How is AOC leading the democrats not a self-defeating thing? Help me understand the end-game.

We all know Bernie Sanders is a loud&proud Independent. As such, he does not speak as a voice for the Democratic Party. Sanders is foremost anti-neoliberal not pro-Democrat. In other words, if you are a liberal democrat, he does not claim to speak to your status-quo (non-derogatory) interests nor does he want to. While he will acknowledge they have done much more good than Republicans, he believes the Democratic Party as a whole is toxic.

The good thing is Sanders will consistently acknowledge Trump is eminently worse than the democrats and an existential threat to democracy, and he did so emphatically prior to the election by advocating for Kamala. But at the end of the day, he views the Democratic Party as a vessel for his political revolution, a means to his ends, that is all. He’s just taking up space in the anti-Trump attention economy right now because the vacuum created by the lack of strong voices among liberals.

AOC seems to be at a crossroads. I’m not sure what her strategy is going to be being a de-facto leader of the Democrats, especially in media. The only way it would work would be for the party to dramatically bend to the left in her favor; otherwise, she abandons her core democratic socialist ideals and subsequently loses support of progressives.

I know she is doing these Oligarchy rallies with Sanders (1) because their activism game is excellent and (2) they align ideologically. But if she wants to truly become a leader of the Democratic Party, I don’t really get it. Does this type of Sanders messaging not undermine the Democrats? Unless we have a third party, which will never happen, it seems like she is going to have to sacrifice advocating for these leftist ideals, as it is not what the Democrats represent. The party is not anti-billionaire for instance. The majority don’t want to change the system substantially.

To be clear, I am not saying AOC is in the wrong for doing these rallies with Sanders (any harm done is negligible compared to the anti-Trump enthusiasm gain). I think it is awesome her and Bernie are actually doing something of course. My question is, what exactly is the end-game when her values align more with an Independent than with the Party? How would she navigate a leadership role (either formal or non-formal) or be a proper “face” of the Party? It seems like a self-defeating thing unless I’m missing something.

Video about the rallies if you are ootl:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GNNAMnRsD30&list=RDNSGNNAMnRsD30&start_radio=1