Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a postmortem of sorts on her Instagram account over the weekend, using the platform to connect with voters over Donald Trump’s election victory and how to best prepare for the days and years ahead.
At one point, in response to a question about Democratic infighting and the post-election rancor more generally, the New York Democrat denounced those who have been all too eager to engage in malicious finger-pointing after the election.
Despite the fact that Trump ran a campaign steeped in white racial grievance and the fact that MAGA influencers were literally calling for white men — specifically — to get out to the polls, some commentators have resorted to tired takes about Kamala Harris losing because the party leaned too much into “identity politics.”
The Democratic ticket didn’t actually lean into identity politics, but some in the party have settled on that line of thought as well — such as Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who suggested that Democrats’ support for trans people’s rights helped spell their doom this cycle.
Without naming names, Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram:
This is a not insignificant problem. It’s interesting that we are in a cultural moment where, on the left and the right and the center, there’s just a certain cache and reward to being an a–hole. And yeah, we’ve seen it on the right — we also see it on the left. And I actually think that we need to be paying more attention to how a person is, because a lot of people use righteous or popular causes as an excuse or a smokescreen to let out their worst impulses or the ways that they wish they could treat people. And I think we need to pay a lot more attention to that in terms of deciding how to trust and who to trust as we move forward. I think it’s a really big deal.
I agree. I do think a lot of liberals are spending far too much time trying to score cheap political points when it would be far more productive for them to be girding their constituents and the country against the looming Trump presidency — and all the illiberalism it could entail. That criticism actually extends to one of Ocasio-Cortez’s top allies in the Senate — Bernie Sanders — as well.
AOC basically wanted to refocus people’s attention on what lies ahead, although she did take time to ask for feedback from people who voted for her and for Trump. She also spoke about how misconceptions among immigrant communities — including documented citizens who voted — helped benefit Trump.
And she said some people still don’t seem to grasp what a Trump presidency is likely to mean:
I think a lot of people were finding out this week what a tariff meant, that a tariff is not what China or some other country pays — it’s what you pay. What we pay. I think a lot of people aren’t ready for mass deportations and what that means. One in every 15 people in this country lives in a mixed-status family. So that means that we’re talking about one in every 15 people potentially having their families broken apart. I don’t think we’re ready for that, including what that means for the economy. I don’t think we’re ready for the censorship that is coming, and for a whole lot more. But our job right now is to get ready, and to prepare.
What does that preparation look like? Ocasio-Cortez said she’s still taking a moment to process her plan. But she said she’ll personally be “doing a lot more direct communication” — i.e., methods other than social media, which can be overrun with unverified claims and outright propaganda.
“I think I’ll be planning on using my email list to give a lot more thorough and specific things about what’s on my mind and how to prepare for things,” she said. And she encouraged her followers to get out of their online bubbles:
My recommendation is to join and enter community right now: whether it is church, or your knitting circle, or mosque or temple, or whether it is joining … New York City DSA [Democratic Socialists of America], or Working Families Party, an interest group — get into physical community.
For those in despair, she talked about intentional joy being a radical act of defiance.
For those in despair, she talked about intentional joy being a radical act of defiance.
“I mean, listen: The fear is telling us something, but I also want to underscore how important it is during this time — that it actually is important to be intentional about living, and living fully, and bringing joy into the day to day. And loving on the people who you love,” she said.
“There’s like this scolding culture sometimes where it’s like, if someone dares to be happy in public, people want to, like, pounce on them. We are actually going to need that now more than ever — not in some gauzy, you know, bubble-gum, kind of like ‘deny how bad everything is’ kind of way, but that cultivating it is a tool of our survival.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.