Saint of the Month: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

I have something to say about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez which I know feminists won’t like. The Me Toos and the Time’s Ups will accuse me of vile sexism, but this is the elephant in the room and I feel it needs to be said. So here goes:

I think AOC is really pretty.

There. I said it. So why is it important? It’s important because Taylor Swift didn’t graduate cum laude with a degree in International Relations. It’s important because Beyonce has never worked on the staff of an influential member of the US Senate. It’s important because neither Selena Gomez nor Ariana Grande have served as Educational Director for the National Hispanic Institute. It’s important because not even the talented and audacious Lady Gaga is audacious enough to challenge a long-entrenched member of the Democratic Party establishment in a primary election and actually win it. It’s important because America is tongue-lolling thirsty for a stylish, charismatic, and seismically exciting celebrity who can fire up the yearnings of our better selves—the longings of our virtue—and move us to action. In the Representative from New York’s 14^th Congressional District we have found just such a personality to capture our aspirations. We have collectively been charmed by this courageous heroine who is the real deal—experienced, intelligent, empathetic, and wise beyond her less-than-thirty years.

As a clergyman, I see the young Congresswoman as the modern-day Esther, the biblical beauty who became a queen in order to save her people from destruction. Esther’s wise cousin Mordecai tells her:

“Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

Indeed, it is for just such a time as ours that we need Representative Ocasio-Cortez on our side. Yes, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are both champions in the battle against income inequality. But it is the young woman from the Bronx who knows first-hand how a college graduate can see her promising career shipwrecked on the reef of exploding housing costs and asphyxiating student debt. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is fresh out of the trenches of middle-class warfare, and her generation knows she’s shared their struggle.

Perhaps I won’t agree with every policy the young Congresswoman espouses; nevertheless, I am grateful to see a member of the millennial generation emerge on the American political scene with a new vision and a real passion. It gives me hope. I’ve seen snippets of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez on C-Span as she questioned witnesses as part of her duties on the House Oversight Committee. I find her to be intelligent and restrained and much more dignified and substantive in her arguments than some of her older progressive colleagues. For all of her flash and all  the attention the media has given her, she still strikes me as a serious leader who does honor to the House of Representatives, her constituency, and our country as a whole by exemplifying the gravitas and decorum which is befitting of our elected officials—and sorely lacking in some.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s Wikipedia bio says she is a Roman Catholic. I’m delighted she has made her faith an important part of her policy. In an article she wrote for America: The Jesuit Review during her campaign, she expressed how her belief in mercy was fundamental to her thoughts on reworking the criminal justice system. To me, this speaks more to an understanding of Jesus Christ than the religious right’s thundering about abortion, gay marriage, and Israel.

I will follow this young politician’s career with interest, and I predict she will provoke some deep thought and—let us hope—some needed action to move us to become an America worthy of our founding principles. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the next few years, we’ll see a generation of “tweeny-boppers” look past the parade of pop divas to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and say, “I want to be like her.”