In a recent issue of GQ magazine, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked about the patriarchy, abortion running for president, and her relationship with her fiance.
Writer Wesley Lowery called AOC “The right wing’s night terror in the flesh,” and argued that she is “more famous than any other person in American politics without the last name Obama or Trump.”
He also referred to her as a “revolutionary on the rise. The clear heir to an ascendant progressive movement.”
According to the magazine, the congresswoman is the “best” the progressive movement has to offer.
However, she may also be the last, “depending on how quickly some combination of fascism, religious fundamentalism, and climate change comes for us all.”
The magazine noted her participation in protests outside of the Supreme Court following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June.
During those demonstrations, AOC was “arrested,” and was seen being led away by police while holding her own, uncuffed hands behind her back.
Lowery also brought up the day AOC was “sexually harassed” by comedian Alex Stein.
Days before the GQ interview, “a conservative comedian had sexually harassed her on the steps of the Capitol Building, and as we spoke, his leering video of the confrontation was still bouncing around the internet.”
AOC had said she was going to “deck” Stein, because she’d protect herself if no one else would.
In the video of Stein and Ocasio-Cortez, her fiance, Riley Roberts, appeared to walk right past Stein.
Lowery also covered AOC’s doubts about the future because of Roberts’ race.
“Late last year, Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts found themselves discussing their New Year’s resolutions. Riley had a particular priority in mind,” he said.
“‘It’s my resolution that perhaps we can be engaged by the end of the year,’ she recalled him telling her. ‘And I said, ‘Oh, really? Well, you’re going to have to woo me. You’re going to have to convince me, after all this time, why I should,'” Lowery wrote.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, had concerns about her relationship with Roberts, who is white.
The relationship “raised its own particular questions about identity and belonging: She wasn’t positive that an intercultural, interracial relationship would be the right fit for her.”
Many were quick to criticize AOC’s comments, noting that if a Republican said something like that, they’d receive huge backlash.
Roberts and Ocasio-Cortez ended up getting engaged in April.
Near the end of the GQ article, Lowery compared AOC’s fight against capitalism to the fight against slavery.
“Are progressive fantasies about replacing our nation’s guns and capitalistic greed with guaranteed jobs and health care any more far-fetched than the abolitionist’s vision of an America without slavery or the suffragist’s dream of a democracy in which her vote is counted?” he said.
