Socialist democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — running for Congress in New York’s 14th District — invoked the United States ending slavery and the role that Kansas played while campaigning for Democrat candidate James Thompson in the state at a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
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.
The self-described “democratic socialist” recently called on left-wing activists to “occupy” all borders in the U.S., all airports, and all offices for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to protest President Trump’s strict immigration enforcement.
Ocasio-Cortez is increasingly shaping the Democrat party’s open borders platform ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Since her beating of establishment Democrat Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in the Bronx, Democrats in the House and Senate, along with progressive liberals like Cynthia Nixon in New York, have been demanding ICE be abolished and all immigration enforcement ended.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.