An exciting candidate

Let’s move away for a while from talk of a “stupid” God, bare-chested “tambays,” a Chinese plane parked again at the Davao airport, an economy supposedly in the doldrums, and the search for a new Ombudsman.

Instead let’s go to New York, to the 14th congressional district in particular, made up of parts of Queens and the Bronx. Let’s talk instead about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, who a few days ago pulled off what the newspaper the Independent called “one of the biggest upsets in modern American political history.”

Ocasio-Cortez won almost 60 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, defeating incumbent congressman Joseph Crowley, who has served for 10 terms in the House and who had raised a campaign fund 10 times that of Ocasio-Cortez. Within Democrat circles, it’s said, Crowley had been eyed as a successor to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

So, what’s the secret of the young Latina’s and former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer’s win?
In a profile, the New York Times quotes family and teachers recalling that Ocasio-Cortez had been interested in and outspoken about politics and social issues since childhood. Her mother Blanca recalls how, in conversations around the dining table, “there was nobody who could shut her up. I saw the political tendencies since she was very, very young.”

Ocasio-Cortez went to Boston University for college, majoring in economics and international relations. During breaks, she “dabbled” in politics, working for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on immigration. But soon, said the NYT, she “turned her attention to the grassroots work that would come to define her candidacy.”

After graduation, Ocasio-Cortez returned to the Bronx, advocating for improved childhood education and literacy and even started a children’s book publishing company “that sought to portray her home borough in a positive light.” Along the way, she volunteered for Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic nomination, which was eventually won by Hillary Clinton.

To make ends meet, she also worked as a bartender at a taco restaurant, “heading off to political meetings and fund-raising house parties after her shift.” That was how her campaign was mounted—with old-fashioned door-to-door hustings and visiting people in their homes and giving small talks before groups of neighbors. She and her friends also used social media to the hilt, outpacing her opponent despite his better-funded campaign.

In her campaign, Ocasio-Cortez focused on universal healthcare, jobs for every American, and an overhaul of the Trump immigration policy. Of migrant stock (her late father, an architect, was born in the Bronx while her mother came from Puerto Rico), Ocasio-Cortez has embraced the migrant issue, telling the Independent that “we have families and communities (in the district) from Ecuador and Colombia, Bangladesh, Korea, Pakistan, and I see them every day, many of them are very scared about what’s going on.” In her talks with them, she says, she assures them that “hey, we’ve got your back.”
Should she win a House seat (her district is solid Democratic), Ocasio-Cortez will be the youngest woman elected to the US Congress.

Inspiring and exciting, indeed.

Here at home, older citizens have been “blaming” millennials for boosting Rodrigo Duterte to the presidency, since many of his votes came from young, urban, middle-class and employed voters. The coming midterms next year should be an opportune time to challenge this constituency, who, it has been surmised, voted for the promise of change and out of a hunger for a nontraditional approach to politics.

We all know what such an approach has resulted in, and the fielding of a compelling youthful lineup for the Senate, as opposed to the retreads and fake news mavens that President Duterte’s party is eyeing, should go far in tapping into the nascent restlessness and yearning for real change of young and old alike.

If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is not yet even 30, can crash into the “big boys’ club” that is the US Congress, can a counterpart in the Philippines accomplish the same feat? It’s time to test the waters.

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