You would have to be living under a rock not to have heard of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, especially in recent months. The US Democratic politician was made Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district in January this year but the millennial is nothing like her predecessors.
The activist known best by her initials, AOC, wears Zara, serves up razor-sharp comebacks and until recently worked in a bar while launching her campaign. Oh and did we mention that she’s 30 years old?
Yes, AOC is one huge breath of fresh air, and with a political system in desperate need of a shake up – she couldn’t have come at a better time.
This week her name was propelled into the spotlight as a Daily Wire reporter called out her ‘frequent crying’, accusing the congresswoman of reinforcing ’the stereotype that women are too emotional for politics’.
Never one to hold back, AOC had a lot to say about the accusations, taking to her Twitter to call out the comments.
‘Trump: sexually assaults women, impulsively allows Kurds to be murdered, boosts videos of shooting journalists. GOP: Aha! Letting your voice shake after seeing 1st-hand human rights violations at the border+ understanding climate stakes makes women “too emotional” for politics 🙄,’ she posted.
‘You know, maybe one of the actual problems w/ our politics is that too many politicians don’t feel anything when Americans die bc they can’t afford medicine, or when babies are permanently separated from parents. GOP only has tears for billionaires & outrage towards “others.”’
Going on, she continued: ‘It is time we trash the idea that empathy = leadership weakness. When people hurt, we should hurt too. That’s what good leaders do. It adds urgency & humanity to our decision making. Suppressing emotion can lead to aggression, impulsivity, & other erosions of leadership ability.
‘Both rationality & emotion are inextricable to good leadership, which balances the two. If a person doesn’t feel urgency in their gut when communities are poisoned or when a young man dies bc he couldn’t afford price-gouged insulin, then they shouldn’t be in politics. At all.’
Like we needed a reason to respect AOC more.
