PRIMARY OCASIO-CORTEZ? YEAH, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.

Some ignorant jamoke in the Democratic Party thinks this is a good idea:

At least one House Democrat has been privately urging members of the New York delegation to recruit a local politician from the Bronx or Queens to challenge [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez.

“What I have recommended to the New York delegation is that you find her a primary opponent and make her a one-term congressperson,” the Democratic lawmaker, who requested anonymity, told The Hill. “You’ve got numerous council people and state legislators who’ve been waiting 20 years for that seat. I’m sure they can find numerous people who want that seat in that district.”

Do you know what happens if Ocasio-Cortez is primaried? Remember, she's admired nationwide, so she'll immediately begin fund-raising on a massive scale. She'll have the potential to raise Beto-level money, all of it in small donations. She also has star power and -- to put it mildly -- the hacks and wannabes who make up the Democratic Party's bench here in the city generally have about as much charisma as a vending-machine sandwich on white bread.

Do you know what else happens if Ocasio-Cortez is primaried? The Democratic Party -- in a presidential election year -- sends the message to young (and not-so-young) progressives that it doesn't welcome them in its ranks. What a smart thing to do in a year when the president absolutely has to be defeated. You think Hillary Clinton giving Wall Street speeches was an unforced error? This could potentially be even bigger.

Look, I get it: Many in the Democratic Party don't want to have a huge fight with the plutocracy. The Democrats who don't have the chops to raise money the way Beto did need that sweet, sweet corporate cash. Democrats seem to have the wind at their backs right now, with even the high muckamucks of capitalism beginning to realize that Donald Trump is a menace -- but it's clear that the corpocracy would still rather have Trump and the end of America as we know it than a tax uptick that threatens the purchase of that third yacht. I understand that mainstream Democrats don't want to risk rubbing the Masters of the Universe the wrong way.

But economic progressivism is here to stay. It's in the DemocratIc tent now, and according to the polls it's quite popular.

Much of the public is receptive to both hardcore progressive messages and sincere reformist gradualism -- but the old status quo has got to go. So seriously, hacks, don't even think about challenging AOC. And don't think about redistricting her out of Congress, as someone suggested on Twitter this morning -- if you do that, she'll just move a couple of subway stops away (NYC is densely populated and the districts are physically compact), at which point she'll jut take out another incumbent. You don't want that, do you?