No matter what you think of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, you have to admire her passion and her willingness to get involved in the political process.  She has done something great at a very young age.  Having said that, she needs to prove that she is not just a series of tweets and taglines.  She needs to prove that she can legislate.  Otherwise she’s about to learn a very hard lesson.  No one, including democrats, have to work with her simply because of her ability to generate headlines.  Every person in the public eye needs to step up perform, or they don’t hold on to that privilege.

Eventually she will understand that while social media connects young people, and it a powerful tool due to its reach, it won’t actually help her legislate.  We fortunately don’t live in an autocracy and even our President can’t simply do whatever he wants.  In some ways, she is acting like him but on the opposite end of the spectrum.  And just because she believes she is on the correct side of history, doesn’t mean she’s right.  Every dictator thinks he’s right.

So now it’s time for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez to put down her cell phone and start figuring out the process of legislation.  It’s not as simply as she may think. In fact, at this point, other than being appointed to a committee, she has absolutely no idea of how the system works.  The greatest part of a democratic republic is that there must be some kind of consensus in order to govern.  But the worst part, as we are now experiencing, is that there can be gridlock or worse, nothing gets accomplished.  Wile I respect her youth it’s not helping her at this point.

There’s a reason why the Framers of the Constitution required a presidential candidate to be 35-years of age.  That was decided in a time where the average person didn’t live to be 75-years-old.  They recognized the value of living a certain number of years before being charged with such a monumental task.  And it wasn’t nearly as monumental as it is today as we’ve added a few States and a few people since then. Experience mattered and matters.

In no way do I agree with her policies or anything she proposes, mostly because I’m a realist and I’ve lived a lot more life than she but I respect her for at least trying to accomplish what she believes in.  That’s what’s missing from our modern society; Civil Discourse.  Climate change, Medicare for all or whatever you want to call it, and immigration reform, to name just a few, are all important issues but can not be accomplished simultaneously and certainly not in a year or two.  Furthermore, a comprehensive plan of how to accomplish these goals must be penned if anything is to happen.  There are many steps.  Anything other than that realization is simply fantasy.

Ocasio-Cortez needs more practical experience, more knowledge and more life experience and I’m sure she will realize what she’s done right and what she’s done wrong, when looking back.  The immediate issue for her is that she’s not making fans of many in her own party and that’s bad because Congress People only serve for two years.  So if she accomplishes nothing but a series of Tweets and Instagram messages in these two years, she may realize that those who voted for her, follow her, look up to her and gave her this incredible opportunity, may lose faith in her ability to govern and therefore to help them.  Taglines, headlines and popularity are great if you’re running for Junior High School President but that doesn’t work when there are real consequences at stake.