Are Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez too far left?
Many Americans think they’re right.
An astounding 86,000 people turned out in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico last week for “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies starring the 83-year-old Senator and 35-year-old Congresswoman.
“We will not allow you to move this country into an oligarchy,” Sanders thundered to Trump. “We’re not going to allow you and your friend Mr. Musk and the other billionaires to wreak havoc on the working families of this country. No, you’re not going to destroy Social Security. You’re not going to destroy Medicaid. You’re not going to destroy the Veterans Administration.”
People are feeling the human impact of Trump, Musk and the “Oligarchy.”
They’re booing and jeering Republican Senators and members of Congress on the rare occasions they show their faces in public.
The same kind of grassroots rage spawned the Tea Party in 2010 and led to Trump in 2016 and 2024.
“Ironically,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “the most divisive forces in this country are actually starting to bring more of us together.”
Politics is a cycle of action and reaction.
It will be ironic if the anger, anxiety and frustration that elected Trump propels an aggressive progressive candidate to the Presidency in 2028.
He or she might run on Medicare for All, raising the minimum wage, climate-change action, good schools, affordable child care, gun safety, tax fairness, campaign finance reform and abortion rights – goals that have seemed out of reach or too far left.
The candidate likely won’t be Bernie or AOC.
But they’ve touched a streak of lightning that could electrify American politics.
