Vox mocked for seeking constitutional overhaul so Ocasio-Cortez can run for president

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Kurtz: Does criticism help Ocasio-Cortez, as with Trump?

'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz weighs in on whether or not the frequent critical media coverage of Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will help or hurt her career.

Liberal political website Vox is getting accused of jumping the shark after publishing an appeal to “fix the Constitution ASAP” so that 29-year-old incoming Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can run for president – claiming “there’s no time like the present to start working to abolish arbitrary qualifications.”

Wednesday's lengthy piece, “It’s ridiculous that it’s unconstitutional for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president,” declared that everyone from immigrants to recent college grads should be eligible.

Vox co-founder and senior correspondent Matthew Yglesias wrote that “phenomenon” Ocasio-Cortez “is the biggest star in the Democratic Party,” and therefore it is “completely ridiculous” that the Constitution makes anyone under the age of 35 ineligible to run for president of the United States.

“There’s nothing wrong with old people per se, but essentially everyone has lost a step or two both mentally and physically by their mid-70s,” Yglesias wrote. “The really awful thing about being old is that you just keep getting older over time.”

“This is truly Vox’s jump the shark moment. Not exactly sure how you can claim to be anything other than pure parody when you are publishing pieces like this."

— Chris Barron

Even Ocasio-Cortez pushed back on the premise:

“How about... no,” she wrote. “Sometimes political media is too fixated on personalities instead of policies. The whole country JUST went through an exhausting midterm election. We need a break.”

“This is truly Vox’s jump the shark moment. Not exactly sure how you can claim to be anything other than pure parody when you are publishing pieces like this. I guess they believe - wrongly - that all publicity - even negative publicity- is good,” conservative strategist Chris Barron told Fox News.

NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News that Vox is “supposed to be knowledgeable and explain things to the masses” but “always finds a way to baffle people by showing that they're the ones who struggle with basic facts and trying to explain things.”

“Vox is quickly becoming a parody of itself and this fantasy of wanting her to be president even though she hasn't been sworn in yet is ludicrous,” Houck said. “At least Barack Obama had served in the state Senate and then the U.S. Senate for a few years and could have claimed to have had some experience in office.”

Yglesias argued that “young is better than old” and suggested America would be better off with Ocasio-Cortez than an older candidate such as Bernie Sanders, 77, or the 76-year-old Joe Biden.

“We’re sitting here in the winter of 2018 talking about filling a presidential term that won’t start until 2021 — with an inevitable reelection campaign in 2024 for a term that wouldn’t end until early 2029,” Yglesias wrote.

Yglesias noted that people even younger are often “trusted with life-and-death situations in a huge array of contexts” such as having children and serving in the military.

“The constitutional prohibition on people under the age of 35 serving as president is just one of these weird lacuna that was handed down to us from the 18th century but that nobody would seriously propose creating today if not for status quo bias,” he wrote.

Yglesias even argued that her "AOC" nickname works in her favor.

“Is having a nickname a sign that you would exercise good judgment in the Oval Office? Absolutely not. But it’s proof positive that she’s an honest-to-goodness political superstar, and it’s clear that’s what many Democrats are looking for in 2020,” he wrote.

Yglesias tweeted that “AOC should run for president and dare the Supreme Court to stop her.” His message was met with an onslaught of criticism online.

“It’s amazing someone gives you a paycheck,” one user wrote while another added, “I get that you don’t like old people, but you’re going to be one someday, so maybe lay off the hatred for now.”

The argument for changing the presidential requirements is among a host of ideas being floated on the left for major constitutional overhauls in response to President Trump's administration and, most recently, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Critics have floated packing the Supreme Court, overhauling the Electoral College and considering term limits on the high court in response.