Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was given around 60 seconds by the DNC to make a speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. The DNC authorized the release of the following transcript of her speech as follows:
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY The Honorable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Member of Congress Democratic National Convention Tuesday, August 18, 2020 Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Good evening, bienvenidos, and thank you to everyone here today endeavoring towards a better, more just future for our country and our world. In fidelity and gratitude to a mass people’s movement working to establish 21st century social, economic, and human rights, including guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages, and labor rights for all people in the United States; a movement striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny, and homophobia, and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past; a movement that realizes the unsustainable brutality of an economy that rewards explosive inequalities of wealth for the few at the expense of long-term stability for the many, and who organized a historic, grassroots campaign to reclaim our democracy. In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care, and espíritu del pueblo and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America.
She nominated Bernie Sanders in her speech, although she has already endorsed Joe Biden. And yet her speech is plainly a summary of Bernie Sanders’ campaigns in both 2016 and 2020. I see her speech as a statement of what she and many progressives will be seeking and doing regardless of who wins the 2020 election. The most important phrase in her speech (to me) is espíritu del pueblo and out of a love for all people. For our country should be one of love and respect for all of us, a society that seeks the betterment of all in equality, freed from the past of injustice and inequality that has tarnished the glorious words of our Founders.
I saw today that of those planning to vote for Biden today, only 36% were voting in support of him and 58% were voting to get Trump out of office. I wonder if that would be true if Bernie were nominated instead. I would suspect that 58% or more would be voting for Bernie and 36% would be voting principally to get rid of Trump. But I don’t think it matters now. The important thing for progressives is to vote and get rid of Trump, and then to
Band Together
with third parties and other thinking citizens to better our country.
Thank you, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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