She is center left. You could make that case. She is also an FDR Democrat. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was called far left by people who later joined the German Bundt. Or for that matter tried to overthrow his government. Red scares are like a tradition and have muddied the political waters.

As to OWS, this is my experience sitting through many a general assembly, their experiment in direct government. Every occupy camp had its internal dynamics. The one in San Diego was tolerant, but the actions of the local police led, in time, to more theoretical oversight from the locals. Los Angeles was a tad more radical.

I grew up in a country with an actual far left. Hell, my high school sociology instructor was the General Secretary of the Mexico City Communist Party. So yes, I know what that is like. They also had (still do) have penetration of the political system. The fights between him and my art history teacher, a socialist who came from Spain after the Civil War, were fascinating and a good intro as to why they dislike each other.

Of course, the former also got money from Moscow at the time. A whole different story.

This is why I laugh at the far left in the US. We really don’t. The best case you can make about people like AOC is that they are liberal democrats. See Sweden for an example of a country under the rule of social democracy. The second bill of rights of the 1944 SOTU was pretty mainstream. Incidentally, many of the kids want something like that. They have found it in web searches, because High School does not teach this.

Yes, taxes across the board are high. The big boogeyman in the US. But the standard of living across the board and national buy in is higher. I am personally not afraid of social democracy because it is utterly democratic. And the current political swing with younger generations is going to take us there.

The kids though will take to the streets because they are getting shot in schools. That will be the heart of this youth revolt. It has a tad in common with the Vietnam generation who were also accused of being far left.