Dems Turn on Each Other After Amazon Debacle, Ocasio-Cortez at the Center of It All
The Democrat party in New York seems to have finally found its arch-enemy: the Democrat party in New York.
In the latest in a series of bad public relations debacles for the liberal party, Democrat officials seem to have formed a circular firing squad of finger-pointing after retail giant Amazon announced they won’t be building a massive headquarters in the Empire state after all.
The major employer had previously looked at several locations for a new campus, which would have been expected to bring billions in revenue and tens of thousands of jobs. Amazon, run by liberal billionaire Jeff Bezos, initially indicated that they’d be investing in New York, but it looks like that deal has fallen apart.
“After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens,” declared Amazon representative Jodi Seth, according to CNN.
The company went out of its way to make it known that politicians — many of them liberals — were at the center of their decision to pull out from the deal.
“(A) number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,” the Amazon statement continued.
One of those politicians is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat socialist congresswoman who seemed to openly brag about … er, keeping 25,000 jobs out of the state she represents.
“Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world,” the socialist posted on Twitter, as if blocking new jobs were some great accomplishment.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, himself a Democrat, expressed much more frustration about the lost deal.
“We competed in and won the most hotly contested national economic development competition in the United States, resulting in at least 25,000-40,000 good paying jobs for our state and nearly $30 billion dollars in new revenue to fund transit improvements, new housing, schools and countless other quality of life improvements,” he pointed out, seeming to distance himself from those who were celebrating Amazon’s reversal.
The liberal governor didn’t call out Ocasio-Cortez by name but certainly seemed to direct some of his ire at the lost opportunity towards her.
“However, a small group politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community — which poll after poll showed overwhelmingly supported bringing Amazon to Long Island City — the state’s economic future and the best interests of the people of this state,” he wrote.
“The New York State Senate has done tremendous damage,” Cuomo blasted. “They should be held accountable for this lost economic opportunity.”
Once again, reality has reared its ugly head. It turns out that individuals and corporations alike are wary of high-tax, expensive states, and are willing to “vote with their feet” if an area isn’t offering them economic or tax advantages.
The idea that people avoid places that are hostile toward business and gravitate to locations that welcome them with pro-growth policies is Economics 101, but then again, politicians like Ocasio-Cortez seem clueless about even these basics.
As the young congresswoman continues to butt heads with fellow Democrats from Nancy Pelosi to Chuck Schumer and now Andrew Cuomo, it will be interesting to watch which way the liberal party slides in the coming months. Far left progressives like Ocasio-Cortez may have the media spotlight right now, but they may be in for a surprise if they keep angering power brokers on their own side of the aisle.
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