AOC: Dems Really Struggle with Messaging
New York Democrat can be both a workhorse and a showhorse, she says
Since her election less than three years ago — defeating a 20-year incumbent, in the process — Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most visible House Democrats.
But unlike a certain previous high-profile woman who once joined Congress, Ocasio-Cortez doesn't try to limit herself.
When former first lady Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate, she famously said that she was a “workhorse, not a showhorse.”
But, like Clinton, a Democrat from New York, Ocasio-Cortez believes she can — and should — be both.
“I think that’s one of those ways that people try to chip away to make a person feel small. The fact of the matter is, our jobs as legislatures is to do both and the thing I pride myself most in is in my hard work, that is a thing that I take an immense amount of pride in,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But the other end of this, if we aren’t educating the public about the work that is going on, then we are doing a profound disservice.
“So if we aren’t communicating with the public what our policies are, if we aren’t educating the public about the opportunities that are available to them, if we aren’t making the case for why we should have universal health care in this country, then we aren’t fully doing our job,” she added. “And so I don’t see it as being workhorse and show horse. I see myself as doing the work and educating the public. And that is what I think a public servant should be doing. Your position is the most important thing that you have. But I do think that if you have a position and message it poorly, then people will think you have a different position than you actually have. I don’t think it’s wrong to say Democrats have a struggle with messaging.”
Conservatives — particularly those in right-wing media — have been almost obsessed with practically every detail of Ocasio-Cortez's life since her election.
Asked if she pays attention to what's said about her, Ocasio-Cortez replied, “Not a ton. Every once in a while I do. And I think that it’s really fascinating. I actually find it to be really, really fascinating because it reveals a lot about the subconscious of folks that are crafting these narratives and they very often are speaking to these very subconscious narratives about women or about people of color or about Latinos or Latinas or about working-class people. These caricatures that are developed are not really personal, they are societal.”
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