Undaunted: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Courage is Contagious—and Not Optional

Each week, the Contrarian selects a remarkable figure who stands up in defense of democracy, American leadership in the world, the rule of law, and truth.

Some Americans deserve recognition every week for their articulate defense of the rule of law, democracy, and inclusivity. But simply because we are accustomed to seeing those faces or hearing their voices does not mean we should not take their endurance and consistency for granted.

When you think of the most effective communicators in defense of the democracy movement, and the most aggressive antagonists of the new era of oligarchy, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) should rank at the top.

She can inspire crowds as she did recently before a small gathering of protestors. “We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them,” she declared. “And they can be overwhelmed.”

It is worth savoring in full:

Her insistence that “this moment is bigger than all of us” helps to dispel the sense of complacency and inevitability autocrats rely on to keep the people in check. She warns her fellow Americans against defeatism, and in the best tradition of American social justice movements, she calls on Americans to pay attention to the oligarchs’ grift, their glaring conflicts of interest, and their effort to undermine the very notion of government for the public good. She warns not to fall prey to nihilism and cynicism, stressing that every action we take, no matter how small, matters. The “constant, consistent pressure,” as she puts it, will eventually overwhelm the authoritarian threat.

Democrats, pundits and strategists have gotten tied up in knots deliberating on whether to focus on the economy or on democracy. Ocasio-Cortez understands that they are two sides of the same fight. She ably describes the central threat posed by the Musk-Trump oligarchy, dubbing it “the fusion and the capture of the billionaire class of our democracy.”

Take, for example, the Supreme Court, which strips away constitutional rights and shreds the Constitution to elevate Donald Trump to the status of a king with a sweeping grant of immunity. As Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) described in his insightful piece this week, “The Supreme Court has been captured by powerful, secretive special interests who spent hundreds of millions on the project.” He added, “A single Supreme Court decision can yield billions of dollars for an industry (throwing out the Clean Power Plan, for instance), so this scheme was an investment that paid off handsomely.” And that is the same court that undermines the collective bargaining rights of unions, turns campaigning spending into “speech” to give billionaires unprecedented power, and imposes its Christian nationalism on the rest of us. Put differently, oligarchs aim to deploy their billions for the purpose of increasing their wealth even further and undermining pro-democracy forces who stand in the way of their ambitions.

Ocasio-Cortez’s talent goes beyond impromptu street speeches. She can be dazzling in hearings, delivering stinging rebukes to her colleagues. In a recent hearing considering Draconian cuts to Medicaid, she debunked the GOP argument that their aim was to make Medicaid more efficient and eliminate waste. “We have not heard a single concrete number of the amount of waste and abuse that has been identified. There’s kind of this vague magic wand around waste,” she said. “What’s being suggested is that…people seeing the doctor is a waste.” She plunged ahead:

In deconstructing the lies about the budget and DOGE, Ocasio-Cortez refuses to play into the falsehood that Elon Musk is qualified to tear apart government at the seams, merely by virtue of his billions. Indeed, after calling him a “billionaire con man,” she declared, “If you all think he is an expert…I’ve got a bridge to nowhere to sell you. These are people’s lives on the line, and we cannot laugh them away.”

Democrats can learn several lessons from her. First and foremost, power does not come from a leadership title or a committee chairmanship. It comes from the strength of one’s message and the determination to rally Americans to the cause of democracy. (If you are disgusted with flabby rhetoric coming from House and Senate leaders, look to others without the titles.)

Second, she effectively humanizes the victims of Musk-Trump’s cruelty. Ocasio-Cortez does not buy into the lie that Americans do not care about government workers. “Federal workers do work that is part of the lifeblood of our society,” she says. She ticks off the vital jobs—in healthcare, national parks, and foreign service—who make the country function and preserve our standing in the world. She points to the ordinary Americans (e.g., visitors to national parks) who are presently suffering at the hands of the oligarchy. Trump may have contempt for government workers, but he falsely assumes Americans don’t care about people in their communities who do vital work.

Finally, Ocasio-Cortez manages to deliver some tough love to Americans who are depressed, resigned, or expecting an overnight solution to the MAGA threat. She tells them it is their obligation to stand up to authoritarianism. And she is right: it is not optional. Citizens of a democracy have a responsibility to defend it, to resist a threat more menacing than any external foe. However, tired or depressed you might be, Ocasio-Cortez is telling you to do something. She does not mince words: This is no easy fight; victory is not assured and will not come quickly.

In sum, among the reasons we honor Ocasio-Cortez today is because she treats Americans like responsible, decent adults—explaining the stakes, connecting the dots between oligarchs and authoritarianism, and setting the expectation that ordinary Americans will engage in the battle to protect their democracy.

AOC remains undaunted—and asks us to be so as well.