If one is a socialist, the Democratic Party probably does look conservative.
At a Martin Luther King Day event Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, derided her party as insufficiently left-wing and too beholden to capitalism.
“We don’t have a left party in the United States. The Democratic Party is not a left party,” the freshman congresswoman said to audience applause. “The Democratic Party is a center or a center-conservative party.”
AOC: “The Democratic Party is not a left party. The Democratic Party is a center, or a center-conservative party” pic.twitter.com/6TNAC50nXi
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 20, 2020
As evidence, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez cited the fact that not only doesn’t the U.S. have socialized medicine but that Congress — presumably including the Democratic-led House — won’t vote on it.
“We can’t even get a floor vote on Medicare-for-all - not even a floor voted that gets voted down. We can’t even get a vote on it. So this is not a left party,” she said, while adding that “there are left members inside the Democratic Party that are working to try to make that shift happen.”
She blamed that blockage on what she called “true believers” in capitalism.
“There are a lot of true believers, [who think] that we can capitalism our way out of poverty in the Democratic Party. If anything, it’s probably the majority,” she said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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