Even if some reactionary Christians are correct and she is a witch, I still love Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). I was under her spell from the beginning. She bewitched me with her elegance and her principles. Now my goal in life is to become the campaign manager for the next AOC, wherever she may be. We need more elected officials like her.
I don’t love her because she’s trendy—just to be clear—and the fact that so many other progressives love her doesn’t factor in much either. I’m not a passive observer of U.S. politics: I’m one of the few people who have the time and patience to analyze policies as opposed to rhetoric, wardrobe choices, and other minutiae. AOC can continue to be passionate and adorable all she wants: I don’t follow celebrities—virtually or otherwise—I follow leaders. And I believe she is a leader that will become even stronger and wiser through experience. The nation is already either embracing her impact or bracing for it.
When she broke down the corruption in our ostensibly democratic form of government, I was both amazed and amused. Here is a rookie congresswoman, even younger than I am, who dared challenge the Leviathan lurking beneath the surface of U.S. politics. To even get where she is, she had to upset a very powerful white man (Joseph Crowley) who served to prop up the very establishment she’s challenging from within. It’s all too perfect. She’s the anti-Donald Trump, who, despite his populist campaign rhetoric, amounts to nothing more than a megalomaniac who ran for president so that he could get a better deal. AOC was not born with a trust fund or real estate empire. She was never among the elite, and she’s fighting for a better deal not for herself and her family—but for the nation.
And this better deal starts with taking corporate money out of campaign coffers, which she supports as a grassroots, Bernie Sanders-style campaigner. Instead of tax cuts for corporations and wealthy families, which was Trump’s biggest legislative “victory,” AOC wants to raise top marginal tax rates to 70 percent for those earning over $10 million. She wants to move the country toward 100 percent renewable energy through the ambitious stimulus package known as the Green New Deal, which would also guarantee full employment for all Americans (like myself) who are still looking for it. Side note: if you don’t believe that climate change is both real and human-induced at this point, well, I’m surprised you’re even reading this.
Going down the list of policies I support, AOC also endorses gun control, which I’ve already championed. She’s also against retrograde responses to immigration like the infamous border wall that Trump recently declared a national emergency so that he could (illegally) build, and unlike many Democrats, she has not endorsed Trump’s war on Venezuela’s sovereignty. While defending her claim to the label “socialist,” she supports tried and true socialist policies, such as single-payer health care.
It remains to be seen whether she will move closer to the Democratic mainstream or if she will continue to create tactical rifts in order to champion Democratic Primary challengers in 2020—who would follow her good example—with the ultimate goal of transforming the party from the bottom up. This may take time, but the excitement is palpable. I had all-but given up on the Democrats as a viable progressive alternative to corporate governance until Sanders’s torch-bearing 2016 presidential campaign and remain invested only because of his example and those who followed. The best who followed so far is AOC, and I will follow her into a better tomorrow.
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Lady Number 6: The Animated Woman of My Dreams
Lady Number 7: The Perfect First Kiss
Lady Number 8: Why a Straight Guy Needs a Female Friend
Lady Number 9: To Lady Love, the Valentine Who Never Was
Lady Number 10: The One Who Got Away—and Tried to Do Me Over
Lady Number 11: A Very Close Flight Connection
Lady Number 12: Damsel in Distress
Lady Number 15: Xena Warrior Princess
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