Wednesday’s Videos: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

In case you need a pick-me-up today — as so many do — I find that nothing has been able to dent the pleasure I get from this gif of first-time candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reacting to winning the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th congressional district last night.

Thank you to NY1 for being the only news organization there to cover the 28-year-old Ocasio-Cortez’s defeat of 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in his first primary in 14 years.

I swear I watched this gif 20 times before I moved on to the whole video.

Then I went back to watching the gif on loop. I can’t get enough of it, because someone outspoken and unabashedly progressive — a Democratic socialist, in fact — is what I’ve been hoping for. For instance, she’s said that ICE should be abolished, even as some Democrats in office got caught up in a fruitless conversation about manners. And enough of Democrats acting apologetic for things like wanting people to have healthcare, good educations, and affordable rent without bankrupting themselves. What’s shameful about that?

If you haven’t seen Ocasio-Cortez’s smart, passionate, self-written campaign video in which she lays out her platform, watch it now.

This gives me great hope for New York’s state senate. As Ocasio-Cortez says in her ad, not all Democrats are alike, and, to make a long story short, there are eight fake Democrats in New York’s state senate. (They run as Democrats but ALWAYS vote with Republicans, and that gives Republicans all the power.) These con artists have been getting away with this for years because no one was paying attention! They were listed as Democratic on the ballot and that was good enough for the tiny number of people who vote in New York. Now, of course, people know and there are whole groups devoted to educating constituents voting these fake Democrats out.

I already thought the candidates going against these frauds were going to be successful due to raised awareness. But now I’m even more confident, because they have Ocasio-Cortez as a shining example of the good results that come from doing the hard work of turning out voters. Since the Politics 101 workshop presented at my Indivisible group, I’ve been thinking a lot about how very low turnout in primaries favors the incumbent, which is why bad politicians like the “soft voter suppression” we have in New York.

Smart people know how to turn liabilities into assets, and the silver lining here is that with low turnout, you don’t need many people to change the dynamics. Ocasio-Cortez was physically knocking on doors to turn out first-time voters, with a goal of getting 30,000 confirmed supporters. Meanwhile, Crowley didn’t even deign to show up to his own primary debate. Seriously! He sent an inept substitute, which is just insulting.

At least he conceded graciously by getting out his guitar and dedicating “Born to Run” to Ocasio-Cortez.

I approve: A competitive primary that shakes things up followed by a full, enthusiastic endorsement of the winning candidate. No sulking. It’s refreshing.

You can follow Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter here, and find out which red lipstick she wears here (hey, people asked her!).

Congrats also to Liuba Grechen Shirley, another first-time candidate and my Indivisible chapter‘s one official endorsement! Liuba has a tougher job out there on Long Island in a district that’s long been represented by a Republican, while Ocasio-Cortez was in deeply Democratic territory. But I’d say don’t underestimate a newly fired-up woman running for office!