Interesting: AOC Had Let Her DSA Membership Lapse. She Just Re-Upped.

Some DSA members appear a little ticked that AOC has been advertising herself as a member but has let her membership lapse and failed to pay her 1 percent-2 percent income dues for seven years. 

Those dues, by the way, are the suggested ones for “affluent” members, and AOC most certainly qualifies with an income of $174,000 a year. 

Still, I suspect that no DSA member considers themselves “affluent” because they are all working class, you know. 

Personally, I don’t care if AOC stiffed the DSA of dues; what is much more interesting to me is that she is returning to the fold, even while contemplating either a run for president or Chuck Schumer’s seat in the Senate. 

It’s a signal that she and her advisors, who now appear to include some of the Obama Bros, think that the DSA will be a force to be reckoned with come 2028. 

This came to light after AOC’s exchange with Jon Karl, where she distinguished NYC-DSA from national DSA. That prompted some DSA leaders to dig into her membership records, where they found that the account tied to her name reflected a one-year membership that had lapsed years… pic.twitter.com/5o0SiZH5oe

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) August 25, 2026

This came to light after AOC’s exchange with Jon Karl, where she distinguished NYC-DSA from national DSA. That prompted some DSA leaders to dig into her membership records, where they found that the account tied to her name reflected a one-year membership that had lapsed years earlier.

Some members warned the finding might be incomplete, noting AOC could have held membership under another name or email, and urged further verification. But one NPC member said he had already spoken with AOC’s office and asked her to re-up her dues. The anti-AOC bloc treated her office’s decision to do so as confirmation that the membership had lapsed.

Obviously, the DSA is having a moment in the sun, but like most political movements, those moments tend to be relatively brief. Ross Perot went from hero to zero in a fairly short period of time, and the Tea Party, which dominated Republican politics for a couple of years, petered out fairly quickly. 

Now, given that 2028 is just around the corner, you could argue that AOC is just trying to ride a wave that may not have crested yet by late next year, when momentum begins to build for the top candidates for president. That is a reasonable assumption, but I am not certain that it is hers. 

AOC sends out a campaign fundraising email teasing questions about whether she will run for president or Senate.

“Can’t have both. I’ve made my choice” https://t.co/s84nvBMQKq pic.twitter.com/h8oOXCltUV

— AOCtracker (@AOCtracker) August 25, 2026

I think she is confident that the political movement that has elevated the DSA into a powerhouse is here to stay. 

I also think that the Organized Crime Democrats are worried that AOC is right, and that their time to dominate the party is coming to a close. Not in the sense that they can’t win some races, and perhaps the majority of them in any given election, but most certainly in the sense that they will no longer control the agenda. 

This is an artifact of the shift in the party’s base away from working-class union folks and black voters to the more radical, downwardly mobile scions of the educated elite, AWFLs, and the NGO complex. They will retain the support of radical unions like the teachers and the SEIU, and even the UAW (although not actual auto workers), which has branched off into representing professors and graduate students at universities. 

BREAKING: AOC overtakes Marco Rubio as second most likely to win the 2028 Presidency pic.twitter.com/vug6MUK4hn

— Kalshi (@Kalshi) August 26, 2026

These groups do not form a natural coalition, although they will vote in tandem for a period of time as the party civil war rages. But if you look at who is ascendant, it’s clearly not the OCDs, but the radicals. The issues are ICE, Palestine, socializing medicine and grocery stores, and, in urban areas, rent control. 

The Democrats are becoming the party of AOC and Mamdani, with a bunch of Islamists thrown in to leaven the bread, as it were. The closest the DSA gets to union electricians is Gustavo Gordillo, who was fired from his apprenticeship for being a no-show. 

The top DSA leader whose parents set him up in cushy Brooklyn digs short-circuited as a union electrician — and then convinced his socialist party comrades to pay him a near-six-figure salary, The Post has learned.

Former Yale University liberal arts student Gustavo Gordillo, 38, was fired from his apprenticeship program in March after ghosting his employer for months, meaning he never made it as a fully-credentialed electrician, the IBEW Local 3 union confirmed Wednesday.

“After learning of Mr. Gordillo’s prolonged absence from and failure to participate in required work and classes, the trustees of the Joint Apprentice Training Committee terminated Mr. Gordillo from the program,” the IBEW said in a statement.

Young Communist Unsettled To Find Hammer, Sickle Represent Physical Labor https://t.co/w0JXS4j0GK pic.twitter.com/gN3rpUFoH2

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 14, 2025

I know that most conservatives like to joke that AOC is as dumb as a box of rocks, but she has shown a remarkable amount of cunning in discerning political trends and building alliances. She went from calling Nancy Pelosi a racist to building an alliance with her in order to gain more influence in the House. 

Though the progressive wing of the party is ascendant and powerful, it lacks an obvious presidential candidate to carry the banner. Enter AOC, writes Mark Halperin. https://t.co/MDoNtDzu8N

— The Free Press (@TheFP) August 20, 2026

Mark Halperin, who thinks AOC has a shot at the presidency even if she is hardly a shoo-in, pointed out AOC’s cunning. 

AOC has been given credit for a pragmatic streak, including by Nancy Pelosi, a woman with whom she tangled constantly when she first arrived on Capitol Hill. “I think that she has been so operational,” Pelosi said recently, “and it’s just wonderful. I know it’s a joy to work with her, and I think most members think that.” From the former speaker, operational is high praise, and a word Pelosi does not throw around lightly.

Of course, AOC can be both right that renewing her DSA membership is a good move to gain power and influence in the Democrat Party and totally wrong that this is the direction the country is moving. The DSA may be able to win primaries in Deep Blue states while blowing the Democrats’ chances of winning over any swing voters. 

Clearly, there is a generational realignment within the Democrat Party, just as happened among Republicans over the past 10-15 years. We went from Bush and Romney to Trump and Vance. Democrats are having their own generational battle, and the younger folks are also the most radical. 

Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it’s spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there’s nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

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