Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a 29 year-old self described “democratic” socialist, now congresswomen-elect, from New York, who ran on a very radical far Left platform during her campaign. She has been called “the Sarah Palin of the Left”, representing the young ultra-progressive sector of the Democratic party. Here are some of her most disturbing, confusing, and cringe worthy quotes she made in media appearances while campaigning.
(Story from the Daily Signal)
Anti-Capitalism
Cortez has expressed strong anti-capitalist sentiments:
“Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs,†said Ocasio-Cortez in an interview on PBS’ “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover†in July when pressed on why the unemployment rate was low in a capitalist system. “Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their kids.â€
“And so I do think that right now we have this no-holds-barred, Wild West hyper-capitalism. What that means is profit at any cost. Capitalism has not always existed in the world, and it will not always exist in the world. When this country started, we were not a capitalist [nation], we did not operate on a capitalist economy. “
Anti-Israel
Cortez has had to do some serious back peddling on comments she’s made concerning Israeli-Palestinian politics:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TJK1a8OHyw&w=560&h=315]
On Healthcare
In an interview with Jorge Ramos last week, when asked how America should pay for a Medicare for all plan, she responded:
“You just pay for it.”
“People often say, how are you gonna pay for it? And I find the question so puzzling because, how do you pay for something that’s more affordable? How do you pay for cheaper rent? How do you pay for—you just pay for it.”
On Fossil Fuels:
Cortez says:
“There’s no debate as to whether we should continue producing fossil fuels. There’s no debate,â€
Climate Change= World War II
In one of Cortez’s speeches, she likened battling climate change to America’s role in the Second World War against Nazi Germany.
“What we had was an existential threat in the context of a war. We had a direct existential threat with another nation, this time it was Nazi Germany, and the Axis, who explicitly made the United States as an enemy, as an enemy. And what we did was that we chose to mobilize our entire economy and industrialized our entire economy and we put hundreds if not millions of people to work in defending our shores and defending this country. We have to do the same thing in order to get us to 100 percent renewable energy, and that’s just the truth of it.”
The Disappearing Middle Class:
On John Lovett’s podcast “Pod Save America”, Cortez discussed the political leanings of the American upper-middle class:
I think that politically, this upper-middle class is probably more moderate, but that upper-middle class doesn’t exist anymore in America, and thanks to the continued deregulation of Wall Street, thanks to the continued gutting of working- and middle-class people, we need stronger champions.
Projections show that the the upper-middle class is growing, according to the Urban Institute  the American Enterprise Institute.
“Organizing” and “Orginization”?
When asked by Chris Hayes on MSNBC about what her plan is once she gets to Congress, Cortez replied:
“Well, I think a lot of it has to do with changing our strategy around governance. You know there’s a lot of inside baseball and inside the beltway as you, you always hear that term thrown around. But there are very few organizers in Congress. And I do think that organizers operate differently. It’s a different kind of strategy. And what it is, is really about organizing and, and really thinking about that word: organizing. Segmenting people. Being strategic in their actions in really bringing together a cohesive strategy of putting pressure on the chamber instead of only focusing on the pressures inside the chamber.”
It seems like Cortez’s term in Congress will likely be bumpy ride to say the least.
