I think that most of us are pretty familiar with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) endorsement of Senator Bernie Sanders as our next President. She’s always posting about it on Instagram, retweeting or liking Bernie’s tweets, tweeting about him herself- it’s cute.
Yet, some people have been wondering, “Why would the youngest member of Congress, a woman in the Latinx community who is pushing for a more diverse and progressive government, be supporting Senator Bernie Sanders- the oldest candidate in the Presidential race, a white male from Vermont, equally as progressive, and reflective of the faces America is used to seeing in government?” She has even spoken about how important it is to support minorities and women overall in government.
In an interview with ABC News, they asked Rep. Ocasio-Cortez the same question I asked above. She responded with, “It’s not just what we’re trying to accomplish, but how we’re trying to accomplish it. And what we’re going to have to do in order to win our future back, is to come together and transcend race, gender, class, come across lines of religion, not in ways that erase each other, but in ways that lift each other up and acknowledge each other’s struggles.” She is clearly not falling into the trap of “identity politics”, this idea of endorsing or supporting others in government specifically because they look like them– physically, racially, ethnically. She crossed those barriers of race and gender and class when she announced her support for the Senator. She also mentioned that she organized for Senator Sanders in 2016 and felt personally touched that he had been fighting for basic human rights, policies such as Medicare for All, and now the Green New Deal since before she became involved in politics when she was a little girl. “He had been fighting for me…for justice on all these different fronts,” she continued.
Her support for him goes farther back than just when she organized for him 3 years ago, and she is continuing to do it again from her seat in Congress. She said voting is “… an extremely personal decision where we talk about our stories and we bring our whole selves to it…,” and who she endorses has a lot of power. She then praises the Senator’s rare “moral fortitude [and] commitment to policy,” given the pressure to conform in government to whatever is popular. And he really hasn’t strayed from his goals since he became involved in government- he has been consistent in serving the public and won’t back down, no matter how many haters he has.
Many who are critical of the representative’s support for Bernie believe that progressive women of color must support other progressive women, of color or not, and that’s frustrating. That’s not how it should be, and that’s not feminism. That is ignoring someone’s ideologies and beliefs and policies simply because their physical identities differ from yours. That is invalidating someone’s potential and successes as less than yours because they are not a minority or not the ideal candidate a minority should support. And yes, while most old white men aren’t my favorite, that doesn’t mean I’m going to support a Latinx woman if their ideals are not in line with mine.
AOC and other progressive female Congresswomen are under no obligation to support a woman of color or a woman at all. They are to support whoever will make America best, and I still don’t know who that is at this point in the presidential race. But AOC does and she chose Bernie- probably the most progressive candidate who would support her future progressive policies, and who would support millions of Americans without health insurance or are facing environmental injustices across the country.
Those who are bashing her for doing so are not feminists. Feminism does not mean always siding with women just to side with women because we have been oppressed, it does not mean siding with candidates of color because they have also been oppressed, but siding with whoever has the best vision for the United States and will work towards that. Women are entitled to make their own decisions for themselves- whether that decision is what they’re going to wear that day, or whether it’s who will be running our country less than a year from now. AOC decided she wanted Bernie to be President. That’s feminism.
For AOC, she chose Bernie, and her making that decision is feminism at its finest.