The Banality of Insurgency

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst into Congress, a twenty-nine-year-old bartender and socialist defeating a fifty-seven-year-old white male, beneficiary of longtime voter quiescence, a narrative was born: insurgency!

And she wasn’t the only one that year. That same year, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar also joined Congress. In New York State and around the country, young challengers (many of them socialists or serious progressives) enjoyed similar success in state and local elections, beating long-entrenched, mostly mediocre-to-awful incumbents. Insurgency has been a great PR coup for the Left. It’s also invited some inspiring...