Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Quotes
Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a 29-year old American politician and activist. She is a Progressive Democrat and is the youngest Congresswoman ever, after being elected to represent New York 14th District on 6th November 2018.
Often referred to as AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the rising star of American politics, leading the line for movements such as the Green New Deal. She is a former Bernie Sanders ‘staffer,’ with a degree in International Relations and Economics at Boston University. With a social media following of over 9M, AOC’s influence is growing fast.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Family and Background
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants and describes her Puerto Rican community as an amalgamation; “We are black, we are indigenous, we are Spanish, we are European.”
Her mother, Blanca Ocasio-Cortez, grew up in poverty in Puerto Rico and raised her siblings whilst her own mother worked. Alexandria’s father, Sergio Ocasio, also Puerto Rican but was born in New York, met Blanca when he was visiting Puerto Rico. After getting married in Puerto Rico, they moved to a working class neighbourhood in the Bronx, New York called Parkchester, where Ocasio-Cortez was born.
AOC’s father, Sergio, set up an architecture firm that allowed the family to afford a two-bedroom home in Westchester County. They moved when Alexandria was five years old, so that her and her brother could attend better schools. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s younger brother, Gabriel, is a musician, artist and estate agent.
Sergio Ocasio died of lung cancer in 2008, when Alexandria was just 19 and still a sophomore at Boston University. This prompted her to work as a bartender and waitress in addition to her role at the National Hispanic Institute. Helping her mother, a cleaner and bus driver, to pay the bills.
Ocasio-Cortez often hails her mother, Blanca, as the biggest source of inspiration in her life, dedicating a touching Instagram post to her after her inauguration as she held the bible at her swearing in.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s boyfriend is Riley Roberts, a web developer and consultant to tech startups. They met at a Friday talk by the Dean at Boston University, “in true nerdy fashion”, according to AOC, and have been dating since college.
Ocasio-Cortez is very tight lipped about her private life, but she has described him as an “easygoing redhead” who is very supportive of her and her career.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes on:
Climate Change
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez climate change quotes and opinions are pretty powerful. Regularly seen on Capitol Hill protesting for new climate change legislation.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have moved to declare the climate crisis an official emergency. If passed, the motion would not force any action on climate change, but would serve to highlight the issue on a global scale, as shown in Canada and the United Kingdom.
1. “Change takes courage.”
2. “There’s no debate as to whether we should continue producing fossil fuels. There’s no debate, we should not. Every single scientific consensus points to that.”
3. “Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don’t turn this ship around and so it’s basically like, there’s a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult.”
4. “We talk about existential threats, the last time we had a really major existential threat to this country was around World War II, and so we’ve been here before and we have a blueprint of doing this before.”
5. “We don’t have time to sit on our hands as our planet burns. For young people, climate change is bigger than election or re-election. It’s life or death.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes on: The Green New Deal
The Green New Deal is a plan put forward by a group of progressive Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to get the world to zero emissions by 2050.
In order to achieve this, a 10 year mobilisation plan to get the USA up to 100% renewable energy has been proposed. With its aim to reduce greenhouse gases, ensure clean air and stimulate the economy with thousands of jobs in the ‘green’ sector.
The Green New Deal is backed by organisations such as Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Sunrise. As well as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. Who all sought the 2020 Democrat nomination to run against President Trump.
There have been many critics of the Green New Deal, especially President Trump. He claimed it would ‘take away airplane rights’ and cost $100 trillion to implement.
No known figure, but the ballsyness of AOC to continue to strive for a better world, As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes; this is ‘the moon shot’ and we need to take it.
6. “The Green New Deal we are proposing will be similar in scale to the mobilization efforts seen in World War II or the Marshall Plan. We must again invest in the development, manufacturing, deployment, and distribution of energy, but this time green energy.“
7. “Our goal is to treat Climate Change like the serious, existential threat it is by drafting an ambitious solution on the scale necessary — aka a Green New Deal — to get it done. A weak [select] committee misses the point & endangers people.”
8. “This is going to be the New Deal, the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil-rights movement of our generation.”
9. “The Plan for a Green New Deal shall recognize that a national, industrial, economic mobilization of this scope and scale is a historic opportunity to virtually eliminate poverty in the United States and to make prosperity, wealth and economic security available to everyone participating in the transformation.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes with: Greta Thunberg
In June 2019, two of the worlds most powerful voices on the climate crisis, had a long-overdue conversation via video link. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greta Thunberg discussed activism, how to tackle climate change and what tactics as an activist really work. Some of the best Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes have come from that conversation.
The two have never met in person, partly due the the fact that Greta Thunberg does not fly. Both women have come from seemingly nowhere in the past 18 months. However, that looks set to change as Greta Thunberg makes the 2-week 2,500 mile journey on a ‘zero carbon’ solar powered yacht to attend the Climate Action Summit in New York.
10. “Hope is not something that you have. Hope is something that you create, with your actions. Hope is contagious. Other people start acting in a way that has more hope.”
11. “We need to start communicating is that this is a global struggle, and it’s not about what is Sweden doing, and what is the US doing – it’s about what are all of us doing, as one movement.”
12. “We are no longer at the point of preventing climate disaster from happening entirely – we are now at the point of minimising the damage. And as these floods and storms are here, I think more and more people are going to be willing to stand up for themselves.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes on: Knock Down the House & Political Views
In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez along with Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin, appeared in the award-winning Netflix documentary ‘Knock Down the House’. It follows the four female progressive Democrats on the campaign trail as they run for Congress in 2018.
Of the four, Ocasio-Cortez was the only one to be elected. Beating the incumbent Joe Crowley to win the New York 14th District (D-NY 14th District). And, was sworn in on January 4th 2019. She wore all-white to honour early Suffragettes.
13. “Capitalism has not always existed in the world and will not always exist in the world.”
14. “Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here [in New York].”
15. “I never saw myself going into politics, but now that I sit here in this room with you all, I just feel like we can only accomplish great things together.”
So how can you get behind Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the causes she stands for?
Follow and support AOC on Twitter and Instagram. RT her and attend her public appearances.
