AOC Moment of The Week!

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AOC remains a prominent target for Twitter users and House Republicans alike. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a representative from New York's 14th district, is known to be an outspoken revolutionary in the Democratic Conference. She advocates for green energy, lowering prescription drug costs, protecting refugees, and fighting the country's opioid epidemic on her progressive platform (AOC 2023). Her democratic socialist agenda and her willingness to put up a fight do not sit well with members across the aisle. She is unafraid to call her colleagues out for despicable behavior, and she does not care how they will react to it.

This week, AOC received death threats from another member of Congress, which she addressed in her statement on the Republican Caucus's alleged attacks on women of color (WOC). This speech comes in the wake of Republicans swiftly voting to remove Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for seemingly no reason. While they claim that Rep. Omar's comments on the Israel-Palestine conflict are antisemitic and they, therefore, feel she is unfit to serve on the committee, Republicans continue to uplift people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who made openly antisemitic remarks about Jewish Space Lasers and mask mandates being a modern-day Holocaust (Foran and Wilson 2023).

Her passionate and well-deserved rant on the attacks that WOC in Congress face did not come without criticism. Many accounts were accusing her of wanting to be black (corroborating the angry-black woman stereotype), being mentally unstable (due to her raised voice and body language), and some even went as far as to compare her rant to Hitler. Grown, American adults are comparing a democratic socialist to Hitler? Going so far as to edit one of his speeches over the audio of her rant, and put a small mustache on her face. And it's not just one person; Several tweets have been casting her in the same light as a man who had so much hate in his heart that he put to death millions of individuals.

It is shameful to know that many of the other Congress members approve of the behavior toward the future of our country. They allow this behavior and oftentimes partake in the ridicule of those who just want more people to be able to live with the same opportunity as anyone else. Everyone in Congress is there to uplift their constituency, but it has turned into a competition of "who else can I hurt the most".

https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/about/our-district

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/politics/house-vote-ilhan-omar-committees/index.html

https://twitter.com/SameeraKhan/status/1621241329119289344?s=20&t=4uXH67Y2k1THzrItksA0aQ

Comments

  1. KenFebruary 12, 2023 at 8:01 PM

    Hey,

    AOC has definitely been a lightning rod in the arena of politics! All women seem to have difficulty navigating politics in the United States more than men. Just look at the 2016 Presidential Campaign. Hillary Clinton has held to much different standards than Donald Trump. In fact, Trump called Hillary Clinton, “a nasty woman”. Could women get away with similar behavior/comments? No, I do not think so. AOC is outspoken and will always pay a price for it. The democratic party does not defend her as they should, so this shows that subtle sexism transcends party lines. Social media has made sexism exponentially worse! The meme of the AOC clown face is a prime example. She is called a clown for being angry about the state of political affairs in Congress and the United States. In 2010, then Rep. John Boehner gave a speech on the house floor before the ACA vote, angry and shouting. No one called him a clown. Women will always be a powerful voice and suffer because of it. The media has not made it any better. The media amplifies these attacks! I expect it to only get worse and more frequent. Nice blog by the way. I will definitely be reading this one frequently!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brandon EberhartFebruary 16, 2023 at 7:34 PM

    This is a great explanation of AOC's position! She has definitely broken from the "establishment" mold many Democrats put themselves in by being outspoken on issues like the Green New Deal and presenting as an unafraid democratic socialist. I believe it's very unprofessional for members of Congress to ridicule their fellow members in such a manner, even if they're in opposing parties. As you mentioned with the "wanting to be black" and "mentally unstable" insults, we can certainly see how women in Congress still have trouble just being seen as equals by some men like the ones saying such things here. It reminds me of when Bernie Sanders spoke out in favor of gay soldiers in 1995 and some Congress members responded by simply calling him a socialist. For the death threats, I would attribute the comfort some people have in sending them to the impersonal nature of the internet and social media. It's not hard to find insensitivity online that most would avoid in face-to-face encounters.

    ReplyDelete

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