AOC Doubts She Could Ever Be Elected President: “So Many People In This Country Hate Women”

Tom Tapp
·2 min read
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) gave an extensive interview to GQ this month for the magazine’s cover story. In it, she held forth on Roe v. Wade, January 6, sexual assault, marriage, being ostracized by her own party and, maybe most candidly, about running for president.

“Sometimes little girls will say, ‘Oh, I want you to be president,’ or things like that,” Ocasio-Cortez told journalist Wesley Lowery. “It’s very difficult for me to talk about because it provokes a lot of inner conflict in that I never want to tell a little girl what she can’t do. And I don’t want to tell young people what is not possible. I’ve never been in the business of doing that. But at the same time…”

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Lowery, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes that at this point in his conversation with the New York Representative “tears pooled in the corners of her eyes” as she spoke even more candidly.

“I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible. But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September. And that weighs very heavily on me. And it’s not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center. This grip of patriarchy affects all of us, not just women; men, as I mentioned before, but also, ideologically, there’s an extraordinary lack of self-awareness in so many places. And so those are two very conflicting things. I admit to sometimes believing that I live in a country that would never let that happen.”

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