Jacques Mallet Du Pan, the 18th Century journalist who chronicled the French Revolution, famously warned that, “Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.”
Mallet Du Pan’s admonition should be particularly relevant to current Democratic officeholders. On Tuesday, New York Congressman Joe Crowley became the latest prominent Democrat to be devoured by his party’s radical immigration stances. If there was a more vocal advocate for amnesty and mass immigration, and a more adamant opponent of immigration enforcement than Crowley, it was not for lack of effort on his part.
Notwithstanding his relentless efforts in the cause of open immigration, Crowley went down to defeat in Tuesday’s primary election at the hands of an even more radical 28-year-old self-described Democratic-Socialist political neophyte, who a year ago was waiting tables. In her successful challenge, Alexandria Ocasio-Corte, blasted Crowley for not going far enough in his commitment to unrestricted immigration, including the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Crowley merely called the agency “fascistic,” and avocated for putting ICE “back on its leash.”
Ocasio-Corte made note of the fact that New York’s 14th Congressional District, covering parts of Queens and The Bronx, has undergone significant demographic changes since Crowley was first elected in 1998. About half of all district residents are now immigrants – a significant number of whom are illegal aliens, or members of mixed status families.
As a profile of Ocasio-Corte in In These Times observed, her challenge to the powerful 56-year-old Chairman of the House Democratic caucus is emblematic of a nationwide move to push out the old-guard party leadership and replace them with people who represent the party’s far-left base.
Crowley is not the first old-guard immigration enthusiast to be devoured by the mass immigration revolution he led. Long-time California Congressman Howard Berman, who used his seat on the Judiciary Committee to push relentlessly for ever-more immigration, was similarly dismissed by a constituency that was radically transformed through mass immigration.
The Democratic Party establishment has been playing with fire on immigration. The massive influx of immigrants – about half of whom rely on means-tested public assistance programs – does result in more Democratic voters. It does not necessarily benefit the Democrats who have fostered mass immigration. And, as the party gets driven inexorably toward Democratic Socialism by a growing base of government-dependent voters, many more establishment Democrats are likely to find themselves devoured by the Revolution.