Politics
'Working-Class-Centered Politics' Is Key to Defeating 'Scourge of Authoritarianism': AOC in Munich
"It is of the utmost urgency that we get our economic houses in order and deliver material gains for the working class."
US Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday made a pitch for a "working-class-centered politics" as the key to defeating the kind of authoritarianpopulism embodied by PresidentDonald Trump.
Speaking at apanel at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that decades of government failures such as the North American FreeTrade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 2003Iraq War had opened the door for demagogues such as Trump among working-class voters.
The only way to defeat this, she said, is to reorient progressive politics around social class.
"We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed," she said, "and also if we are going to stave off the scourge ofauthoritarianism, which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for risingeconomic inequality, both domestically and globally."
AOC: We have to have aworking class centered politics, if we are going to succeed and also if we are going to stave off the scourges of authoritarianism which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economicinequalitypic.twitter.com/USqgTk3brd
— Acyn (@Acyn)February 13, 2026
Elsewhere during the panel, Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on the way economic inequality fuels the demand for authoritarian leaders.
"We're seeing, in economy across economy around the world, including in theUnited States," she said, "that extreme levels ofincome inequality lead to social instability and drives in a sense in authoritarianism,right-wing populism and very dangerous domestic internal politics. And that is a direct outcome of, not just income inequality, but the failure of democracies over decades to deliver, the failure to deliver higher wages, the failure to rein in corporations."
AOC: We’re seeing economies around the world — including in the United States — where extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability and, in a sense, drive authoritarianism…
That is a direct outcome not just of income inequality, but of the failure of…pic.twitter.com/0EHsbyqdFK
— Acyn (@Acyn)February 13, 2026
The New York Democrat argued that the situation had grown so dire that many corporate CEOs now had more power and influence than democratically elected leaders.
"When massive corporations begin to consume the public sector and gobble up public spending, they start to call the shots," she said. "And we’re starting to see this with some members of the billionaire class throwing their weight around in domestic and global politics."
Given this situation, Ocasio-Cortez added, "it is of the utmost urgency that we get our economic houses in order and deliver material gains for the working class," or else "we will fall into a more isolated world governed by authoritarians who also do not deliver for working people."
'Most Vile Scumbags on Earth': Critics Appalled by Explosive Report on Kristi Noem's Corruption
"Noem and Lewandowski are like the most toxic couple you have ever met given full rein of a government agency."
An explosive report published by theWall Street Journalon Thursday shed fresh light on what critics have described as "outrageouscorruption" by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Among other things, theJournal report highlighted Noem's relationship with top adviser Corey Lewandowski, whom sources said is romantically involved with the Trump Cabinet official despite both of them being married.
Of particular note, theJournal wrote, is the way Lewandowski has taken over the contracting process at theUS Department of Homeland Security (DHS) despite being classified as a special government employee whose service is supposed to be capped at a maximum of 130 days per year.
"Given Lewandowski’s continuing business interests in the private sector, his role in awarding contracts has raised alarm bells inside theWhite House and DHS," reported theJournal. "Several officials inside the department said contracts and grants are being awarded in an opaque and arbitrary manner, and some are being held up without explanation."
The report also claimed that Noem and Lewandowski have been flying around the country together on a luxury 737 MAX jet, complete with a private cabin.
DHS has been leasing the plane, although theJournal's sources said it is in the process of buying it for $70 million, which "would be double the cost of each of seven other commercial planes the department is also buying at the pair’s direction to carry outdeportations."
Additionally, the report outlined allegedly abusive behavior by Noem and Lewandowski toward DHS staff members, as sources said they "frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust, and have fired employees," including one incident where "Lewandowski fired a US Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane."
The report generated fierce reaction from critics onsocial media.
"Noem and Lewandowski are like the most toxic couple you have ever met,"wroteNew York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, "given full rein of a government agency."
Veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozendescribed Noem and Lewandowski as "the most vile scumbags on Earth" after reading the report, highlighting the details about the pair flying on the luxury jet as particularly egregious.
Investigative journalist Sarah Posner found herself floored by the conduct outlined in theJournal's report.
"There is so much crazy shit, outrageous corruption, and naked, ham-fisted ambition in thisWSJ piece about Noem, Lewandowski, and DHS," shewrote. "Read and take note of the of eye-popping number of sources who have knives out for Kristi and Corey."
Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.)argued the report showed Noem and Lewandowski "are wholly unqualified and a disaster at DHS," and have been "been very effective in driving [President Donald] Trump’s ratings into the ditch."
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief ofMeidasTouch, expressed disbelief at how much power Lewandowski had accumulated despite only being a special government employee.
"How the fuck is Corey Lewandowski in any position to fire a Coast Guard pilot?" heasked. "What is his title? What is his job? What is his official position in the US government? If you are Kristi Noem’s boyfriend you get to fire Coast Guard officers?"
Trump Effort 'To Rig Our Elections Is Well Underway,' Experts Warn
One expert expressed fear that "something truly spectacular is going to happen in which our 2026 midterm elections are not administered like past elections have been."
A pair of experts warned this week that PresidentDonald Trump is clearly telegraphing his intention to meddle in the 2026midterm elections.
Stephen Richer, former recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, said during aninterview withThe Atlantic published Wednesday that he's grown worried that "something truly spectacular is going to happen in which our 2026 midterm elections are not administered like past elections have been."
When asked to flesh out how Trump could potentially rig the upcoming elections, Richer said it was unlikely that he woulddeploy USImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to polling places across the country, if for no other reason than he lacks the manpower to accomplish such an operation.
However, Richer did express concern about the president's ability to muddy waters in tight races and put pressure on his Republican allies to refuse to seat Democratic winners when he is claiming there are disputes about the results.
"Where I think President Trump is most potent is still in the post-election procedures," he explained, "still in sowing doubt in the minds of enough Americans that they don’t think the elections are legitimate and, therefore... the Congress doesn’t have to seat its new members. That’s certainly a popular theory that’s floating about: that SpeakerMike Johnson (R-La.), the outgoing speaker, will choose not to seat the new members, because they’re in allegedly disputed elections."
Richer argued that California could be particularly vulnerable to this, since the state infamously takes so long to finish tallying its votes.
In aNew York Times editorialpublished Thursday, Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center for Justice'svoting rights and elections program, argued that Trump's "campaign to rig our elections is well underway," and he pointed to the president's masspardon last year of rioters who violently stormed the US Capitol onJanuary 6, 2021 as the beginning of his election subversion campaign.
"We have every reason to expect more actions like these in the coming months," wrote Morales-Doyle. "A few weeks ago, Mr. Trump reiterated his threats to prosecute election officials who ran the 2020 election. Just days later,FBI agents seized ballots and election records from 2020 in Fulton County, Georgia."
However, Morales-Doyle also said there was reason to believe that the American system can withstand the president's assault on its election integrity, and he gave a nod toward several efforts across the country to fight back, including states resisting Trump's demands to hand over their voter rolls and Democrats refusing to let new voter suppression legislation pass through Congress.
"We are already seeing how effective people can be in pushing back," he concluded, "whether on the streets of Minneapolis or at town halls hosted by their representatives in Congress. It will be incumbent on all of us—election officials, advocates, state law enforcement, and voters—to see the administration’s efforts for what they are and to fight back."
‘What a Surprise’: Sanders Undeterred by Bezos-Owned Washington Post's Dismissal of AI Data Center Pause
“Jeff Bezos is spending $200 billion on AI and robotics. Jeff Bezos is replacing hundreds of thousands of his workers at Amazon with robots. Jeff Bezos owns theWashington Post.”
TheWashington Posteditorial board went to the trouble ofmarking what it called "Bernie Sanders' worst idea yet" on Wednesday, but the progressive US senator shrugged at the label and didn't appear likely to end his push for amoratorium on the construction of newartificial intelligence data centers.
The conservative-leaning editors wrote glowingly of the "mind-blowing amounts of information" that AI data centers can process and dismissively said that businesses that have invested billions of dollars in AI have erroneously been cast as the "villain in the socialist imagination."
They decried "AI doomerism" by politicians and accused lawmakers like Sanders (I-Vt.) of "fearmongering" about the data centers'water consumption andenvironmental harms—but neglected to mention that the rapid expansion of the massive centers has sparked grassroots outrage, with communities in states includingMichigan andWisconsin demanding that tech giants stay out of their towns, fearing skyrocketingelectricity bills among other impacts.
Sanders emphasized that thePost and its owner, Amazon founderJeff Bezos, have a vested interest in dismissing efforts to stop the AI build-out that PresidentDonald Trump has demanded with his executive orderaimed at stopping states from regulating the industry.
Bezos, one of the richest people on the planet,created an AI startup last year with $6.2 billion in funding, some of it from his personal fortune, and Amazon—where Bezos is still the primary shareholder—hasannounced plans to invest $200 billion in AI and robotics.
"What a surprise," said Sanders sardonically. "TheWashington Postdoesn't want a moratorium on AI data centers."
Ben Inskeep, a program director for Citizens Action Coalition in Indiana,suggested the editorial board couldn't express its opposition to Sanders' proposal for a moratorium without including "an admission that it is a paid attack dog for Jeff Bezos," pointing to its required disclosure that Bezos' company is in fact investing billions of dollars in AI.
Onsocial media, Sanders followed his response to thePost's attack with a video in which he doubled down on his objections to AI, despite the editorial board's accusation that he and others "grandstand" on the issue and its insistence that he should "be ecstatic about how much AI can helpworkers."
Sanders said in the video that "AI and robotics are a huge threat to theworking class of this country."
"We have got to be prepared to say as loud and clear as we can that thistechnology is not just going to benefit the billionaires who own it," he said, "but it's going to work for the working families of our country."