The New AOC

Yair Rosenberg: “The evolution of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a political force in American politics is fully apparent from just two speeches. The first was delivered at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, two years after the insurgent progressive from New York was elected to Congress. In it, Ocasio-Cortez declared her ‘fidelity and gratitude to a mass people’s movement working to establish 21st-century social, economic, and human rights’ and pledged to ‘recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny, and homophobia, and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past.'”

“The brief speech was essentially a laundry list of leftist principles that would appeal largely to her own supporters rather than to everyday voters—narrowcasting rather than broadcasting.”

“Ocasio-Cortez’s performance last night at this year’s DNC could not have been more different. Connecting her personal biography to populist policies, the 34-year-old congresswoman electrified the crowd of Democratic Party faithful and left them thunderously chanting her name. Gone was the jargon of elite progressive circles, replaced by accessible and memorable one-liners about herself and Kamala Harris.”