In the summer of 2019, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez turned the camera on herself to offer her thoughts on how the old governmental institution should be altered. The firebrand congresswoman from New York City labeled the Senate a “boys’ club” and called for “consequences” for Joe Manchin’s refusal to back Joe Biden’s bill, which might have literally altered America’s landscape for generations to come.
“It is unconscionable the way the Senate operates,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “It’s fundamentally undemocratic,” she added.
Some individuals are calling for Ocasio-Cortez to challenge New York Senator Chuck Schumer in 2022. She wants to alter the face of the American government, and she believes it’s time for the United States people to adopt a “crackdown on the Senate which operates like an old boy’s club that has a couple of gals.”
Despite Manchin’s opposition to Biden’s infrastructure and energy legislation, the New York congresswoman wants him to hold a vote on the measure regardless of when the Senate returns in January. Schumer has already said he would do so.
Ocasio-Cortez also called on President Obama to use his executive authority to eliminate the filibuster in the Senate. The filibuster is a parliamentary procedure used by both Democrats and Republicans to delay legislation from being put up for a vote.
“It takes the president of the United States, who I believe needs to be more forceful on the filibuster,” said Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. “He needs to also lean, I believe, on his executive authority and says if you’re going to get in the way, we’re going to find other ways to do this.”
During an appearance on Fox News this past Sunday, Manchin stated that he would not support Biden’s bill. Ocasio-Cortez believes elected officials, including senators, should demonstrate their opposition while voting rather than appearing on the conservative entertainment news channel.
Meanwhile, prominent Republicans like Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley have placed holds on Biden’s choices.
“This idea that we can just go on Fox News or go on any — and legislate through television, and say that we are going to threaten to block ambassadorships, or threaten a filibuster or threaten to vote no, have that result in actual institutional inaction is unacceptable,” she said. “There are certain reforms that can be made within the culture of the Senate. We have to break those cultural norms that the Senate is very entitled, very privileged, and very protected. And say we are not going to allow that deference to membership just because of the self-importance of the institution.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks that Manchin was “stringing” and “cowardly” in the year, when he was delaying Democrats.
“The Senate adjourned on Friday,” she stated. “And then he waited until everyone was on vacation to say no, I’m not going to vote for this. He waited until there was a moment of minimal pressure when he didn’t have to go back into the Senate when all of this stuff was happening. This is a very calculated timing.”
