of progressive policies sweeping New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio – the same wave Ocasio-Cortez is riding to Congress. On the subject of “economic justice,” a key plank of her appeal to the progressive base, Ocasio-Cortez has made some strange misstatements. “Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs. Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their family,” she claimed in a mid-July interview with PBS’s Firing Line. Her supporters’ enthusiasm doesn’t depend on the documented consequences of her professed ideology. Venezuelan socialism, the closest example, led to deprivation and dictatorship. Nor does the support hinge on her grasp of the facts. “You can tell she’s sincere,” New Paltz sophomore Lora Morales observed, when I asked what she likes about Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign. “Plus, she’s so cute,” Morales’ friend Kailey Strafford, also a sophomore, agreed. “I thought it was exciting when he lost,” Strafford said of Joe Crowley. “And she’s young,” added Morales, who is 19 and voted for the first time this year. Ocasio-Cortez’s defeat of Crowley, and her youthful energy, have made higher office look less remote to these 19-year-olds – and voting more appealing. They were among those disappointed to find out that having registered to vote in New Paltz meant that they wouldn’t get cast their ballots for Ocasio-Cortez. The progressive organizers roaming campus with clipboards and registration cards might be taking advantage of these students’ Ocasio- Cortez fever, the three of us considered.
Hook pointed out in a recent interview. “Her primary victory was huge because of who she beat,” he said. “But when she gets to Congress, she’s going to be buried – whether she’s in the majority or not.” If Ocasio- Cortez has made peace with Pelosi, she hasn’t publicized it... “Everybody [has reached out],” was all she would say up in New Paltz. “I was not expecting this reaction to the race.” When I asked for names, she repeated, “Like, literally, everybody.” Crazy as it’s been, she spared the time to pose for a photo outside the popular Lower East Side diner Coffee Shop, where she used to waitress. The owner had announced its imminent closing, telling the New York Post that the rising minimum wage was to blame.
Ocasio-Cortez and friend bid farewell to the eatery with an Twitter tribute to the good times they’d shared, toiling for tips at a trendy dive.
In the photo, she’s balanced piggyback-style on her friend’s shoulders,
laughing while a frowning busboy refills water glasses in the background. He’s out of a job, because of the anti-business wave
48 October 2018
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