Three letters that in the U S of A everyone now associates with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
This name has also recently appeared on Italian screens and monitors, mainly due to a fact that happened just over a week ago. But let’s start from the beginning.
Officially a member of the New York House of Representatives, AOC is a politician and also – or perhaps above all – an activist from a particular background, the Bronx.
Her political career began by supporting Bernie Sanders’ election campaign during the last presidential elections. The political ideology of the two is very similar; however, the woman is becoming increasingly independent, building ideals in line with her orientation (explicitly declaring herself socialist).
With these premises, she can only address a particular target: millennials are certainly the most attentive to her interventions, but she also finds consensus among those who, like her, have not lived or do not live a rosy life.
Among many viral interventions of hers, in the last one, which has also come overseas, she talks about women. In particular, the young politician uses a firsthand-experience to denounce the perpetration of gender discrimination.
A few days ago Alexandria received heavy offenses from a colleague, the deputy Ted Yoho, who addressed her with disrespectful words, to say the least.
She then reported those same words in the speech she gave in the Parliament to introduce what she believes are the most deeply rooted problems. She criticized not only the belief in the superiority of man, but also the lack of respect for women, and, if possible even more seriously, the thought that a superficial excuse could mitigate a much more acrimonious action.
The deputy, among other things, defended himself by hiding behind his family: in his view, being a family man automatically makes him a good man. Again, Cortez’s response was not long in coming: “Having a daughter does not make a man decent, having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man. “ she said in her speech. Only dignity and respect define a Man.
Such powerful words can only move anyone who hears them.
The young New Yorker knows very well how to skyrocket the number of her listeners: the skillfully used social-networks, which often make her videos go viral, give her a really wide resonance.
If her Instagram profile, in fact, has 5.8 million followers, there are more than 3000 times when Fox News (ideologically close to Trump) mentioned her name, in most cases accompanied by negative attributes or appellations.
For better or for worse, everyone is talking about her.
AOC therefore plays a fundamental role in the US ideological and political context: while America is pushing to the right on one side, the other end of the rope is pulled from the extreme wing of the Democratic Party, of which the Cortez is definitely a spokeperson.
Not only that, the rise to the role of representative of the 14th district of New York is also a clear demonstration that, little by little, the establishment (so, who already had an important role in another area, such as entrepreneurs, and thanks to that could easily have important positions in politics too) is disintegrating in favor of an opening of the political sector even to those coming from the working class, like Alexandria herself.
Her already so influential figure can only generate in others, and especially in other women, the desire to emancipate themselves, with humility, class and a lot of determination.
Being so young she still has many years of career ahead. And if in just two years she has obtained the great consensus already mentioned, one can only imagine what she can do in the near future.
Could she become the youngest president of the United States?
Bianca De Crecchio
Translated by Francesca Biglia
