Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says voters who are tired of broken promises should embrace a “suspension of disbelief” for one day if they want to defeat President Trump’s reelection bid.
The New York Democrat appeared on “The Breakfast Club” Tuesday morning to talk about her career and the 2020 election cycle when she pitched a temporary abandonment of reality as a means of securing victory.
“I understand the cynicism of not voting 10,000 percent, because how many politicians have come through and promised things and then just ended up being major disappointments?” she asked. “Ultimately, at least, if we’re not suspending our disbelief for one day, or two days, on Election Day, you know — we can go back to the cynicism [afterward], we’re just asking for two days out of the year to just cast a vote because the system that we have now is with the electorate that we have now.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez also said that Mr. Trump is “scared” of what she represents: a new definition of socialism inspired by “Albert Einstein.”
“Since the time I was 18 years old, Republicans and, you know, people at large have called health care ’socialist,’ public education ’socialist,’” she said. “They’ve called systems that rest of the modern, developed world has — like universal health care, paid family leave, tuition-free public colleges and universities, all of those things are called socialist, or democratic socialism.
“But for me, while some people say, ’oh, this comes from, like, Karl Marx, and all of these things,’ my political ideology has really come from people in the American tradition — like Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr., even Albert Einstein was a democratic socialist,” she continued.
Hosts Charlamagne tha God and Angela Yee eventually noted that while Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s ideology is a lightning rod for criticism, the president would never insult her to her face.
“The president do [sic] some shots with you I think he would never say to you. He called you a whack job,” Charlamagne said.
“Oh, no. He never would. Yeah, he never would,” the lawmaker replied.
“I think it’s a compliment when Donald Trump likes you. It’s like, ’I’m doing something right,’” Ms. Yee added.
“Yeah, well, I mean, I think he’s scared. I think he’s scared,” the Democrat said.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrapped her interview by warning listeners that America was in “uncharted territory.”
“We really need to come together in a huge mass movement,” she said.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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