34 Comments
User's avatar
Ellen's avatar

YOU are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! I think we need new blood in the fight. AOC is smart, active and able to hold her own in a debate. Thank goodness someone has recognized this.....she could win. I would vote for her.

Expand full comment
Juan April (RAGECOGNITO)'s avatar

It's about the PEOPLE backing the candidate and the party responding to our wishes. That's how the Democratic National Party becomes viable again.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Ignoring that is also how we got into this mess.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Thank you!

Expand full comment
David Perlmutter's avatar

The biggest problem progressive politics has always had is that it has never had the support of the biggest political backers (wealthy people), who have always seen it as anathema to their beliefs. Progressive politicians should therefore try to find more non-partisan sources of wealth that carry less political taint with them.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Yup, that's true.

Expand full comment
Laurie's avatar

Right on! This is a new perspective-I think AOC could really appeal to the working class conservatives. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for the insight!

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Yup! The worst is that the DNC has known she appeals to them for a long time, but they insist on their nonsensical "centrist" narrative that has been proven wrong again and again.

Expand full comment
Teresa Long's avatar

I would vote for AOC or Jasmine Crockett! I'm 70 years old and can't stand the old people in Congress! We need young blood and fresh ideas!

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Me too.

Expand full comment
Linda Silfven's avatar

The very first time I heard AOC speak I thought: that woman’s going to be president someday, and I wish I will be alive to vote for her.

She is smart, lively, articulate, and knows the middle class personally. The Democratic Party better wise up and use the tremendous talent they have: her, Pete Buttigieg, Jasmine Crockett just to name a few.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Yup, and I hope the DNC gets behind her instead of standing in her way.

Expand full comment
Bob Roberts's avatar

Ah, the DNC; the *other* G.O.P. Always reaching around, oops, reaching across the aisle, eh?

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

The DNC establishment is conservative, but there are some liberals in the party.

Expand full comment
Serena Fossi's avatar

This is stellar, Walter. Thank you. It is always nice to have someone who takes the time to lay it out for all of us, to pull the strands together, and hopefully by doing so capture more minds and hearts. I admire AOC tremendously and her age just makes it more amazing because she has clarity of vision and also knows how to communicate creatively and consistently with well thought out conviction.

But here is my current question. I got a request from Kamala to give to the DNC. I admire Kamala and I in no way hold her responsible for not successfully jumping ALL the hurdles put in front of her during such a short campaign--running with both the negatives of an 'incumbent' and not many of the benefits at all; being a woman running for top office in this country that just can't seem to envision even the most adept, smart, joyful and electric woman to take over the DNC and presidency. Should we support the DNC? I have preferred taking other routes to support and avoided the DNC. yet I know that trying to start from nothing would likely set our hopes back perhaps terminally....

anyway, thank you for your work, you are everywhere all at once and you must need a vacation at some point. Take care.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Thank you for your kind words. I would say that yes we should support the DNC but give your money to AOC. She spends it better and if her fundraising goes through the roof perhaps the establishment will get the hint.

Expand full comment
Kathy Minicozzi's avatar

You make a lot of sense!

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Jerry Spiegler's avatar

Way to go Walter. A great analysis. I understand that AOC gets a lot of negative emails. But I still wish I could email her. I would ask her to dump the Democratic Party and lead a new movement to get our country back from the oligarchs.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Thank you Jerry.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Franz's avatar

You are 100%correct! Dems need to stop playing nice and get someone as "extreme" as the candidates the Republicans are putting forth!

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

She's willing to fight for her beliefs, the advantage is that her beliefs are right.

Expand full comment
Tina Fagan's avatar

Very well stated. I do think AOC is ready. And I agree that it is time for the establishment democrats to open their eyes to reality and promote these younger, active and well informed people like the ones you mention

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

The DNC establishment has done more to oppress good leaders than it has to oppose bad ones. That's a problem.

Expand full comment
Philip Schaffner's avatar

I confess to being an AOC fan who has expressed doubts about her electability due to the levels of misogyny and racism in the electorate. You make compelling arguments to the contrary. I have always advocated for open and robust presidential primaries without the centrist DNC putting a thumb on the scale, and as a Bernie supporter from way back lament the lost opportunity in 2016 that could have left us in a far better place today.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

We lose because of vote suppression. I still believe more votes were cast for Kamala in 2024, and then the Republicans had those votes disqualified. Greg Palast wrote a convincing article on that. A court even ruled that the DNC rigged the primaries about Bernie... think of the world we could be living in.

Expand full comment
Suzanne Whitaker's avatar

I, too, keep thinking any future elections will not be real and true. And admittedly, I keep wondering about the last one (not to sound like a conspiracy theorist). But I heard an interview with AOC and Jon Stewart recently. So good. At one point she said some people voted for her and for tr*mp on the same ballot. That really shocked me. But given what you say here, Walter, it makes sense. It’s kinda what she said in the interview. I just love her. She is strong, fierce, passionate, and clear! When she called out a congressman a few years back for the way he treated women, it was the best speech I’d heard in a really long time. I was blown away! Thanks for your distilling of rural peoples’ thoughts. It’s so foreign to me, I must admit.

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

Yes, she is wonderful. Now, if the DNC would stop spending more energy opposing her than they spend opposing the current president...

Expand full comment
vr colletti's avatar

i am ALL IN for AOC as president !!! ... i will also admit that in 2008 i was staunchly supporting hillary clinton in the democratic primary ... while i LOVED barack obama, i truly thought -- at the time -- he was too inexperienced & that hillary was way more qualified ... obviously, when he won the nomination i supported him, & look what happened -- he WON two consecutive terms ...

while there is SO MUCH to unpack (if hillary won the nomination in 2008, perhaps barack could have been the democratic successor & perhaps we NEVER would have had MAGA, which was directly a by-product of obama's two terms as president, fueled by putrid racism & white supremacy; all of this we will NEVER KNOW for sure), what IS MOST ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN is that RIGHT NOW we are living in a completely FASCIST REGIME led by south african emigrant/oligarch & we must pull out ALL THE STOPS to FIGHT BACK AS HARD AS WE CAN !!!

we also cannot think about the mid-terms or even 2028 (i am truly SHOCKED that ANYONE thinks there will be an honest election ever again in this country), WE NEED TO COMPLETELY ZERO IN OUR TOTAL FOCUS ON RIGHT NOW & ON STOPPING THE COMPLETE COLLAPSE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY ... & we must do ANYTHING (barring violence) to STOP MAGA ...

Expand full comment
Walter Rhein's avatar

We have to believe there will be midterms. Otherwise we won't have any hope. Keep up the fight!

Expand full comment
Dianne Nancy Taylor's avatar

How about stop attacking our older women? Educated people? What should we expect from Republicans if we talk about our best like this? Conservatives dislike Nancy and Hillary. We know that, thanks for the reminder. But do not think they love the popular young girl. They dislike her all the same. Your personal experience may not be 100% accurate.

We Democrats have been fighting forever for older, educated women (goodness forbid, in a leadership position) have a place under the sun. We do not want to throw our hard-fought results away.

Germany's Angela Merkel is and was a centrist and she is the most effective world leader of the last few decades. We have her American counterparts, if only progressives were not so busy undermining their elders.

Centrist Dems did not lose all the time. Biden won. He was not a "she." He did a good job.

Expand full comment