Ocasio-Cortez outrages Republicans by refusing to respect their ignorance. By Arwa Mahdawi
Large swaths of America appear to be suffering from a debilitating condition
known as Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez Derangement Syndrome (AOCDS). Symptoms include bouts of
extreme condescension, an inability to stop sputtering the word “socialist”,
and overwhelming anger that a young woman of colour is unapologetically
succeeding.
The latest conservative to succumb to AOCDS is Grace-Marie Turner, the president of a non-profit devoted to “counter[ing] the march towards toward government-controlled medicine”. (Can we just pause for a moment and contemplate what sort of person spends their life trying to ensure there will never be affordable healthcare in the United States?) On Tuesday Turner ranted in the Wall Street Journal that Ocasio-Cortez “has little regard for the system that made it possible for her to be elected to Congress”. Turner also lamented that the congresswoman “leads a generation of young people to take pride in their ignorance – of the laws of nature, of history, of the Constitution, of the eternal battle for freedom – and still succeed”.
The latest conservative to succumb to AOCDS is Grace-Marie Turner, the president of a non-profit devoted to “counter[ing] the march towards toward government-controlled medicine”. (Can we just pause for a moment and contemplate what sort of person spends their life trying to ensure there will never be affordable healthcare in the United States?) On Tuesday Turner ranted in the Wall Street Journal that Ocasio-Cortez “has little regard for the system that made it possible for her to be elected to Congress”. Turner also lamented that the congresswoman “leads a generation of young people to take pride in their ignorance – of the laws of nature, of history, of the Constitution, of the eternal battle for freedom – and still succeed”.
As you can imagine,
the congresswoman had a few words to say in response to this, tweeting on
Thursday that: “I guess WSJ Editorial Page takes pride in their ignorance of
our nation’s history of slavery, Jim Crow, & mass incarceration; wilful doubt
on the decades of science on climate change; targeting of indigenous peoples,
and the classist, punitive agenda targeting working families.”
Ocasio-Cortez hit the
bigoted nail on the head with that. After all, what Turner was essentially
saying in her op-ed was that minorities should respect a system that doesn’t
respect them. That Ocasio-Cortez, who “doesn’t come from a rich and powerful
family”, doesn’t have an Ivy League education, and has Puerto Rican heritage,
should be grateful she is allowed to exist in America, let alone succeed. And
that AOC certainly shouldn’t mess with the laws of nature and history that mean
rich white men, and a few rich white women, are our leaders and superiors.
Turner, and conservatives like her, are terrified by Ocasio-Cortez because she
symbolizes a new generation who aren’t going to shut up and be grateful, but
are intent on changing an unequal system... read more:
A message and an appeal
