A New Wave: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Recently elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, affectionately known as AOC, represents the 14th district of New York. She deposed former Congressman Joe Crowley, known to his detractors as Corrupt Joe Crowley. Crowley was the third most powerful Democrat in the caucus, and a serious contender for leadership in the future. Until Ms. Cortez came along and toppled him in a primary. AOC, at merely twenty-nine years old, represents a new generation of politicians. She was elected on the platform advocated by the Justice Democrats, which includes many popular policies including Medicare for All, tuition-free university and so on. She took no corporate PAC money and thus is far more likely to represent the people as opposed to the corporations.

AOC is young, indeed she is the youngest member of the 116th Congress, she is positive (she cannot stop smiling) and, while lacking political seniority, has a grasp of social media and its effective use for political purposes that her senior colleagues desperately lack. A recent example of this came during her search for Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to apply pressure for him to bring to a vote on the Senate floor funding bills passed by the House of Representatives which would bring the government shutdown to a conclusion. She took the Congressional subway, a train used to travel between parts of the Capitol building, to search for Senator McConnell, and did not find him on the Senate floor, in the Majority Leader’s Office, his own personal office as a Senator for Kentucky or roaming the halls.

The reason I am able to provide so much detail on AOC’s efforts to locate Senator McConnell is because of the video that she live-streamed on her phone from the Congressional subway during her travels. That is a generational shift in constituent communication. Instead of making a self-serving speech about what she had done, AOC provided live video of her search for Senator McConnell. She speaks her constituents’ language. This is yet more evidence supporting the idea that AOC is a new brand, indeed a new generation, of politician.

As MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said, AOC does not need a staffer to explain Instagram, or Twitter or any other social media to her, she already knows the lay of the social media landscape. Indeed, the very staffers who serve what HBO’s Bill Maher once called the ‘Cryptkeeper Congress’ are likely to be her age. She has cut out the middleman and simply become both the Congresswoman and the social media advisor all in one. Generational change is inevitable, and it appears to be here to stay.

When she was first elected, as a Democrat remember, AOC attended a climate change protest outside the office of (then) Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Later, when she was shown to her office, she filmed a video of herself outside the door and did a brief dance in celebration: it was now real for her and she wanted to show her constituents her office and keep them up to date. She had no intention of being one of those representatives who went to Washington and vanished. As if to cap off her popularity, her first floor speech was recently broadcast on C-SPAN and it became the most viewed video in the history of the channel. This woman is popular.

As with any rising star of the left, AOC has been attacked by the right, mostly on ridiculous grounds (including using a video of her dancing as a means to criticise her – seriously – that makes her more relatable and likeable, not less). She embraced their criticism however, telling Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes that only radicals have ever changed the United States (true). Asked if she considered herself a radical, without flinching ACO said ‘Yeah! If that’s what radical means, call me a radical’. You go Ms. Cortez.

Another example of the ridiculous attacks on her from the right is the utter strawman of her proposed 70% marginal (keep that term in mind) tax rate on income over $10,000,000 per year. To be quite explicit on this point, a marginal tax rate means that for income over a certain amount (in this case $10m/year) the tax rate would be 70%. This was strawmanned by the right as AOC advocating a 70% tax on all income. She responded directly to the strawman and made the right-wingers look foolish.

This woman is clearly an effective communicator, knows her stuff and does not flinch at criticism. She is a bright, positive, intelligent, soft-faced representative of the people who I believe can go very far in US politics. Stick to your guns, Congresswoman, and you can achieve great things. Do not allow them to get you down. Continue to embrace their criticism and blow them away with facts. When you represent the people and have the facts on your side (which you do), establishment and corporatist politicians fighting against you will be the equivalent of fighting a fire with gasoline: it will explode in their faces.

CA