Last night, a reporter for the right-wing online publication The Daily Wire blasted out a tweet criticizing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her “frequent crying” because, according to the tweet, it “reinforces the stereotype that women are too emotional for politics.” The tweet was presumably a reference to a recent climate change summit during which AOC got a little choked up while talking about the kind of world she might be leaving her future children if immediate steps aren’t taken to save the planet.
It was a moving, honest moment from the Congresswoman and the furthest thing from a display of weakness. Frankly, more politicians should feel such a visceral concern about climate change. Far better to shed the occasional tear than to behave like so many Republican elected officials who simply pretend that an increase in global temperature is no big deal as they cash massive checks from fossil fuel companies.
Though the tweet in question was written by a woman reporter, it was clearly thrumming with the barely subdued sexism that runs through much of the GOP. Male politicians rarely face such granular criticism of their emotional states. It’s the same sort of hypocrisy that allowed some people to muse that Hillary Clinton might be unsuited for office because she’s a woman but that Donald Trump, a deeply unstable man, would be a good choice for president.
I’ll say it: @AOC's frequent crying only reinforces the stereotype that women are too emotional for politics.
— Molly Prince (@mollyfprince) October 15, 2019
This morning, AOC saw the critical tweet and defended herself with her usual confidence and wit. She pointed out the ridiculousness of a conservative criticizing her for being emotional while Donald Trump, an incredibly erratic and unhinged man, has his fingers on the nuclear button. Trump “sexually assaults women, impulsively allows Kurds to be murdered” and “boosts videos of shooting journalists” tweeted Ocasio-Cortez.
The freshman Congresswomen then mocked the GOP by channeling their sentiment, drawing a stark contrast between how they ignore Trump but obsess over her: “Aha! Letting your voice shake after 1st-hand human rights violations at the border + understanding climate stakes makes women ‘too emotional for politics.'”
AOC was referring to the climate summit as well as the Republican attacks she was hit with when she cried while visiting one of the Trump administration’s cramped border camps and seeing the state of the migrants detained there.
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1184122038837022722?s=20
Ocasio-Cortez then went on to say that it’s a problem that many politicians don’t actually care about the deaths of Americans or the separation of children. She slammed the GOP, saying the party “only has tears for billionaires & outrage towards ‘others.'” She defended empathy as a desirable trait in leaders and sounded a call for a more caring, humane form of politics. It was a powerful string of messages and a reminder that we don’t have to settle for cruel, uncaring leaders. More should follow Ocasio-Cortez’s example.
It is time we trash the idea that empathy = leadership weakness.
When people hurt, we should hurt too. That’s what good leaders do. It adds urgency & humanity to our decision making. Suppressing emotion can lead to aggression, impulsivity, & other erosions of leadership ability.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 15, 2019
Both rationality & emotion are inextricable to good leadership, which balances the two.
If a person doesn’t feel urgency in their gut when communities are poisoned or when a young man dies bc he couldn’t afford price-gouged insulin, then they shouldn’t be in politics. At all.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 15, 2019