The most recent midterm election has produced the most ethnically and racially diverse congress ever seen in the United States. Among our new congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, nicknamed AOC, has been unfairly receiving constant harassment from republicans.
Conservatives all over social media, and right-leaning networks such as Fox News, have been quick to judge AOC for just about anything. Prominently, they’ve judged her for her previous work as a waitress, deeming AOC “incompetent” for her new role in congress, seemingly forgetting President Donald Trump had no previous work experience in politics either.
Despite the harassment, however, AOC has tweeted in defense that she’s learned valuable people reading skills from her time working as a waitress and bartender. Based on AOC’s first two months in congress, it’s evident she did learn valuable skills as a waitress and from her years in college.
As seen in her questioning towards Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, during his testimony to congress, AOC appeared to be as competent if not more competent than her fellow congressional members also questioning Cohen. AOC proved to have a clear strong voice, and did obvious research mentioning articles from the Washington Post and New York Times that elucidate evidence of Trump taking advantage of public funds and devaluing assets for tax breaks.
AOC has been unjustly criticized despite proving she’s fit for her role in congress, and most of the critiques have been silly ways to target a strong woman who “pulled herself up from her bootstraps.”
Although republicans always pride themselves in expecting others to “pull themselves from their boot straps,” when struggling working class citizens, such as AOC, eventually land success, suddenly that logic isn’t the case anymore; all of a sudden they’re unfit for their job. So, this leads me to question why suddenly the rule doesn’t apply here? The answer is simple – republicans want to keep the poor in poverty while keeping the rich in power.
There are people genuinely worried that individuals from lower income backgrounds will get educated enough and network enough to become equal competitors with those born into a clear path of wealth and success.
Commonly, many republicans also disagree with AOC’s Green New Deal proposal.
In brief, AOC’s Green New Deal proposal is a non-binding deal to help combat climate change over the next ten years with an addition to reform workers rights, indigenous rights and more.
Republicans have been quick to critique her Green New Deal for being costly, and they’ve jumped to rash conclusions that this deal will put many out of jobs, as Fox News claims. When in actuality, investing money now to slow down climate change will reap great benefits in the long-term. These benefits include but are not limited to: a more sustainable environment, new jobs in the renewable energy resource businesses, and cheaper fuel energy than expensive gasoline.
Many republicans have fallen victim to analyzing the climate change issue shortsightedly by allowing greedy fossil fuel lobbyists to instill in their minds that scientists are somehow lying to them, and that people like AOC don’t know what they’re doing, as in if politicians don’t have economists and scientists working with them to create reasonable law proposals.
In essence, AOC’s fight for the American people has been a fight many Americans have been asking from politicians for too long now. American’s are tired of moderate democrats who don’t make change, and they’re tired of republicans who accuse politicians like AOC of being uninformed in their decision making and policy advocating.
It’s about time we have strong politicians like AOC normalize the fight for basic human rights and a cleaner living environment for us all.