Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Delivers a Lesson in Decency

David Remnick: “One could be forgiven for thinking that rhetorical dynamism long ago vanished from the hallways and chambers of the United States Congress. It has been a hundred and sixty-four years, for example, since Charles Sumner, the anti-slavery Republican from Massachusetts, rose in the humid air of the Old Senate Chamber to unleash a five-hour, fully memorized onslaught against the idea of Kansas joining the Union as a slave state. Along the way, Sumner paused to lash two of his Senate colleagues, calling Stephen Douglas, of Illinois, a ‘noisome, squat, and nameless animal,’ and accusing Andrew Butler, of South Carolina, of taking up with a ‘polluted’ mistress—’I mean the harlot, Slavery.’ You can still hear such acidic flourishes in other legislatures around the globe, but the language of the U.S. Congress is rarely so vivid. Generally, it is as flavorless as day-old gum.”

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a first-term Democrat from New York, provided a rare exception Thursday afternoon as she stepped to the microphone in the House chamber to make a hash of Ted Yoho, a veterinarian, Tea Party member, and veteran Republican from Florida.”

Her speech is definitely worth watching.