The political scene in America was shaken to its core on June 26, 2018, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in New York's 14th Congressional district Democratic primary. She comes from humble beginnings, the daughter of a Bronx native father and a Puerto Rican mother. After her father died, her mother took up cleaning jobs and driving school buses, while she came back from college as a bartender and a waitress for a taqueria.
Perhaps this typical working-class lifestyle is what makes people so fascinated by Ocasio-Cortez. In fact, she credits this upbringing for why she's so invested in politics. Moreover, she has a personal connection to the mass incarceration system, which this and abolishing ICE have been cardinal issues of her campaign. She writes in a piece for America magazine that it was her cousin's survival of the mass incarceration system and her Catholic faith that motivates her to fight.
But in a broader perspective, it was Ocasio-Cortez's campaign that ran on the issues that led to her victory, and the democratic socialist movement that fueled it.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has signaled that a wave of socialism, namely democratic socialism, is on the horizon. It's the same rhetoric that Bernie Sanders stumped on, and it's also the same that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which Ocasio-Cortez is a card-carrying member of, stump on as well. She supports Medicare-for-All, the abolition of ICE, job guarantees, tuition-free public universities, ending the privatization of prisons, and many other progressive arguments. Ocasio-Cortez's district, which includes parts of Queens and the Bronx, is predominantly working-class just like her and her family. In a piece for the Washington Post, the stories told by residents perhaps make it obvious that they were attracted to the agenda that Ocasio-Cortez brought to the table.
The main point here is this: America is ready for a break from the same two-party dichotomy that leads to the same boring and atrocious results we see in Washington.
People can rant and make fun of Donald Trump all they want on social media, but the reality is that won't suffice when it comes to the issues that common Americans face. Democratic socialism is not something that we should fear, but something that we should embrace.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a testament to this: when you listen to the troubles people face, you find ways to fix them. This is what politics fundamentally should be all about.
In today's age of Trump, it is easy to simply vote for someone because they have a "D" by their name. But as 2016 has shown us, that could lead to very dangerous habits that could lead to the same results we're seeing with Trump. If we're going to change the political system, as much as a difficulty that may be, then we must elect individuals that aren't intoxicated by donors that don't represent the working-class.
Another world is possible. If we all come together and realize that our struggles are mutual, then a new movement can be cultivated to bring about genuine change in this toxic political atmosphere we live in.
