They are like a classic comedy team crafted in a1950s Hollywood studio. There’s the old and grump straight man, Sen. Bernie Sanders set in his Marxist ways, and there’s the young, bubbly comedian Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, always smiling or dancing or making cute TikTok videos.
Last week, Sanders & AOC launched a national tour to perform for tens of thousands. The Democrats’ dynamic duo even played Vegas, where they insisted attendees don COVID masks (no, seriously). The question is, why are they on the road?
The 2026 midterm elections are more than 19 months away, so why would two Democrats whose seats are safe as houses spend millions of dollars and untold man hours on this traveling circus today?
The answer is that Sanders & AOC are confronting an emergency, just not the one they say they are. They want you to think the emergency is President Donald Trump’s second term, but the real emergency is that America is firmly rejecting their brand of far-left progressivism.
Make no mistake, old man Sanders and his spunky sidekick aren’t really fighting against Trump, they are fighting to maintain ideological control of a Democratic Party that right now might be the least popular major party in American history.
In the aftermath of Kamala Harris’ embarrassing defeat in November, all fingers were pointed at wokeness to explain the Democrats’ woes. From men in women’s sports and open borders, to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and ending private health insurance, the far left has been rejected at every turn.
So here come Sanders & AOC in their hilariously named ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour, this from two people who never saw a big bundled donation from George Soros that they wouldn’t greedily accept.
And yes, they perform some tired old material about Trump supposedly tearing down Democratic norms, or Elon Musk swimming in a pool of stolen social security money like Scrooge McDuck. But the real story is in the new material.
Take this from AOC, for example, ‘This isn’t just about Republicans,’ she opined in Arizona. ‘We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us. That means each and every one of us choosing and voting for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class. I want you to look at every level of office around and support Democrats who fight, because those are the ones who can actually win against Republicans.’
Not lately, congresswoman.
On Sunday, the Democratic Socialists of America, who launched Ocasio-Cortez’s career, were protesting in New York City to demand that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer step down for refusing to pointlessly shut down the government this month.
These are desperate last gasps. Since 2008, when the party of Bill Clinton, once the moderate Democratic savior, became the party of Barack Obama, the Democrats have lurched so far left that their most sacred shibboleths of wokeism appear to most Americans as beyond parody.
Sanders & AOC are well aware that as they continue to try to sell gender bending, the green new deal, and endless illegal immigration, there are lean and hungry Democrats like Rep. Ritchie Torres D-NY, Sen. John Fetterman D-PA, and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo who are ready to remake the party in their more centrist image.
Even fellow comedian and TV Host Bill Maher is sticking it to Sanders & AOC by accepting a friendly invitation to meet with Trump. His message is clear; screaming, ‘THIS ISN’T NORMAL!!!’ over and over again isn’t working and never will.
This Burns & Allen act that Sanders & AOC have going on is meant to spur the Democratic faithful into revolt against semi-normal party leaders, the kind who won’t encourage the destruction of Teslas or stand around outside empty DC office buildings singing 1960s resistance songs off-key.
Those more centrist Democrats have the upper hand now, and they know it. This is why instead of barnstorming the country with political celebrities, they are biding their time, building their war chests, and plotting a new course for their party.
In the end, don’t be surprised if Sanders & AOC’s Fighting Oligarchy Tour turns out to be the final goodbye tour of socialism in the Democratic Party and in our national politics.
The American people gave the party of Obama a good fair chance and, for their trouble, wound up in a deeply divided nation overwhelmed by illegal immigration, a crushing cost of living and frankly, a stark and troubling lack of patriotism.
Put another way, the party of Obama has failed, and no matter how many times Sanders & AOC yuk it up for a crowd of liberal college-educated women, that fact and its electoral consequences are not going to change.