I’ve been reading with some amusement about the rising popularity of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. From Axios:

Democrats are scrambling for a new identity. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is racing to fill that vacuum with a party rooted in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ left-wing populism.

Why it matters: Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is drawing tens of thousands of people to her rallies with Sanders — even in red states. She’s breaking her own fundraising records, and surging in early polling of potential 2028 presidential candidates.

It feels to many top Democrats like she’s grabbing Sanders’ torch as a progressive leader — and that he’s intentionally passing it to her. The two kindred spirits deny it.

Her rise comes as the Democratic Party base is increasingly agitated by the party’s inability to push back against the Trump administration’s sweeping agenda — and is searching for a champion to fight back.

Driving the news: Ocasio-Cortez has been cheered like a political rock star over the past two weeks as she and Sanders (I-Vt.) barnstorm the country with mega-rallies for a ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour.

Hmmm… what’s missing here?  Oh… right… visionary leadership.  She has none.  Zero. We’re exactly halfway to her 2019 prediction of the world coming to an end, and that’s not really much of an inspiring vision, is it?

From HelpfulProfessor.com: “A visionary leader has a clear and innovative perspective that motivates and guides others toward a common goal.  They have a talent for envisioning possibilities, challenging the status quo, and encouraging creativity and innovation.  Visionary leaders inspire and empower their followers by creating a sense of purpose and direction.”

Trump’s base is growing, particularly among the young and minority demographics, and I believe it’s because people are tiring of those in government who lack an inspiring vision, only offering lackluster performance and failed promises; its easy to contrast that with what we have now, which is a truly inspiring and fearless leader.

Trump, Sam Walton, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, etc. not only had vision, but set about the actions to achieve it, which separates them from false leaders like Obama.

Obama won handily in 2008 because as a master orator he could articulate a vision that people wanted to hear after the economy struggled in the final years of the Bush administration. But we all know Obama had other motives and no real intention of building on a vision of getting America back on its feet, so whether by design, stupidity, lack of effort, or a combination of all three the economy lagged, and the stimulus plan was a complete flop which delivered just the opposite of what was promised. Said Obama in 2011: “Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.”

Trump, on the other hand, is delivering on his promises, just as he delivered in his first term—and routinely throughout his life in the private sector. In the first term, Trump 1.0 had the vision, but faced a bigger and deeper swamp than he realized, and he made some bad calls trusting in the wrong people. However, I do believe he was rewarded by a win in the second term that was stolen from him, but now Trump 2.0 is unstoppable and it’s breathtaking to watch.

So why am I amused that AOC is the rising star of the Democrat party?

A candidate can only go so far with hatred and fear mongering as a platform to win votes. Without the assistance delivered by election fraud, it hasn’t worked in the past.  Yes, some of the old people holding up “Hands Off” picket signs will vote for them, but they are a minority—one I believe is shrinking because their worst fears of SSA and Medicaid cuts, Trump becoming a dictator, rampant inflation, etc. aren’t being (and won’t be) realized. All their protests now, and whatever they might conjure up in the coming years (like the foolish “occupy Wall Street”), will fizzle because they don’t really know what they hope to accomplish by protesting. They wallow in their hatred and to them, it just feels good like an alcoholic taking a drink.

It could work if the opposing candidate really were a failure, and you had something you could identify to protest and fix. Unless we have a massive unexpected domestic or global crisis, either natural or manufactured—Trump will not be fooled again by a COVID sequel—I believe in the coming years American lives will be better, the debt will start to diminish, the stock market will flourish, government will be smaller, and there will be more jobs than people to fill them. AOC will have nothing to run on that will offer people more hope in their future than what will have already been delivered by the Trump 2.0 administration.

In 2028, Republicans need to put up a “Trump 3.0” candidate who should be equally capable of communicating a powerful and positive vision addressing the most pressing needs, and a plan to accomplish it. No more weak John McCains or George Bushes. The swamp is deep, our economy is in trouble, the world is unstable, we rely too much on other countries for things we can make here (but the private sector faces incredible challenges to accomplish that), our schools and colleges are corrupted, and we’re only just getting started on improving the security of our elections. There is far more work that needs to be done than the four years Trump 2.0 has.  We should appreciate the accomplishments of this bold administration, but we cannot become complacent.

Image: DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.