evidence: Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old self-styled champion of the working class who, as the ad shows, can effortlessly change from flats to high heels on an elevated subway train platform, scored a stunning upset victory that not only shocked America but also might signal a new direction for the Democratic Party. It is clear that the movement started by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016 had found new life in very un-bro-like fashion. "I think so many young people are completely disillusioned with mainstream politics and the two-party system, and democratic socialism is something that seems to speak to their concerns and interests," said Marisol LeBrón, a Latino studies scholar who grew up in Parkchester — the same Bronx area Ocasio-Cortez is from — and identifies as queer and Nuyorican. "The fact that she is a young woman of color helped her connect with young people around the country who identify as progressive or left and are trying to think through party politics in this increasingly repressive moment." [...] To this potent stew, Ocasio-Cortez added a Sanders-like appraisal of what ails the American Dream, offering solutions that hew to the "s"-word strategies of a group with which she openly identifies, the Democratic Socialists of America. That same "socialism" that the center and right often identify with pretentious European thinkers and student-debt-saddled millennials turns out to be a viable approach to the problems of people of color who are segregated out of opportunity for high-quality education, affordable housing and the accumulation of generational wealth.