The Politics of Public Criticism

Ocasio-Cortez’s public criticism of Democratic leadership isn’t naïve, it’s deliberate.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has dominated news cycles since her unlikely primary win in June due to her unique approach to consensus building.

Unlike most other politicians, Ocasio-Cortez has not been shy about airing her disagreements with her party leadership in the media. Before her swearing in, Ocasio-Cortez attended a protest where she showed support for environmental justice advocates occupying Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s office. This is a remarkable departure from the standard for freshman congresspeople, who are expected to keep their heads down and pay their dues to win the favor of party leadership.

Some people have criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s strategy. They argue that publicly criticizing her colleagues is naïve and will inhibit her ability to effectively move her policy agenda forward in Congress. I strongly disagree.

Ocasio-Cortez isn’t failing to navigate the traditional political landscape; she’s playing by an entirely different set of rules. Her strategy is to rally public support for progressive politics, and use this national media attention to pressure Democratic leadership into adjusting their priorities.

Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the first leftist activist to employ a “inside-outside” strategy of both participating in the political system while agitating public opinion. Last January, a group of tenants rights activists pushed for California Assemblymember David Chiu’s bill to repeal Costa-Hawkins, a statewide law which repeals rent control, to be brought to a vote. On the day of the vote, hundreds of activists packed the capital with banners and chants to advocate for the bill. The bill failed to make it out of committee.

In order to bring the bill to a vote, activists publicly criticized Chiu for failing to move the bill forward handed out negative flyers at his public events. Many political operatives criticized the activists for being short-sighted. They asked why activists would criticize one of the only tenants rights advocates in the legislature, and felt helping Chiu negotiate with other legislatures behind closed doors would have resulted in a better outcome for the bill in question.

These tenants activists weren’t naïve in their strategy. Activists were aware and supportive of the fact that advocates were working with Chiu behind closed doors but had little faith that the bill would advance in any meaningful capacity. Despite the fact that the Democrats have a supermajority in the legislature, the party has not made tenants rights a priority in their platform. Last session an incredibly modest tenants rights bill that was watered down to the point of only extending the required amount of leeway a tenant has to pay rent before they’re evicted by just two days failed to make it out of committee. Understanding this dynamic, activists took the Costa-Hawkins bill as an opportunity to try to attract media attention and raise public consciousness about tenants rights. After all, it’s a lot easier to pass legislation when the public is aware of and publicly calling for the Party to prioritize the issue.

On many fronts, our political system is failing to meet the needs of working people. As activists demanding political changes outside of the norms of our current two party system, we should evaluate our success not only on our ability to make nice with Democratic Party leadership, but our ability to build a longstanding movement by winning public support for our initiatives.

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