Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York spoke with Jon Stewart on his podcast “The Weekly,” Thursday. In a sprawling interview the two talked about the billionaire oligarchy Donald Trump represents and the state of the Democratic Party.
What makes Trump more dangerous this go-around, according to Ocasio-Cortez, is how much more he has been normalized by the elite class. Describing what we have been watching the past few weeks as a “billionaire feeding frenzy,” and “a kiss ass race,” AOC said that “the important thing for people to understand about this administration is that you’re being ripped off … everybody is being ripped off.”
Ocasio-Cortez was critical of the Democratic establishment’s reliance on clearly archaic social mores that are no longer effective, but warned against the nihilism inherent in rhetoric that both political parties are the same.
“When you look at how, for example, Putin has operated in Russia and the way they’ve been able to kind of take things over in these oligarchies, these kleptocracies, they prey on that exact logic, on that exact predicate, which is that everyone’s corrupt and is all corrupt. And so who gives a fuck?”
She added that there are a lot of people in Congress trying to do good things, and people should demand that from their representatives. “When we decide to hold people to a higher standard, then things actually do get better.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly
AOC was optimistic about positive change in the Democratic Party, saying that while she did not become the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, losing out on an intraparty vote to 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly, she was moved into a powerful position on energy and commerce.
Shortly after the election, the congresswoman appealed directly to her constituents via social media to find out why some of them voted for both her and Trump. “They see two people that are fundamentally anti-establishment,” she told Stewart. “Two people that do not respect a rule if the rule does not lead to an outcome, like a positive outcome.”
She added that as far as messaging goes, one of the shifts she’s seen is that people will believe a politician speaking directly to them. Unfortunately, that includes immigrants in her community who believed Trump when he claimed that only criminals would be harassed as a part of his immigration policy.
However, with an ever-right-moving media, AOC said appealing directly to constituents offered Democrats a real shot at getting a message through.
“If you ask a working-class American or just any normal American, what is a Democrat? What do they stand for?” Ocasio explained to Stewart. “They will not really be able to give you a clear answer. And so our party needs a clear and strong agenda.”
“The stuff that’s crazy to me is like, the answers are stuff, like, we’re just asking for things that our parents and our grandparents had,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “Like, tuition-free public colleges and universities, not new, not new.” She also added an appeal to Medicare for All, and a platform that includes promises to Americans young and old.
“There are very, very few swing seats left in America. Republicans and this whole system has been gerrymandered that the number of swing seats is so low,” AOC said of why she felt there needed to be more progressive candidates primarying less progressive ones across the country.
“At the end of the day, people who are in Congress want to return to Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez explained. “And the reason that the Republicans have so much enforcement is because they’re more scared of a primary than they are of a general election.”
You can watch the whole interview below.
YouTube Video
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