On Instagram, Ocasio-Cortez got real about the threats that Trump’s presidency is likely to pose and said ‘there’s just a certain cache and reward to being an a--hole’ — including on the left.
Summary
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressed Trump’s election win, urging Democrats to move past infighting and post-election rancor to focus on preparing for potential impacts of his presidency, such as tariffs, mass deportations, and censorship.
She criticized some Democrats for blaming the loss on “identity politics,” despite Trump’s campaign centering on white racial grievance and calls for white men to turn out. Ocasio-Cortez pointed to moderate voices like Reps. Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton, who argued that supporting trans rights hurt Democrats, as misguided.
She encouraged people to engage in direct communication and join physical communities to combat despair and build resilience.
What does that preparation look like? Ocasio-Cortez said she’s still taking a moment to process her plan. But she said she’ll personally be “doing a lot more direct communication” — i.e., methods other than social media, which can be overrun with unverified claims and outright propaganda.
“I think I’ll be planning on using my email list to give a lot more thorough and specific things about what’s on my mind and how to prepare for things,” she said. And she encouraged her followers to get out of their online bubbles:
I was going to point out that nobody reads those, but then I realized I'm a fucking weirdo who blocks all that shit with extreme prejudice. So maybe it'll work because normal people apparently read every email they get in detail.
Most people I know either obsessively filter and delete junk like this so their inbox is always empty, or they have 30k emails, all unread, and this'll just go in the pile.
I unsubscribed from all my newsletters and subscribed to them through RSS where I could. That way I don’t have to be bothered unless i specifically want to read any updates!