Who among us has not hoped to hear from a political leader whose stand on the issues matches the positions held by a majority or strong plurality of Americans, regardless of the orthodoxy of either political party? Someone who will speak the truth without any concern about the views of fundraisers or the power brokers?
That person has arrived!
To really understand the importance of her positions and her approach, it’s important to define “Centrist.” A Centrist is someone who advocates for all Americans, and holds positions that match a majority or strong plurality of Americans.
A centrist is NOT someone who has acquired that label based on positions whose acceptable range has been pre-defined into a tiny box by the pundit class.
A centrist is NOT some billionaire who thinks by virtue of business success that he knows what the rest of us need or how to get there.
A centrist is NOT someone who cowers away from real solutions that would help real people, on the grounds that the solutions would be “politically impossible.”
Based on that definition — the real definition — of Centrist, I give you the leader who best reflects the positions, the aspirations, and the possibilities of America as our country is now and as our future is fast arriving.
Let’s have a look at her positions, and compare them to actual sentiment of the population of our country.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez highlights the reality of human-caused climate change, which a majority of Americans recognize: climatecommunication.yale.edu/...
Our latest national survey finds that a large majority of Americans think global warming is happening, outnumbering those who don’t by more than 5 to 1. Americans are also growing more certain that global warming is happening and more aware that it is caused by human activities. Certainty has increased 14 percentage points since March 2015, with 51% of the public now “extremely” or “very sure” that global warming is happening. Sixty-two percent of the public now understands that global warming is caused mostly by human activities, an increase of 10 points over that same time period.
She advocates vigorous climate action. So do a majority of Americans: www.reuters.com/...
A growing percentage of Americans see climate change as an “imminent” threat driven mainly by human activity, and more than two-thirds want Washington to work with other nations to combat it, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday.
Like a majority of Americans, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez advocates for a tax system where the very wealthy pay substantially higher tax rates than they do currently. nypost.com/…
The Hill-HarrisX survey found that 59 percent of US voters support raising the top rate to 70 percent, which she said would be applied to income above the first $10 million taxpayers earn.
Women back the idea by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin, while men support it by 55 percent to 45 percent.
Here’s what she had to say about that.
Along with a majority of Americans, she opposes the stupid wall: www.pollingreport.com/…
Just like a full two thirds (!) of Americans, she supports marriage equality: www.usatoday.com/...
Along with 70% of Americans, she support universal health care thehill.com/...
It goes without saying that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the incoming Democratic majority in the house, which was elected by a landslide majority of American voters, even in some districts that had been considered to be Red.
Is she shifting the Overton Window? Oh yeah. But she is shifting that window away from a fictional location carefully maintained by the powerful, to a place that matches what a majority of our country actually wants.
More than any other new public figure in our country, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez excels at revealing sensible, important, common-sense truths in a manner that leaves us shaking our heads and wondering how we let ourselves become convinced that we can only achieve minor, incremental victories for decency, equality, and justice in our country.
What’s so radical about her, anyway?
There’s just one thing — she speaks the truth, without flinching and without self-censoring.
“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” — George Orwell
Now that’s a kind of radicalism I could get used to.
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James R. Wells is the author of The Great Symmetry, a science fiction adventure celebrating the freedom of ideas. The story is set 300 years in the future, but that future world appears to be arriving about 299 years sooner than expected.
James is also a proud alumnus of Yorktown High School, where Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez also graduated.