AOC: Americans Desperate For Help And Mitch McConnell Broke The Senate

A poignant, eloquent plea to anyone listening

Our country is going hungry on the week before Thanksgiving and the Senate broke. I don’t care what party you are.

Here we are, the week of Thanksgiving. Alexandria Occasio-Cortez is speaking to an empty House of Representatives Chamber. Many left as a result of Mitch McConnell’s “Breaking the Senate.”

AOC sums up what many Americans are thinking about rich Mitch ditching on so many. At the same time, he goes off for his relaxing Thanksgiving holiday. We know he’s working as hard as he possibly can to ignore Trump’s refusal to concede so Americans can begin a peaceful transition to the incoming Biden administration. The epitome of selfishness. And he’s getting called out for it — big time.

I’ve transcribed some snippets of her remarks. But, I highly recommend the YouTube video from C-Span. It’s just under 13 minutes long. You will learn a lot. I did.

Senate majority leader McConnell broke the Senate as thousands of people in Texas lined up for food lines. He broke the Senate when there are not enough beds to house the sick. He broke the Senate and dismissed the Senate while 30 million Americans are on the brink of eviction. He dismissed the Senate while every single day we go back in our communities, people are asking us, “Where is there going to be help? Where is a second stimulus check? Are we going to get the resources that we need?” He broke the Senate.

The Cares Act lifted 18 million individuals in the US out of monthly poverty in April alone.

AOC goes on further to say — and it hits hard — and it’s hard not to agree,

Cares act stimulus checks and unemployment benefits lifted more than 18 million individuals out of monthly poverty in April alone. But this number fell from 18 million to 4 million individuals from August and September after unemployment benefits were expired. Just 44% of people in the US are very confident that they can afford the needed food that will be necessary for the next four weeks. That means the majority of people in the US are not very confident in their ability to eat over the next four weeks. According to new census survey data. And about 10% or 3.5 million households are not at all confident of their ability to eat the week before Thanksgiving, and the Senate broke. It is unconscionable.

It is unconscionable that our priorities are so backward that we can bail out corporations, banks, and foreign entities but can’t take care of our own at home. (AOC discusses this dichotomy, but I did not transcribe those sections.) But when it comes to taking care of our at-risk people, it is suddenly a red versus blue issue.

On this, AOC makes another vital point in her speech:

Hunger has no party. Illness has no party. And when we allow suffering to be alleviated or concentrated based on political affiliation, we are doing a disservice to our entire nation.

In the closing section of her speech, AOC gives us this. Even without having the benefit of the YouTube video — I get the imagery and so will you. She is an excellent speaker. And she is right. What is wrong with the priorities here? Where is the soul of the Senate? Does anyone have a soul? Or has its soul been sold — like so much else of the US?

So this is what I have to do. This is what we are resorting to — speaking to an empty room because the Senate broke.

So if there is anything that I have left to say, I want to know if there’s anybody out there that’s listening. If you are a working family. If you are struggling to get the food that you need. If you feel like you are on the brink of eviction. We see you. We see you. What I ask from the Senate. What I ask of our Republican colleagues in the Senate is to act as if you are the one that was going hungry. Act as if you were the one who was getting evicted from your house. Act with that urgency.

After hearing this speech, I plan on catching more of what she has to say previously and in the future. I may not always lean as far left as AOC — however, she’s impressively convincing. And, she really, really freaking cares. You can’t fake that. And she deserves far more than a damn empty room.

Jennifer Friebely is a New York-based content writer, marketer, and speaker covering stories from personal development, bully bosses, the Law of Attraction, marketing, and productivity to politics and music to whatever idea strikes. She has a 30+ year background in marketing and advertising and holds a BA in Political Science. Email her at [email protected] or visit www.successpicture.com.