To say that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are in a quiet struggle for control of the party wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear it. The jabs and waspish snaps they exchange, all delivered with mean girl smiles aren’t an uncommon occurrence.

The problem is that Pelosi is losing this battle. It’s clear that members of the media and leftist activists sympathize more with Ocasio-Cortez, and that the Democrat party is surely but slowly being taken over by radical leftists just like the young New York democratic socialist.

Pelosi has only herself to blame for this as well.

Throughout her career, Pelosi has made it a point to bring her San Francisco, west-coast elitist politics to the mainstream, and it would be wrong to say that she hasn’t had something of a successful run of it. She’s always pushed the proverbial Overton window further and further to the left, making positions considered extreme seem perfectly acceptable to Democrats and Democrat voters.

Pelosi is the same person who once called illegal immigrants her “constituency” and applauded the idea of illegal immigrants bringing their children into the United States, and pushed hard for amnesty. She pushed for socialized healthcare with the media and activist groups cheering her on and successfully got Obamacare passed. She pushes for higher taxes and sensationalizes everything Republicans do to the point where any victory they have is a precursor to mass amounts of death.

If Pelosi was the drug the left got hooked on that allowed it to feel it’s most radical tendencies and feel good about it, then Ocasio-Cortez was the inevitable result of the addiction that is now carrying the party into self-destructive territory.

She throws around sensational claims that are easily disproved about everything from the border to military spending. She pushes pipe dream legislation like the “Green New Deal” which is a wildly unrealistic and unreasonable economic plan that would break a country with four times the success of America, if such a country existed. She throws around promises of free health care, free college and even a wage just for being alive. On top of that, she hurls accusations at her opponents with reckless abandon, whether they’re true or not.

She is Pelosi turned up to 11.

Pelosi should have realized what was coming long ago when her hard-left political posturing created a problem for her. During a press conference in 2017, amnesty activists stormed in and began shouting down Pelosi while simultaneously demanding answers from her. You can actually watch Pelosi become visibly frustrated, microphone shaking in hand, and she was eventually forced to flee.

This was the first time, at least in my opinion, that Pelosi watched as the monster she made turned around and began to consume her. She created it as a tool with which to attack her opponents, but like Frankenstein’s monster, it turned on her and now her years of pushing for radical change an not accomplishing it set up someone to come in and stand as a radical foil.

Right now, Pelosi sits on the Democrat throne, but she’s already been kicked off in a figurative manner. Ocasio-Cortez is the one driving opinion now. Even 2020 candidates are following her radical lead to the point where people like Robert “Beto” O’Rourke are claiming that America is a country founded on racism.

Pelosi’s time at the top is drawing to an end, and every squabble with AOC brings her closer and closer to that future. When she’s inevitably deposed, however, I hope that many other Democrats are watching. This is what happens when you craft your entire career around outrage and sensationalism, and while it does wonders against your opponents, eventually it’ll sweep you away as well.