Video meant to embarrass new lawmaker has opposite effect
First it was a photo of long-haired Beto O’Rourke playing in a punk band. Now it’s a video of college-age Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing on a rooftop.
Both were circulated by conservatives to seemingly smear the progressive politicians. Both efforts backfired spectacularly.
The Ocasio-Cortez clip in question shows the future politician rocking some 1980s “Breakfast Club”-style dance moves with friends on a rooftop to the band Phoenix’s “Lisztomania.”
The video, shot while Ocasio-Cortez was a student at Boston University, has bounced around the internet before, but it went viral Thursday.
It first resurfaced on Twitter on Wednesday, the day before Ocasio-Cortez was sworn in as the youngest-ever female member of Congress.
A Twitter user who affiliates himself with the farright conspiracy theorist QAnon posted the video with the caption: “Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is.”
But if the point of releasing the video was to mock the young New York congresswoman, it elicited the exact opposite response on Twitter.
Many social media users came to Ocasio-Cortez’s defense, and the video inspired memes.
Since Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, burst onto the political scene with her surprise primary victory over incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), she has become a favorite punching bag for the right.
They are offended by her politics — she’s a self-described democratic socialist — and her inexperience.
They’ve attacked her clothes and that she maybe went by the name “Sandy” in high school.
But the attacks have often fallen flat.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, catapulted to celebrity-level fame in the last few months, buoyed by live, unfiltered social media videos.
The right’s attacks have targeted things that many voters seem to like about her: a fresh view of what can be accomplished in Washington.
On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez responded to the criticism.
“I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous. Wait till they find out congresswomen dance too! Have a great weekend everyone,” she tweeted, with a video of her dancing outside her new office on Capitol Hill.