Today, on a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Alexandria was asked, "Has your party betrayed its base?" Here was her answer:
I was first elected in 2018, and I was a waitress in New York City.
I had no health insurance, I could not pay my rent, and I consistently saw a party that championed special interests, the elite — a Democratic Party that was very much telling working people that "everything was fine" when it, in fact, wasn't.
After I was elected, I remember there was a closed-door meeting of many high ranking Democratic Party officials. At that time — a long time ago — they derided many of the populist demands that I had run my campaign on.
I had defeated a 20-year Democratic incumbent that was part of Democratic Party leadership. And they said, "$15 minimum wage? Way too high, too severe."
The idea of tuition-free public colleges and universities? Too far.
Expanding healthcare and Medicare? Too extreme.
These were all things that I as a waitress had campaigned on, and had been major pain points in my life.
And then they said, "We have to listen to working class people more."
I think that encapsulates much of the betrayal that the working class in the United States have felt.
But we have come a long way since then — and we have a long way to go.
The United States right now is experiencing a political pendulum. And really the party that is seen most as betraying the working-class is the governing party. Right now, that happens to be the Republican majority.
What we are seeing over the last eight years has been a growing recognition of those past errors, that include military interventionism in the Iraq War, a recognition of NAFTA as a failed policy for many rural and working class communities.
Now I think we are moving in this direction of increased recognition that we have to have a working class centered politics if we are going to succeed, and also if we are going to stave off the scourges of authoritarianism, which also provides political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.
That's what this movement is fighting for: to center working-class people in the halls of Congress and in every corner of this country.
Help us continue the fight by making a grassroots contribution today.
We will keep you informed as Alexandria continues to participate in the Munich Security Conference.
In solidarity,
Team AOC
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