In some ways, the current hype cycle around Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes a lot of sense: There’s a leadership void in the Democratic Party, the base is hungry for guidance and new ideas, and Ocasio-Cortez is young and dynamic, a desperately needed contrast to the crusty old leaders that seem to dominate the party. She excites young people who have been tuning out the establishment for years, with a message of economic fairness and thunderous attacks against the billionaire class. She is a digital native, literate in the fast-changing vocabularies of social media and gaming, who understands that the small screen in your hand matters more than the big one in your living room, that conflict seeds attention, and that attention is really all that matters in politics these days.