If AOC Is The Democratic Future, The Party Is Even Worse Off Than We Think

By Rich Lowry on Mar 17, 2025

Even Will Rogers might be hard-pressed to come up with an appropriately harsh jibe about the current state of the Democrats.

"I am not a member of any organized political party," the 20th century humorist famously said. "I am a Democrat."

Now, the problem isn't a lack of organization per se, but the hangover of their dogged, dishonest support for a comprehensively failed presidency, joined to an irrational commitment to outlandish positions on cultural issues.

The Democrats shouldn't be shocked that after insisting that Joe Biden was hale and hearty and fit to serve as commander in chief until January 2029, the public has a dim view of their party. The Democrats attempted to perpetrate one of the worst frauds on the American public in recent history, and then followed it up with another lie -- that Biden's overmatched emergency replacement, Kamala Harris, was joyful and impressive.

In a new CNN poll, the Democratic party's favorable rating is 29% -- a record low going back to 1992.

In a new NBC poll, the Democratic party's favorable rating is 27% -- a record low going back to 1990.

Detect a pattern?

Part of the reason for the dismal rating is that Democrats themselves want their party to be more confrontational with Trump and are dissatisfied. But the Democrats have taken a broader hit -- in the NBC poll, only 11% of independents have a favorable view of them, and 56% unfavorable.

The agonized state of the party was encapsulated by its psychodrama over the so-called continuing resolution that 10 Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, voted to pass last week. Progressives consider Schumer's support a rank betrayal, and he's had to postpone a book tour amid "security concerns."

The New York senator, who warned conservative Supreme Court justices a few years ago, "You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price," is now paying one himself.

Schumer made the right tactical call. If Senate Democrats had successfully filibustered the spending bill, they would have been blamed for the resulting shutdown, further tanking the party's image with the middle of the electorate.

In the fierce backlash against Schumer for saving his party another embarrassment, the left-wing congresswoman from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is getting promoted as a potential primary challenger to Schumer, and even a national leader for Democrats. In the CNN poll, Democrats were asked which political figure best represents the "core values" of their party, and AOC narrowly led.

She has as good a claim to this title as anyone -- and that's the problem.

AOC is Kamala Harris, if the California Democratic hadn't flip-flopped away from all the fringy things she said in 2019. She's Bernie Sanders, if the Vermont socialist were about 50 years younger and could plausibly appear on the cover of Vanity Fair wearing the latest fashion. She's Mahmoud Khalil, if the Columbia University activist that the Trump administration wants to deport somehow managed to get himself elected to Congress.

AOC rejects the term "woke," but there is no woke policy that she doesn't support. She loved the neologism "Latinx" ("gender is fluid, language is fluid"), and still supports biological males competing in female sports ("trans girls are girls"). She's never met an immigration restriction that she likes.

The reason Joe Biden won in 2020 is he didn't seem like a progressive and one reason that his party lost in 2024 is that he governed like one. AOC's brand is the 2024 Biden rather than the 2020 Biden, except even more so. She's charismatic and adept at social media, which easily could bring her greater fame and influence, but she's a cartoonish version of the Democratic Party that the GOP hopes to run against.

Will Rogers once commented: "You've got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best." If their fervor to oppose Trump throws Democrats into the arms of AOC, they will test the accuracy of this proposition.

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(Rich Lowry is on Twitter @RichLowry)