When Democratic socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders rallied for a left-wing congressional candidate Friday afternoon in Kansas, they insisted their agenda is “mainstream.”
Sanders, the Vermont senator and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who spent the afternoon campaigning in Wichita for Democratic congressional candidate James Thompson, boasted that ideas “once considered to be radical” are now part “of the mainstream conversation.”
“With allies like Alexandria and James in the Congress, we are going to pass a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program,” Sanders told the crowd. “And please understand that this idea of Medicare for all – this is not a radical idea.”
Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old progressive who surprisingly defeated longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s Democratic primary last month, struck a similar tone, as she also called for Medicare for all, free college tuition and a guaranteed living wage for all persons. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]In a campaign speech, Ocasio-Cortez seemed to compare Kansas helping to end slavery across the U.S. to voters electing Democrats like Thompson to Congress.
“I learned that Kansas was founded over the struggle of the conscience of this nation,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to a history class she took in grade school. “It was when we were deciding who we wanted to be as a country. It was when we were deciding who we wanted to be with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The people who were … leading this nation said, ‘You decide’ to the people.”
“‘Are we going to be a slave state or are we going to be a free state?’ And it was in 1861 that the people of Kansas decided that we were going to be a free nation,” Ocasio-Cortez continued.
“Back then, the people of Kansas were the tipping point for the future of this nation. Today, they are again,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I am confident and I am hopeful in the ability of every person in this room to knock on their neighbors’ door.”
Ocasio-Cortez then rattled off the numerous socialist programs that she and fellow Democrats say they are pushing for in the 2018 midterm elections before invoking the end of slavery once again.
“We want to be a nation that approves and expands Medicare for all. We are a nation that will not stop until every child born with the opportunity to go to college or trade school free of cost,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And we will not rest, we will not rest until every person in this country is paid a living wage…”
“But what this moment requires of us, just as it was in 1861, what this moment requires of us is for everyday people to do more than they have ever done before to reclaim the soul of this nation,” Ocasio-Cortez continued.- READ MORE
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