Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) escalated her rhetoric against President Donald Trump this week, accusing his administration of deliberately undermining womens access to higher education while campaigning for far-left Michigan Senate hopeful Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (D).
According to Breitbart, Ocasio-Cortez made the remarks while stumping for El-Sayed, a progressive favorite in a key battleground state where Democrats hope to expand their influence. She framed her comments through the lens of identity politics and grievance, declaring, Im from the Bronx, where we desperately need doctors and have some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the United States.
From there, the congresswoman launched into a familiar attack on the free-market approach to education, insisting that when we make a business of education, our communities get left behind, and not only should we not be charging interest rates, public colleges should be tuition free. She went further, arguing that Americans must question what is the utility of putting people in indentured servitude their entire lives for seeking an education, before asserting that the Trump administration specifically is attacking womens ability to get an education.
Ocasio-Cortez claimed that federal policy changes on student loans are being weaponized against traditionally female-dominated professions. Alright, because they put down that list on what theyre making harder, what theyre not going to give people student loans for, and its nurses, its teachers, its social workers, she said, concluding, They dont want women to go to college, yall.
Doubling down, she alleged, Theyre defunding the ability for nurses for people to become nurses, teachers, social workers. In her telling, the administrations efforts are not about fiscal restraint or reforming a broken loan system, but about suppressing womens advancement and punishing caregiving professions.
The New York Democrat also portrayed El-Sayed as a crusader against money and special interests, insisting those forces are working to ensure that no one can open their ears and their eyes to his candidacy. He doesnt take money from Wall Street, she said, praising his hard-left agenda: And what he says is that if working people come together across geography, race, difference, and fight so that we all can guarantee healthcare in America. And we all take on these monopolies that are driving up our prices and making our lives impossible, then we can have a better world And because once you elect one person like that, people will then catch on.
Theres a lot of money and a lot of interest in making sure that nobody can open their ears or their eyes to even give this guy a shot, she added, casting El-Sayed as a victim of a rigged system rather than a radical ideologue out of step with mainstream voters. Fellow socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has joined the effort, boosting El-Sayeds campaign against Republican Mike Rogers and promoting the sweeping progressive slogan that if Abdul can win in Michigan, anyone can win anywhere.
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