Democratic New York Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly gets called a fraud daily, in part, for allegedly being elected to the U.S. Congress as a 28-year-old woman. While she’s busy pointing out the multiple flaws and outrages she’s seen as she prepares for her new job, she’s also pointed out something else. A not so shocking double standard she faces.
According to a report from the Hill , the Representative-elect called out the difference between how she’s been treated and how Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was treated when he won an election at only 28-years-old. While Ryan was called a “genius,” Ocasio-Cortez is called a “fraud.”
She took to Twitter to explain what she’s experiencing.
“Double standards are Paul Ryan being elected at 28 and immediately being given the benefit of his ill-considered policies considered genius; and me winning a primary at 28 to immediately be treated with suspicion & scrutinized, down to my clothing, of being a fraud.”
Since she’s arrived in Washington, the Representative-elect has pointed out all the things she’s seen that do not seem right. When she signed up for her Congressional benefit package, Ocasio-Cortez pointed out how it cost so much less than what she paid as a server and a bartender in New York. Then, she pointed out the hypocrisy of unpaid internships for Congress, which led to a colleague offering a paid position after initially posting it as unpaid. Ocasio-Cortez promised to pay her own interns at least $15 an hour while she serves.
29 YEARS OLD:
On the left: Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (12/3/2018)
On the right: Rep. Paul Ryan (3/2/1999, his first floor speech) pic.twitter.com/f19KxGRd5Q
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) December 11, 2018
Yesterday, Inquisitr reported that Ocasio-Cortez pointed out how her Congressional orientation program at Harvard Kennedy School is basically a front for pro-corporate lobbyists. Of the event, she tweeted, “This Harvard session has been going on for new Congress members since the 70s. This year we heard things like ‘the $2T tax cut was great’ and ‘$15 wage is a bad idea.’ No labor reps were there. Was this a multi-decade, pro-corporate lobbyist project the entire time?”
Ocasio-Cortez arrives in Congress with more Twitter followers, a broader audience, than the rest of her Democratic freshmen colleagues in the House of Representatives at 1.54 million. In addition to keeping people informed about the things she’s doing leading up to taking office, she has also encouraged other younger people to run for office and fill the halls of both the Senate and the House. Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that Congress needs more young people and a wider variety of people to adequately work for the people of the U.S.