If Republicans hoped that an obsessive focus on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) would drive her from popularity, they’re continuing to be proven wrong. She has remained firm in her positions following angry blowback from Congressional Republicans against her “Green New Deal,” sharing her thoughts about their antagonism on Twitter. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) had invited Ocasio-Cortez to visit a coal mine in his district to get a firsthand glimpse of the community’s supposed dependence on the resource, but he withdrew his invitation after she criticized Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) for drumming up hate against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
As Ocasio-Cortez put it:
‘GOP thought they could catch us in a bluff. Now we’ve got ’em on their back foot stutter-stepping’
Barr had seemed to intend his invitation as a means to highlight Ocasio-Cortez’s supposed disconnect from average Americans, but that plan might have backfired when she said she was happy to take him up on his offer.
As the Congresswoman put it:
‘GOP’s getting scared that up close, their constituents will realize I’m fighting harder for their health care than their own Reps.’
She noted at the time of Barr’s original invitation that the Green New Deal calls to support miners’ pensions in order to not leave them hanging; the point is not some kind of elitist takeover of Republicans’ dear-old ways of life, the point is to improve the qualities of lives of Americans in completely tangible ways.
Mentioning examples of Americans suffering from climate-related issues from Flint, Michigan, the large town that has gone without clean water for a significant period of time and the South Bronx, where kids are “suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country,” she asserted:
‘This is not an elitist issue. This is a quality-of-life issue. You want to tell people that their concern for clean air and clean water is elitist?’
Apparently that’s exactly what the GOP wants to do. Kentucky Republican Congressman James Comer whined on Twitter, addressing Ocasio-Cortez:
‘[M]y constituents know that your Socialist policies like #MedicareForAll and #GreenNewDeal will not work.’
He did not cite any specific evidence for this claim, leading one to wonder if it’s like the one White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered that many FBI agents lost confidence in their former FBI Director James Comey that the Mueller report says was “not founded on anything.”
Outside of Republican lies, progressives like Ocasio-Cortez are continuing to push for policies that actually are tied to reality, which you’d hope wouldn’t be the distinguishing point between the major political parties although lo and behold here we are.
Her “Green New Deal” to address climate change has been introduced as a resolution in both chambers of Congress at this point, and is meant to “achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” “create millions of good, high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States,” and more.
To top it all off — Ocasio-Cortez’s office says she’s still looking to go to Kentucky even thought Barr got cold feet.
Spokeswoman Corbin Trent offered:
‘Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky, we are free to travel there. We hope to visit and have a town hall, listen to concerns of workers in Kentucky.’
Check out Twitter’s response…
Featured Image via screenshot
