Summary
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for Democrats to elect “brawlers” who fight for the working class to counter GOP power and oppose policies endorsed by figures like Elon Musk.
Speaking alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders in Las Vegas, she criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for not filibustering a GOP spending bill and labeled the decision a “tremendous mistake.”
Ocasio-Cortez urged voters to support candidates willing to take bold stances.
She continues her “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Sanders across Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona.
Genuine question to our American friends:
How come Bernie, AOC, Crockett etc. don’t start their own party? They can pledge to vote with the dems where it makes sense and they have enough political capital to continue getting elected. Seems like an ideal time to create a 3rd (actual alternative) party, no?
It might force the republicans to create an alt right and centre right party too which I feel would erode some of the alt right because from experience most Americans are not that alt right.
Bernie already runs as an Independent!
They kind of are in a different party: the Democratic Socialists of America isn’t on the ballot but Bernie runs as an independent who caucuses with Democrats. If Democrats wanted to, they could run a candidate against him. But to form a truly independent third party, you’d just be splitting the votes on the left.
As you get to state and national elections where much of the nation is pretty evenly divided, running as a third party all but ensures the Republican will win (even without winning a majority in most states, though a few use different systems). In essence, our system requires coalitions to be made before the election rather than after.
You could compare it to UK elections. In 2024, Labour won 33% of the votes but won 411 of 650 seats because the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and regional parties split the rest.
State laws make ballot access difficult. Every state has its own rules and most of them are meant to exclude 3rd parties. Neither Dems nor MAGAts like competition.
A couple reasons.
Bernie and the Democrats are going to align 90% of the time (just like with Manchin on the other end of the spectrum). Basically, the other party is anti-America. So being pro-America makes you a de facto Democrat.
Since we don’t have Ranked Choice Voting or any other system that is conducive to multiple parties, primaries allow directionally aligned candidates to decide who is most popular to avoid splitting the vote. This isn’t necessary if a candidate has enough support for it to not matter. (Bernie is an independent in congress, but he ran as a Democrat in his presidential runs.)
Money. They wouldn’t be able to fundraise the money they need to get messages out to people. Then there’s the depressingly large number of Americans who vote by party in a system meant for voting by individual. They would lose funding and then get smashed in the elections because nobody knew the party was even there.
Thanks for the response. That’s the thing - I feel like they’re big enough personalities on their own to get elected. AOC did it initially on a shoestring is my understanding and she’s well past the point of having voter recognition.