A young man from Westchester sails the seas, slowly but
determinate in rising the deck officer ranks. His high school classmate is a
news-garnering Congresswoman representing Queens, New York.
If there was a congressional district that resembled the
neglect of “plantation politics”, the 14th district of New York,
located in the borough of Queens, is a sure bet. Much attention is paid to the
competitive congressional races in the suburbs of Long Island and Staten
Island. Names of White-Ethnic pols like Max Rose, Dan Donovan, Anthony Wiener,
Peter King, and Lee Zeldin permeate the national airwaves. But politically
speaking, vast swaths of low-rise, diverse urban neighborhoods go unheard. This
is flyover country in New York; elevated subway lines and commuter trains from
the economic behemoth of Lower Manhattan squeak brake dust as they speed
through the street life of immigrant and low-income Queens, en-route to the
suburbs.
It was here that Joe Crowley, a Queens Democratic Machine
insider, was elected every two years to Congress without facing a serious
primary challenge. In this district and many other inner cities, the general
election is a “mole hill”, to quote the 2014 words of failed Maryland
gubernatorial candidate Lt Gov. Anthony Brown. That “mole hill” is surmounting
nominal Republican and independent challengers in the November elections.
Crowley, a politically run-of-the-mill Democrat without
clear convictions, harvested votes that afforded him and his family a
comfortable life in Northern Virginia. He and his family rarely spend time in
the New York neighborhoods which he was elected to represent.
His district was low-hanging fruit ready for disruption. A
young women with a Twitter account ended Western Queens’ political malaise. Her
name is Alexandra Occasio-Cortez, or AOC for short, raised in the
high-expectations suburbs of Westchester. According to my shipmate, Westchester
was a cauldron of high performers, who’d use their talents and guts to forge a
path in the world. He became a merchant ship’s officer, she moved to inner-city
Queens to become a waitress.
Though politically immature, AOC was able to see
opportunity. Parts of the 14th district had become gentrified by
upwardly mobile, mostly White newcomers. It was in this economically privileged
(though student-debt-laden) sphere that hyper-progressive AOC secured her
majority in the 2018 democratic primary.
Under New York law, Crowley’s name still appeared on the
general election ballot under the Working People Party line. He had cruised for
decades under the precept that disengaged voters would instinctively “vote for
the democrat”. Running on the Democratic line, Joe Crowley regularly secured
40-point victories against the opposition parties. But Joe Crowley had no
brand; and this was not nearby Connecticut where Senator Joe Lieberman avenged
a primary loss by running, and being elected as, an independent. Joe Crowley
decided not to campaign, and on election night, he garnered a mere 7% of the
vote, despite his decades in office and his name still appearing on the ballot.
This was not a story of progressive versus moderate, but a question of passion
and attention to the voters.
“My crazy classmate”, utters our merchant ship officer from
the helm.
