As Ocasio-Cortez said in her video endorsing Sanders, “This is not just about running for president. The movement has crossed a key threshold: For the first time in decades, the American left has a powerful presence in electoral politics. Believe it or not, there was a time when democratic socialists were active in shaping the American political agenda. But for the most part, leftist politicians and their policy ideas were excluded from influence in American politics — not that their absence stopped Republicans labeling anything Democrats put forward as socialist. Finally, in Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and other officeholders around the country, there is once again an electorally powerful American left that will endure beyond one politician or one election.

Source: Washington Post October 20, 2019 22:30 UTC