiders said many of Ocasio-Cortez’s colleagues found her approach alienating.
“Tweeting is easy, governing is hard. You need to have friends. You need to understand the committee process, you need to be willing to make sacrifices,” said one. “Her first day in Congress … she decided to protest outside of Nancy Pelosi’s office.”
No one is surprised!
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 3, 2021
AOC was one of least effective members of Congress: study https://t.co/R4dEAAbpgb
The thing is that her base of support doesn’t view other more establishment-based Democrats as friends, but enemies. They’re obstacles that need to be removed via primary challenges. Ocasio-Cortez, by and large, is not serving her constituents—at all. Every action item she promised has failed, especially the one on abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and defunding the police, the latter of which not only scared moderate Democrats and suburban voters but a large swath of nonwhite voters as well. Does it matter? Probably not.
First, as noted above, the principled and hardened socialist hates the Democratic establishment. This base is heavy on the moral victory diet. It’s all about the feelings. While this feeling will depreciate because eventually, something of hers has to pass at some point, she has a massive buffer to keep doing what she’s doing. Second, she might not be in Congress as long as these other career politicians. The sky is the limit for AOC. She can run for governor, US Senator, or any office she sets her sights on since she has the money and the base of support to do so. She obviously wants to run for president at some point. She’s going to be searching for new ground. I know, what did she do in Congress that would allow her to jump to another office? What can she run on? Being AOC. It’s deep-blue New York. They’ll elect anyone en masse with a “D” next to their name.
Andrew Cuomo allegedly sexually harassed and groped scores of women. He’s responsible for killing thousands of the elderly in New York during COVID. He cooked the books on COVID nursing home deaths and pretty much lied to federal investigators about it. After all that, his approval remains solid. This is who Democrats are—the inherent rot of America.
Ocasio-Cortez is also a darling of the liberal media, so that alone will offer plenty of protection. She is one of the least effective members, but the far left sees her and the rest of her squad as the rookie class of a new roster. They just need more help, more reinforcements. With how the base is trending, they’re going to get some for sure. So, as always, keep an eye out for AOC.
