Ocasio-Cortez:
Already the center of attention
Conservatives have found their latest liberal bogeyman, said Leah Fessler in Qz.com, and it’s freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx, N.Y. At 28, the former bartender won a primary upset over a 10-term male incumbent that “catapulted her into the national spotlight,” and her democratic socialist agenda, “social media savvy,” and “natural chutzpah” are electrifying progressive Millennials. Naturally, the Right already has an “obsession” with Ocasio-Cortez and is seizing on every opportunity, however ridiculous, to mock and diminish her. When Ocasio-Cortez had her Capitol Hill orientation a few weeks ago, critics jeered at her claim that she has just $7,000 in savings and can’t afford D.C. rent, with one conservative troll sneering that since she was wearing a decent black suit, she doesn’t look “like a girl who struggles.” But such derision “only deepens her connection” with young people and workingclass Americans of color, “who see her as their representative on the national stage.”
If that sounds familiar, said Emily Jashinsky in TheFederalist.com, it’s because “smug nitpicking from partisans” is exactly what solidified support for another unpolished populist, President Trump. It’s true that Ocasio-Cortez—who supports free college, free medical care, and a federal jobs guarantee— often sounds “like the freshman who comes home from one semester of college ready to overthrow capitalism.”
But constantly ridiculing the youngest woman ever elected to Congress sounds “petty and elitist.” Personal attacks on her are unfair and counterproductive, said Chris Deaton in WeeklyStandard.com. Instead, conservatives should focus on her ideas. Instituting Medicare for all, as she suggests, “would be the largest transfer of costs onto the government in American history,” with taxpayers on the hook for more than $3 trillion a year. That’s what matters, not the $3,500 suit she borrowed for a photo shoot.
The fiery newcomer doesn’t make just Republicans nervous, said Elaine Godfrey in TheAtlantic .com. Shortly after arriving in Washington, Ocasio-Cortez joined 200 youth protesters outside Nancy Pelosi’s office and urged Congress to establish a climate change committee tasked with crafting a “Green New Deal.” Party elders are probably thrilled that a young woman of color is arousing so much excitement, but some Democrats fear her “zealousness is a liability” that risks fracturing fragile party unity. They wish she would “rein it in a little”—but she probably won’t.