You’ve already seen her speaking a hundred times. She’s new, she’s young, she’s relatable, and she seems like a kind person. But that’s not the best thing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has going for her. What Americans love about “AOC” is that she’s saying the things we’re all thinking. And that’s exactly what she did in her first official speech from the floor of the House of Representatives.
Breaking down the real reason for the current government shutdown — which is now just a few days away from a month long — Ocasio-Cortez took on the fiery tone we’ve now gotten used to when she gets, well, fired up:
The truth of this shutdown is that it is not actually about a wall, it is not about the border, and it is certainly not about the well-being of everyday Americans. The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms. It is not normal to hold 800,000 workers’ paychecks hostage. It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want. It is not normal for public servants to run away and hide from the public that they serve. And it is certainly not normal to starve the people we serve for a proposal that is wildly unpopular among the American people.”
The Congresswoman is correct — none of this is normal. But it is quickly becoming the tactic preferred by Republicans who refuse to compromise even a little bit, even in situations where it’s clear that their own constituents don’t want whatever it is they’re fighting for. Day after day, support for Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the southern border goes down further and further, and Republicans are doing nothing to stand up to the President about it, despite hurting the people they were elected to represent in Congress.
Featured image via screen capture
