Why AOC Will Never Be President

Even this late in the Campaign Season, there are still those Democrats who hope that old and bewildered Joe Biden will step aside for a younger, stronger candidate. And when that comes up in conversation, so does the name Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but AOC will never be president.

The self-described “Democratic-Socialist” has become one of Congress’s biggest celebrities. Despite being a junior member of the House, AOC has a fervent cultural following – and just as many haters in today’s polarized America.

But it’s that very celebrity that puts her name in the presidential conversation either as a “Biden Alternative” or a run sometime in the future, but AOC has no chance of ever occupying the Oval Office, and here is why.

Before getting into any of her ultra-left policies and her support of Hamas and the Palestinians over Israel, which alone should keep her out of the White House, she is clearly unqualified for office simply because she is a “celebrity” and not a politician. AOC is more akin to a “TikTok Influencer” than she is a typical legislator. All flash, no substance.

In an interview with GQ a while back, AOC herself saw that the White House is probably out of reach for her, but for very different reasons.

“My experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color,” AOC said, Summoning her Sterling K. Brown-like ability to cry on demand. AOC added, with tears in her eyes, “It’s very difficult for me to talk about.”

Politically speaking, AOC’s statement is on-brand; she’s an expert, rivaled only by Donald Trump, at framing herself as the victim. But with respect to logic or reality, AOC’s statement is absurd.

For one, the majority of Americans, 50.52 percent, are women. Further, 66 million people voted for a woman, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 presidential election. Indeed, Hillary won the popular vote, earning about three million more votes than the man in the race, Donald Trump.

And right now, a woman of color, Kamala Harris, is currently serving as vice president – and is commonly understood to be Biden’s most likely successor.

AOC’s own experience offers a counterpoint to her claim that she’s unelectable because “people in this country hate women.”

But the absurdity of the statement and the irony of the circumstances all tie in closely with AOC’s default framing and her greatest talent: making herself the victim and getting people to talk about her, respectively.

Concerning framing herself as the victim, there’s not really a situation AOC can’t spin into making about how she was wronged somehow. Consider AOC’s past endorsement of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. During her initial campaign, she promised not to endorse Pelosi. Once elected, she began her tenure by endorsing Pelosi. When AOC was criticized for pulling a 180 on a campaign promise just a few days into her tenure, she played the victim card.

And she has done so time and time again, weeping openly after being “forced” to vote for aid for Israel, video of which garnered her millions of hits on Instagram, Twitter, etc.

And that is why AOC won’t be president – not because “Americans hate women” – but because she’s not a serious politician and she’s not a serious reformer. Her primary pursuit is not progressivism but the accumulation of social capital. AOC is simply not worthy of the office.