Does God Love AOC?

Give credit to the New York Times for reporting this story. The nation’s coronavirus epicenter is to be found in a congressional district that includes parts of Bronx and Queens.

But, who represents this district in Congress? You guessed it: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Radical leftists are falling at her feet. But, apparently, God does not quite see her the same way. Could it be that the pandemic is a teachable moment for the voters who were dumb enough to vote for AOC.

The Times reports:

She represents the nation’s most devastated hot zone of the coronavirus outbreak.

New York’s 14th Congressional District, which includes the working-class immigrant clusters of the Bronx and Queens, has had 19,200 coronavirus cases as of April 30, more than all of Manhattan, despite having almost a million fewer people. Residents of the neighborhoods of Corona and North Corona in her district — the names are an eerie coincidence — have had more coronavirus cases than any ZIP code in the country.

Of course, Congressional Democrats are not as dumb as we think they are. They understand that AOC is an embarrassment. They know that the more she becomes the face of the party, the worse their electoral prospects become. And yet, she is so popular in certain quarters that they have to be extremely subtle about bringing her down.

But more personally, it has exposed the little-seen vulnerabilities and isolation of the most prominent new voice in Congress.

A case in point: Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had just returned from Washington after a vote last month on the latest relief bill in Congress. She was the only Democrat to vote against the $484 billion package that passed overwhelmingly. She had many problems with the measure: Generally, she found it far too generous to corporations and not to local governments, small businesses and people struggling to buy food or pay rent.

Several colleagues had told her they also disliked the legislation, but it was not until right before the vote that she realized she would be by herself. Passage was never in doubt, but to be the lone member of a caucus to vote a certain way carries its own stigma.

“Our brains are just designed to experience a lot of excruciating pain at the idea of being alone,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “When you cast those lonely votes, you feel like your colleagues respect you less, and that you are choosing to marginalize yourself.” It can be difficult to appreciate the “powerful psychology of the House floor,” she said, along with the overall social pressures of Congress.

So, she was the only Democrat to vote against the most recent stimulus bill. Her colleagues hung her out to dry. Good for her colleagues.

Needless to say, this modern exemplar of identity politics is also an incompetent imbecile. At the least, it gives her something to complain about:

She believed misconceptions had taken hold about her: that she was angry and strident. That she was naïve. “That I just don’t know how this town works,” she said. “That I’m stupid. Or I’m lucky. That was a big thing the Democrats were saying. That I was a fluke. Which is basically just 10 different ways of saying she’s not supposed to be here.”