The first 40 minutes of this video are the extemporaneous thoughts of perhaps the preeminent political communicator of our time. In this recording of her livestream from Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks about what it was like for her to experience the onslaught of violent white supremacists on the Capitol and how near it came to them murdering numerous congresspeople. She talks about how there was a specific incident (which she cannot currently describe) in which she honestly thought someone might kill her personally. She describes the threat of mask-flouting Republicans and holds little back about what it means that Republican congresspeople supported the attempted putsch. She talks about what accountability vis-à-vis impeachment means consequentially and about where we can go from here. Her words contain as much essential truth and earnest expression about what the insurgent assault on the Capitol was about as I’ve seen anywhere else.
Every American should see this speech. Please take the time to watch it, and send it to anyone who you think might watch.
In the latter portion of the video, Ocasio-Cortez takes live questions from viewers, and her responses are also well worth hearing, especially the frank discussion about mental health and trauma both on a policy basis and on a personal level.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, a Justice Democrats candidate who unseated Rep. Joe Crowley and who is the most famous member of the growing Squad, is the youngest congresswoman ever, yet she displays more wisdom than the vast majority of her colleagues. Pardon my perhaps indulgent adulation in this post, but her moral and ideological clarity should make her the true leader of the House Democrats.
To extend from the speech, think on what it would’ve meant had it not been for the heroic acts of some loyal Capitol police to protect congresspeople and had it not been for a substantial measure of luck. Had the insurrectionists succeeded in kidnapping or killing many or even a few congresspeople, beyond the immediate tragedy, it could’ve quickly spiraled into wider conflict and (though an unlikely outcome) possibly into the country falling to dictatorship. Had the insurrectionists so much as reached Congress’s copies of the states’ electoral votes, their destruction could’ve disrupted the formal count and turned the certification of the election into a struggle, amid the prez’s extortionate attempts to overturn the election result.
The fact that it got that close and that there was apparently substantial Capitol police sympathy for the insurgents or, worse, potential collaboration with them shows that our congressional leadership didn’t have a full assessment of the situation and wasn’t ready for it, despite plenty of warning about the day itself and about white supremacist infiltration of police, and despite the efforts of congresspeople like Rep. Maxine Waters.
Meanwhile the prez still has the formal powers of the office as well as the support of thousands of armed extremists, of many federal and local “law enforcement” agency personnel, and of millions of Americans. As has been true from day one, but especially now, it is intolerable to justice, democracy, and our very existence that the prez continues even one more day in office. Everyone please call your senators today to demand that Sen. Mitch McConnell immediately convene the Senate for an expedited impeachment trial, as Sen. Chuck Schumer is requesting.