AOC Receives Resounding Wave Of Applause And Cheers As She Previews 'A Better Country'

Forbes Breaking News

At a "Fight Oligarchy Tour' event in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about what a 'new world' would look like in the United States.

Transcript

00:00I grew up in a working-class family. My mom cleaned houses and my dad worked to

00:07build a small business. My parents worked themselves to the bone so that

00:12my brother and I could just have a shot. The American dream. And for a

00:18moment there, it looked like we were going to make it. We had a home, bills

00:24were getting a little less stressful to pay, and I was doing well in school. But

00:30what may have looked and what may have looked like a modest life to others was

00:35a dream come true for us. But suddenly, when I was a teenager, my dad was

00:41diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. And after a long fight, we lost him. And he

00:48actually passed away in September of 2008, just as the economy crashed in the

00:56Great Recession, and millions of jobs across this country vanished. It felt

01:01like the world of our family fell apart as the larger world was falling apart, too.

01:08And overnight, my mom was left to figure out how to provide for two kids by

01:14herself, put them through school, keep our house, pay off my dad's medical bills, all on

01:20a house cleaner salary. And that's how I became a waitress. Because it was millions of

01:28innocent working families who paid the price while the billionaires and thieves who defrauded

01:36our financial system got off richer than ever before. And not a single one of them went to jail.

01:43And you know what, Utah? That is the story that Republicans mock, not mine, but all of ours,

01:55when they say that a waitress or working person is unqualified to serve in Congress.

02:01But the fact is, many of us are far more qualified to know what real life is actually like than

02:10any of them ever will. And I tell this story not because it is special, but because of how

02:20common and normal it is. While the details may differ, so many of us know what it feels like

02:28for life to be one bad day, one bad piece of news, one major setback from everything feeling

02:37like it's going to fall apart. And we don't have to live like this anymore, Utah.

02:46We can make a new world, a better country, where we can fight for the dignity of all people.

02:53And it looks like living wages, Utah. It looks like stable housing, Utah. It looks like guaranteed

03:01health care, Salt Lake City. And it looks like respect for all of our differences, no matter

03:08who we are or where we come from. Oligarchy or democracy. And we are here today because we choose

03:22democracy. We choose freedom. And that means that we choose to out-organize the oligarchy.

03:34We will do away. And we must do away with the power of big money. And that is why, even as

03:43a waitress, with a long shot campaign, I decided that day that I would never take money from

03:50lobbyists or corporations. And I never will.

03:56see you then.

04:09.

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