merits

Like any other would-be autocrat, President-elect Donald Trump is selecting people for key positions overseeing the military and legal system based not on objective merits but their personal loyalty to one man: in this case, a 78-year-old Republican who felt betrayed in his first term when more-or-less qualified cabinet officials would balk at some of his more extreme demands.

But several parents and other adults in the Moreno Valley community said that Perez’s inappropriate and racially charged outburst merits serious disciplinary action.

And Ocasio-Cortez has outsider credibility that other potential candidates—Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, all of whom have their merits but are, at heart, professional-class overachievers—do not.

Now, on the merits, Ocasio-Cortez is more well known nationally than O’Rourke was, has a more substantive legislative record than he did, would likely find it easier than he did to raise money, and has a more established identity.

Whatever the policy merits are, it doesn’t appear to be benefiting Democrats politically.