Actress and left-wing activist Jane Fonda had a virtual face-to-face conversation with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in which the two confided in each about what it’s like to be “vilified by presidents.”
“You and I have both experienced being vilified, including by presidents,” said Fonda to Ocasio-Cortez. “And so, I’m going to ask you a question that I get asked a lot, how do you handle it?” Fonda, of course, was nicknamed “Hanoi Jane” and branded a traitor over her anti-war protests during the 1970s which saw her photographed in North Vietnam sitting on an anti-aircraft gun used to kill American pilots.
Ocasio-Cortez responded by stating those who scrutinize her are simply just trying to “exhaust” her.
“Well, you know, it’s not easy,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “I think is the first thing to communicate, is — the reason that these attacks happen, whether they’re on journalists, whether they’re on progressive politicians, whether they’re on women, people of color, etc., is to exhaust us.”
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Ocasio-Cortez went on to suggest that those who criticize her and others who are like-minded likely come from “aristocratic families.”
“It is to wear us down, because we don’t necessarily have the traditional institutional resources that a lot of people that were perhaps born into, you know, aristocratic families, have,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who graduated from Boston University.
The representative from New York continued by stating that what keeps her going is reminding, in part, that she is fighting for causes that are “politically popular.”
“And so, you know, the way that I try to endure — honestly, the thing that really helps me is the grassroot support that we have, you know, if I felt like what we were fighting for was not politically popular, was not supported by everyday people, that people were not organizing on the ground to support this work, not just in the realm of electoral politics — it would be really hard to continue,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who championed the Green New Deal — a far-left proposal that even Joe Biden appears to be trying to distance himself from after winning the Democrat primary.
“No I don’t support the Green New Deal,” affirmed Biden during his first presidential debate against President Donald Trump last month in Cleveland, Ohio.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.
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