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Ocasio-Cortez, NY Democrat rock star on cusp of power
NEW YORK, Nov 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic
superstar on the cusp of making history as the youngest woman elected to
Congress, is a poster child for the left and a surge in minority women
running for office.
The 29-year-old, blessed with telegenic looks, charisma and bursting with
youthful idealism, is both a media darling and a lightning rod for criticism.
She has championed her working-class and Puerto Rican roots as the
daughter of a cleaner and a father who died in his 40s, embodying a different
generation of politician. She also shuns corporate donors.
“Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office,” she said in a campaign
video that helped her defeat a 10-term, Democratic Party grandee in her first
political race in a New York primary in June.
Overnight, Ocasio-Cortez went from total unknown to the toast of coastal
America, profiled in Vogue, a guest on late-night chat shows and jetting
around the country lending her rock-star status to other insurgent
candidates.
On Tuesday, she is virtually certain to be elected to Congress — an
astonishing achievement for a woman who was working this year as a bartender
— in a safe Democratic seat in diverse Queens and the Bronx.
Ocasio-Cortez once worked for the late senator Ted Kennedy while studying
economics and international relations at Boston University. She has worked
with female entrepreneurs in Africa and in education.
When she beat incumbent Joe Crowley, she was moonlighting as a bartender.
“It’s really one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever heard,” said
talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel in a breathless introduction.
There’s no doubting her talent, crowd-appeal, idealism and passion for
grassroots campaigning, riding what she hopes will be a blue wave in the
midterms to ultimately overwhelm Donald Trump.
– ‘Hurt America’ –
“It becomes way harder to hate up close, which is why the work of knocking
on doors is so important,” she said to applause last month at an event
organized by the LGBT community.
“I am like, ‘hey, we are fighting for universal care, for tuition-free
public college, we are fighting for a living wage,’ and you see that kind of
defense mechanism kind of come down.”
But in America at large, such politics are pretty radical. She is a
Democratic Socialist in the vein of failed 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie
Sanders, on whose campaign she worked.
Ocasio-Cortez has compared the fight against climate change to the fight
against Nazi Germany in World War II, calling it a “major existential threat”
and has likened electing Democrats to ending slavery.
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The right has branded her politics “dangerous” and she has also taken hits
from centrist stalwarts, former senator Joe Lieberman saying her primary win
seemed “likely to hurt Congress, America and the Democratic Party.”
Only time will tell whether the progressive Democratic wing that she
embodies represents the future or a Tea Party-style spinoff as mainstream
liberals scramble for ways to contain Trump.
“On any given day, no one can agree if she is the next Sarah Palin, the
next Obama or a Venezuelan dictator,” summed up Vogue.
She has proved herself an engaging speaker on the campaign trail.
– ‘Inspirational’ –
“She was very social media savvy, she worked very, very hard for every
vote she had… and she is a really good candidate with good political
instincts,” says Jeanne Zaino, a political scientist at Iona College.
“But we can’t forget the larger forces, there’s a real frustration… with
the establishment,” she added. “I’m not sure she’d have won if her opponent
wasn’t a leader of the Democratic Party.”
Pragmatists say she will eventually have to compromise her ideals. Debt-
free college and universal health care sound appealing, but are expensive
propositions.
Neither is it clear what kind of power she and other progressives will
yield in the years ahead.
“A lot depends not just on what happens in 2018, because we will not see
large numbers of progressives elected in office, but 2020-2022. These
movements take a long time,” Zaino cautioned.
Ocasio-Cortez reportedly lives in a modest apartment in the South Bronx
with her boyfriend. She rents frocks she wears on the campaign.
“It’s very inspirational to go from bartender to candidate for Congress,”
said supporter Kaitlyn Richter, 25.
“She will definitely be small fish in a big pond,” Richter added. But she
has high hopes that Ocasio-Cortez will “speak her own mind.”
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