Establishment Democrat Joe Crowley’s nearly two-decade career in Congress came to an end Tuesday night in a shocking primary loss to 28-year-old Democratic Socialist and former Bernie Sanders organizer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – a harsh critic of Israel and immigration enforcement.
Victory! pic.twitter.com/il5677H0bh
— Rebecca Katz (@RebeccaKKatz) June 27, 2018
Crowley – the 56-year-old Chairman of the House Democratic caucus had long been viewed as a potential House Speaker, and has been a staple in New York City politics as chairman of the Queens County Democratic Party.
His loss to insurgent candidate Ocasio-Cortez, his first primary challenge in 14 years, is a major upset to establishment Democrats trying to cobble together a “blue wave” of progressive support to combat Republicans in the upcoming midterms. Instead, it looks like Democrats are as fractured as ever.
There are a lot of reasons why @Ocasio2018's win (and Crowley's crushing loss despite the entire Democratic establishment united behind him) is so exciting and awesome. She's a genuinely great candidate for so many reasons. But this chart is simply huge for US politics: https://t.co/TTdM0SWUVI
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 27, 2018
I'm going to show you just who @Ocasio2018, Justice Democrats, and DSA beat tonight. it isn't @JoeCrowleyNY. It's the most powerful people in America. Here are Crowley donors Sheryl Sandberg, Sean Parker, Google NET Pac, and Facebook's PAC. pic.twitter.com/tqkKYhqSLm
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 27, 2018
Crowley donors who lost tonight, part II: Intel, American Bankers Association, Citigroup, UPS, T-Mobile, Altria (Phillip Morris), ERNST & YOUNG, Florida Sugar Cane, Boeing, Constellation Brands, Altice, The Options Clearinghouse, Diageo, Cisco Systems…
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 27, 2018
Crowley donors who lost tonight: Facebook, Google, Blackrock, Humana, Raytheon, Capitol One, AFLAC, Microsoft, CIGNA, TD Bank, H&R Block, Salesforce dot com, United Technology, Deloitte, Covington and Burling, Anheuser-Busch, Honeywell…
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 27, 2018
(there are eleven more tweets listing Crowley donors, so we’ll stop here)
And speaking of Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept has covered New York’s 14th Congressional District race extensively (see here). Here’s why they thought she might have a chance back in May:
THE SAFE MONEY on a race in a machine-dominated district is to bet on the boss. And, to be sure, Crowley is likely to be the favorite. But Ocasio-Cortez has a few plausible reasons to believe there’s a path to victory:
- She has more than 8,000 individual donors; that’s a pool she’ll continue to grow and can keep tapping into if her campaign gains momentum. It suggests that the 5,000+ signatures she turned in were no fluke.
- Primaries are very low-turnout affairs, meaning the absolute number of votes she needs to win is quite low, in the high-four figures or low-five figures.
- Crowley is the king of Queens, but he represents the Bronx from a distance. If Ocasio-Cortez can organize and run up her numbers in the Bronx, while holding her own in Queens, she can win.
The case against her isn’t based on substance, but on raw politics. Crowley is a very good old-school politician: engaging on the stump, charismatic, and diligent about building relationships. He has close relationships with the bosses of the Bronx machine, which can turn out votes. And, for many Democratic voters, he’s not that bad. –The Intercept
President Trump took the opportunity to throw salt in Crowley’s wounds Tuesday night, tweeting: “Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi’s place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he’s out!”
Wow! Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi’s place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he’s out! That is a big one that nobody saw happening. Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018
Or, maybe Ocasio-Cortez schooling Crowley over ICE was the nail in the coffin in these politically charged times?
ICE is operating exactly as designed when it rips screaming children from parents. That’s exactly why we must abolish it.
We MUST have the moral and political courage to #abolishICE.
Weak half-measures do nothing. This is a defining moment of our time – the time to act is now. pic.twitter.com/0viiQ4qdz8
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 19, 2018
The young generation of Progressives will make us long for the good, old days of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
From here on out it’s identity politics.
The two party system existed for one reason only- a homogeneous population. That’s over now it’s a race for the spoils.
I agree completely. My daughter lives in Ocasio-Cortez’s district and voted for her. She use to accompany me to Ron Paul rally’s. When I argue with her about the evils of socialism she reminds me that the federal government is jam packed with bloodsuckers gorging from the public trough. Why not send our own thief to steal for us? Hard to refute that, no?
It isn’t far from Ron Paul’s defense of grabbing earmarked funds for his district. The way he saw it, the money was already appropriated (he voted against the spending bills), so why not grab as much of it as he could for his constituents?
The error in CCRiders’ statement and Ron Paul’s is the politicians don’t steal for us, they steal for themselves, but make it look like its for us. The average politician never cut taxes for us.
They bribe us with our own money, keeping a fat cut for themselves
I suspect that with the brown people it is about identity politics, as they feel they can trust one of “their own”. However, there also is another deeper vein happening, which elected Trump BTW – that is that the average citizen feels that ALL incumbents are out of touch, are just representing donors and for sale.
I must admit, that when I go to the voting booth, I pretty much look for the “new guy” and just color that circle. The old guard has made themselves so undesirable, that even a socialist looks more attractive. At least she is up front about her intentions. Our “representatives” have been practicing socialism for quite a while, it has just been socialism for them, and their donors.
The bankers have been in a race for the spoils since forever. This is a natural consequence.
Hahahahaa. The Dems/socialists/identitarians are going to get slaughtered in the midterms in November. Popcorn ready.
Book it Danno.
To be consistent, all those people claiming that voting makes no difference should be claiming this will make no difference and everything will stay the same.
Well, let’s see. Instead of having a 56 year-old long-term political hack with his boot against their throats and his gun literally pressed against their skulls, taking what he has no authority to take from them to use as he pleases, some of the people of NYC will have a 28 year-old newblood political hack with her Doc Martins against their throats and her gun literally pressed against their skulls.
Well, I mean… the gender’s different! And so are the ages. So yes, voting absolutely makes a difference, no doubt about it.
The politics are quite a bit different too, going from a mildly left Democrat to an extreme leftist Marxist.
The votes cast by this person will not differ with the previous Congressman by more than 3%. Democrats have been socialists for 50 years. The only thing that changed was the face and gender of the congressman.
overthecliff
There’s no place in the democrat party for straight white guys. Oh sure, they’re tolerated in a rural area when there’s no other candidate, but as soon as a plausible candidate appears who’s not a straight white guy, the straight white guy becomes unacceptable.
It brings us closer to my dream deferred; a Trump/Sanders debate. Hillary cheated me of that show back in ’16.
And just yesterday I said to Mr. Lib that Liberal is code for minority as Conservative is code for cis-White. Those are the modern definitions. Also bad means good, and gay means..
EC
Gay = EC?
Stop salivating, I’m a cis-male.
A lot of you people just don’t get it.
Big government leftists like Mr. Doughboy cottage cheese hips Crowley don’t frighten me. Him and his type are bad, but manageable.
On the other hand, this young bitch Alexandria “OC” is a steely-eyed America hater who would gladly throw the lever on gas chambers (that never really existed) full of deplorable WHITE Americans.
My how times have changed in 30 years. Back then being branded a “Liberal” was enough to bury your political career, and to call yourself a socialist was suicide. The bolsheviks have certainly moved the window in education and pop culture.
I’m so glad that my state of residence doesn’t have to look forward to Socialist Democrats running everything. We had 96 fucking years of putrid and corrupt rule by Democrats during which we had only 3 Republican Governors and zero control of the legislature, and were the last state in the South to turn them out back in 2015. Yes, we have Socialist Redoubts like Lexington and Louisville but they are outnumbered by the rest of the state. During the Great Election Year of 2015 our Democrat Elite was running on the talking points of Big City Democrats. It is said that the issue of the Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and court ordering of male perverts being allowed to go into the women restrooms even in the schools were the final straws and the rural county Blue Democrats finally left the Democratic Party.
Even Franklin County, the Frankfort bastion of the Democrat Party that used to vote 96% Democrat in elections, has rolled over. It will be a long bitterly cold winter here for the Democrats before they get to run anything like they used to. I will say that the coming turmoil that the country will suffer from will mostly bypass this place and won’t be tolerated for a second if any of that attempts to set up house here.
Question: Who was the best Democrat Governor of Kentucky?
Answer: William Goebel was the best because he was gut shot on the front yard of the Capitol by an unknown assailant using a 25-35 Marlin Takedown Rifle. He was on his death bed when the Democrats gave him the Oath of Office. His last words were supposedly, “Doc, those oysters were no damned good!”
But she’s way better looking than old joe.
The problem with urban White flight is that it has left a political vacuum where entitlement receivers are the majority voters. But the Dems got a problem too: they have forced Reagan Democrats, and Blue Dogs, into Trump’s arms with their racial rhetoric, gun control, high taxes, and the ignoring of the Employment Participation Rate; coupled with their leftist prog base are not appeased, and believe that the current Dem party is not radical enough. Thus the Dem party are going full socialist prog, but that will only force more Blue Dogs voters into the Trump camp.
The Dem party is eating its own tail. The biggest problem is once this is realized, the leftist progs will prefer to take down the nation rather than reconcile with their own defeat (and they will never say sorry for their own radicalism, and its resultant mess). Leftist progs want to defeat us, not compromise with us. This political civil war, coupled with future national bankruptcy, will eventually lead to an afro instigated balkanized race war. And if things continue this way, this outcome it is almost inevitable. And that is the ultimate shame of what leftist progs have wrought upon us.
Can’t this loser run as an independent in the general election and keep his seat? Would not be the first time this happened.
Serves Crowley right. He is typical of the white Democrat politicians who sell their own people down the river to curry favor with the unwashed brown and black masses. The mayor of Philly, De Blasio of New York, and countless others, are of this ilk. It is a very good thing that these new darkie Marxist Democrats are coming to the fore. They represent the real base and future of the Democratic Party. It is indeed fitting that obsolete old white guy Democrats like Crowley will be humiliated and tossed out on their ears by foreign invaders and Communists. People like Crowley created this disaster in our country. It is only fair that they reap the rewards. I hope he has to peddle his ass on a street corner to make ends meet. For you other white Democrats, the bell is tolling for you. Better jump ship now while you still can.
Yeah, but it looks like Mittens will win his primary (still counting, but he has a huge lead). Machine politics are just as bad on the Repub side when it happens as the Dem side.
I am going to have to find someone else to vote for in the Senate race; I can’t vote for Mittens the crony globalist, and not sure who else is running. Research time.