Ocasio-Cortez is Wrong

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has yelled fire before even buying her ticket to the show.  Her call to primary established Democrats is at best premature, and at worst highly destructive.

Like most Democrats I was thrilled by her victory.  As a deliberative body, the people's house benefits from the widest possible breath of ideological views and social backgrounds.  Even Newt Gingrich sometimes had a good idea.  Those who feel disenfranchised may be heartened by a House that looks more like their house.

Would primary opponents from the left be anymore successful than the GOP example of attacks from the right?  Republicans have the steering wheel all the way to the right, going in a circle rather than moving forward.   Democrats, fearful of compromise, would be no more capable of doing the peoples' business than their GOP counterparts.

Then there is Trump.  Imagine if inter-party squabbling costs Democrats the Congress and Trump wins in 2020.  The Congresswoman has not fought a powerless rearguard action, without the votes to protect progressive values.

Ocasio-Cortez must realize that firebrand is not actually a brand.  Passion without knowledge is stillborn.  She needs to learn how a bill is crafted, what it takes to get a bill passed.  She can observe her colleagues and see who is productive and who is just going through the motions.

The Congresswoman ran as a Democrat rather than as an independent, because she gained easier ballot access.  After her stunning primary win, she received help from the party.  If she bites the hand that fed her, she deserves to get slapped.

Hitting Bottom

The litany of Trump's sins would fill a dark hymnal.  Hate crimes are up dramatically, in no small part because, to paraphrase Andrew Gillum,  Trump may not be a racist, but racists and anti-semites believe he is a racist.  He has undercut foundations of our democracy, in his mad dash to obstruct the Mueller investigation.  Corruption and waste are rampant.  International alliances are frayed as he relentlessly demeans our allies.  Children are in cages.

The first duty of the President is to protect us.   Jamal Khashoggi, a legal US resident and contributor to the Washington Post, was lured to the Saudi embassy in Turkey, where he was brutally murdered.  Any other president, at least one without financial ties to the Saudi regime, would have been outraged.  Instead our President praised our relationship with Saudi Arabia, and attempted to deflect blame from the Crown Prince.

Bad enough, but Trump has gone further, trying to get another legal American resident killed and tortured, in exchange for Turkey backing off on its release of evidence against Saudi Arabia.  Trump has requested that his aides find a way to extradite Fethullah Gulen to Turkey.   Faced with this debasement of American values, members of the CIA were compelled to leak their conclusion that the Crown Prince ordered the murder of Khashoggi.