Opinion

This week, the simmering conflict in the House Democratic Caucus boiled over when freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finally fought back against Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi. This public feud shines daylight on a conflict that has quietly been occurring since 2016: the Democratic Civil War – moderates versus socialists.

The votes are still being counted in last week’s Democratic primary for Queens District Attorney, with more than 3,500 absentee and provisional ballots separating leftist frontrunner Tiffany Cabán and establishment candidate Melinda Katz. Regardless of the outcome, leftists are now a mainstream force in Democratic primaries in local, state, and national contests. The moral strength of this force is built on idealism, closing the Rikers Island prison, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and financial reparations for descendants of slaves. In contrast to the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, which by design had no leaders or defined goals, today’s leftists have their national leaders, goals, and road map towards enacting policy changes.

In a dramatic turn of events, Melinda Katz has taken the lead in the Democratic Primary for District Attorney. At least, that’s the case as I write this column. By the time it appears, who knows. We are headed for manual recount. There will probably be court challenges and maybe even another election. But while the result of the primary may not be clear for a while, we can still learn some lessons by taking a closer look at the results.

Last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proved once again that she has the ability to define terms for the entire Democratic Party by labeling the detention centers where asylum seekers are awaiting trial with the term “concentration camps.” Instead of agreeing that the border detention facilities should be addressed in terms of improvement, and those facilities in no way mirror the atrocities of the Holocaust, a large swath of the political left rushed to Ocasio-Cortez’s defense. Many of those defenders pulled out their Jewish credentials when saying that the “concentration camp” label is correct. These Jewish defenders are willing to minimize the atrocities of the Holocaust for the opportunity to appease a freshman congresswoman and attack the Trump administration.

For the past six months, we have been complaining about Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. From conversations in shul, one would think that these three first-term members of Congress are the most serious threat facing the Jewish community.

I voted for Melinda Katz to be the next Queens District Attorney. Prior to the endorsement of self-described “queer Latina” Tiffany Caban by The New York Times, the term-limited Queens Borough President was not my first, nor second choice in the seven-person contest for the borough’s top prosecutor. But as the leftist picked up in momentum, there was no longer any other viable choice when it came to representing my community.