AOC’s chat with Jon Stewart is the jolt Democrats need right now

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York spoke with Jon Stewart on his podcast, “The Weekly,” Thursday. In a wide-ranging interview, the two talked about the billionaire oligarchy Donald Trump represents and the state of the Democratic Party.

According to Ocasio-Cortez, what makes Trump more dangerous this time around is how much more he has been normalized by the elite class. Describe what we have seen last few weeks as a “billionaire feeding frenzy” and “a kissing bug,” AOC said that “the important thing for people to understand about this administration is that you’re getting ripped off … everybody’s getting ripped off.”

Ocasio-Cortez was critical of the Democratic establishment’s reliance on clearly archaic social mores that are no longer effective, but warned against the nihilism inherent in the rhetoric that both political parties are the same.

“When you look at how Putin has operated in Russia, for example, and the way they’ve been able to kind of take over things in these oligarchies, these kleptocracies, they prey on the exact logic, on the exact predicate , which is that everyone is corrupt and everyone is corrupt. And who cares?

She added that there are many people in Congress who are trying to do that do good thingsand people should demand that from their representatives. “When we decide to hold people to a higher standard, things actually get better.”

AOC was optimistic about positive changes in the Democratic Party, saying that while she did not become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, losing an intra-party vote to 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connollyshe was moved to a powerful position in energy and trade.

Shortly after the election, the congresswoman came appealed directly to his constituents via social media to find out why some of them voted for both her and Trump. “They see two people who are fundamentally anti-establishment,” she told Stewart. “Two people who do not respect a rule, if the rule does not lead to a result, like a positive result.”

She added that in terms of messaging, one of the shifts she’s seen is that people want to believe a politician who speaks directly to them. Unfortunately, that includes immigrants in her community who believed Trump when he claimed that only criminals would be harassed as part of his immigration policies.

But with a media always moving to the right, AOC said appealing directly to voters gave Democrats a real chance to get a message across.

“If you ask a working-class American or just any normal American, what is a Democrat? What do they stand for?” Ocasio explained to Stewart. “They won’t really be able to give you a clear answer. And then our party needs a clear and strong agenda.”

“The things that are crazy to me is that the answers are things like we’re just asking for things that our parents and our grandparents had,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “Like, tuition-free public colleges and universities, not new, not new.” She also added an appeal for Medicare for All and a platform that includes promises to Americans young and old.

“There are very, very few swing seats left in America. The Republicans and this whole system has become confused that the number of swing seats is so low,” AOC said of why she felt there should be more progressive candidates with less progressive primaries over the whole country.

“At the end of the day, people who are in Congress will return to Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez explained. “And the reason Republicans have so much enforcement is because they’re more afraid of a primary than they are of a general election.”

You can watch the entire interview below.

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