IDK having someone like AOCIA in office is a great way to do something unpopular with little backlash, since most in that coalition will just shut up instead mounting any opposition. Happens every time we have a succdem/green coalition in Germany. Something something only Nixon could go to China.

Sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean, but isn't Obama an example of a president who thought (or at least said he thought) we should improve things somewhat? I definitely remember thinking "oh maybe things will improve once he's in office!". They didn't, of course, and I was a sucker for ever thinking they would. But still, it seems to me that Obama did exactly what AOC would do: promise that things will improve slightly if she's elected and then be unable (or unwilling) to actually change anything

And honestly, despite my many issues with her, it would be the best thing to happen in this country in half a century

If she were to win, it would be because the bourgeoisie would be engaging in an embracing and subsequent extinguishing of the nascent Socialist movement in the US.

Large swathes of DSA hate AOC at this point, and for good reason, but if the right opportunists get their way, and AOC wins, I think DSA and co. go belly up. It's not a mature enough org to mobilize to influence a president and AOC is too embedded in centrist liberal hegemony to be the bull in the imperial china shop that a truly left wing president would need to be.