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I Want AOC to Run For President, But I’m Terrified of What This Country Will Do to Her
Why I still have hope anyway
A month ago I watched Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez post a live video on Instagram explaining exactly what it felt like for her during the Capital riots on January 6th. It was a deeply brave and moving video, but I couldn’t fully appreciate it at the time. I was too busy imagining the backlash that would inevitably come.
When she started getting emotional, I knew conservatives would call her hysterical. When she mentioned being a sexual assault survivor, I knew they would accuse her of lying, of manipulatively using sexual assault as a shameless political tactic. I knew, watching her video, how conservatives would misrepresent her words, exaggerating her claims and then bashing her for exaggerating. I knew that her mention of sexual assault would be the big focus when mainstream news covered this, just as I knew these media organizations would completely fail to push back against the bad-faith conservative smears in any meaningful way.
I knew, as she gave this powerful, heartbreaking speech to her Instagram followers, that she was in for yet another round of vicious attacks from conservatives, along with the usual wave of smug dismissal from moderates and establishment liberals. I know that as a young…
