Ocasio-Cortez: I Drive Republicans Crazy Because ‘I Am as Powerful as a Man’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) thinks she drives Republicans “crazy” not because of her harebrained plans like the Green New Deal or many instances of blatant hypocrisy but because she is “as powerful as a man.”

In a Sunday New Yorker magazine profile, David Remnick read Ocasio-Cortez a quote from a Jezebel writer who said that in politics, “women are often either characterized as hideous harpies like Hillary Clinton or pretty idiot whose ‘craziness is bound up with their ex appeal.” Remnick pointed out that Ocasio-Cortez is “firmly in the latter category.”

“I feel like I predicted it from day one,” Ocasio-Cortez told Remnick. “The idea that a woman can be as powerful as a man is something that our society can’t deal with. But I am as powerful as a man and it drives them crazy.”

Mainstream media members like Remnick who never defended former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who had a strong record of reforming Alaska’s government, when she was derided as a “pretty idiot” are now sympathizing with and coming to the defense of Ocasio-Cortez, who had no record of accomplishing reforms at any level before she became a national political figure.

Remnick allowed Ocasio-Cortez to add that dealing with the attacks, which she said are “dangerous and even scary,” “feels like an extra job.”

“I’ve got a full-time job in Congress and then I moonlight as America’s greatest villain, or as the new hope. And it’s pretty tiring. I’m just a normal person. I knew that I was not going to be liked. I’m a Democrat. I’m a woman. I’m a young woman. A Latina. And I’m a liberal, a D.S.A. [Democratic Socialists of America] member,” Ocasio-Cortez reportedly said. “I believe health care is a right and people should be paid enough to live. Those are offensive values to them. But this ravenous hysteria—it’s really getting to a level that is kind of out of control. It’s dangerous and even scary. I have days when it seems some people want to stoke just enough of it to have just enough plausible deniability if something happens to me.”