Rich Lowry: Sorry, Democrats, but your stars are socialists

There was Bernie Sanders at the Fox News Channel town hall, not giving up an inch to a forum that every Democratic presidential candidate has avoided.

His reward was a cataract of good reviews and monster odds. Sanders had a good time trying to reach people who were not supportive of his worldview, demonstrating at least that he was willing to show himself outside his political silo.

Why did not any of the other Democrats do it before? Because they lacked Sanders' ideology and self-confidence, as well as the independent tendency to thwart the Democratic Party's attempt to maintain the front line against Fox. As a candidate for the message, Sanders is ready to take it everywhere.

President Nancy Pelosi, miraculously transformed into a relatively moderate Democratic state woman, naturally refuted the idea that she was heading a socialist party defined by some radicals in the House.

On "60 minutes," she firmly stated, "I reject socialism as an economic system, if people have that view, that's their point of view." That's not the case. Opinion of the Democratic Party ". She called the left wing of her caucus "five people".

In numbers, that's true, but it's the wrong way to count.

The fact is that the party's most convincing stars are self-proclaimed socialists, capable of arousing controversy and attracting media attention, and following the masses closely. Pelosi may not want this to be true, but the number of polls, the number of fundraisers and the number of followers do not lie.

Sanders ranks second, sometimes first, reliably in national and state presidential polls. He outperformed everyone else on the ground and, with his massive base of small donors, could probably continue to do so throughout the project. More than anyone, he defined the current program of the Democratic Party.

It will be much more difficult to argue that the Democratic Party is not socialist when it chooses one as a candidate for the presidency, which everyone pays attention to realizes that it is not a socialist party. is a real possibility.

If this happens, it will not be the work of conservatives who hope to negatively brand the Democrats, but the faithful of the party. The same goes for the fame of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It is often said that conservatives are "obsessed" with it; maybe, but the same thing is true – and probably even more so – of all the others.

AOC made the cover of Time magazine, Rolling Stone (with Nancy Pelosi, as it happens), Hollywood Reporter and Bloomberg Businessweek. Annie Leibovitz photographed her for Vogue. She was interviewed by "60 Minutes".

She has nearly 4 million followers on Twitter and more than 3 million followers on Instagram, where she feeds the haunting obsession of her fans – not her critics – with videos of her apartment.

She was among the top 10 Democrats in the House who raised funds in the first quarter and had the highest percentage of small donors (her ally, Ilhan Omar, also excelled).

It is obvious that Pelosi is upset to see a majority of the House built by carefully avoiding ideological extravagance and won in diverted marginal neighborhoods, at least in terms of public attention, by some new students and a Vermont Socialist 77 years old.

They might not define the party's center of gravity at the moment, and radical freshmen have lost most of their struggles with Pelosi. But there is a reason why they are so famous, with such a fundraising feat. Bernie Sanders' crusade purity has an inherent appeal, and the freshman scandal is attracting attention, which is still attracting more attention.

Yes, there are a lot of Democrats who are not on Twitter or Instagram. There may be enough to name Joe Biden, or a Pete Buttigieg can win on a progressive platform dressed in moderate behavior.

But the stars of the party will have something to say about it. The great Zionist Theodor Herzl said: "It's the simple and the fantastic that leads men." As Bernie Sanders has shown, he is also ready to follow Fox News.

Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review. [email protected]