AOC: The Majority Of Americans Are Not Ready To Walk Away From A Rules-Based International Order
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) calls for a return to a rules-based order in the West at a panel on populism at the Munich Security Conference.
REPORTER: I’m Eva Fedderly from New York City. Straight Arrow News. Congresswoman, they’re saying that there’s more American delegates here than there have ever been at the Munich Security Conference. Why do you think it’s important that you’re here, you know, with against the wrecking ball politics of Trump? But, you know, why is it important that you’re here representing the US? MODERATOR: Also, I’m so glad you made it. Who paid for your flight? REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We did. MODERATOR: Should we just take you start and then we’ll just do a quick fire round of answers? OCASIO-CORTEZ: Sure, I’ll start last to first. You know, I think this is a moment where we are seeing our presidential administration tear apart the transatlantic partnership, rip up every democratic norm, and, you know, really calling into question, as was mentioned by Dick Carney at the World Economic Forum, the rules based order that we have, or question mark, do we have? And so I think one of the reasons why, not just myself, but many of our colleagues here, in fact, Democrats, many Democrats that are here as well, is because we want to tell a larger story that what is happening is indeed very grave. And we are in a new era, domestically and globally. There have been many leaders who said we will go back. And I think we have to recognize that we are in a new day and in a new time. But that does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order and that we’re ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy. I think what we identify is that in a rules based order, hypocrisy is vulnerability. And so I think what we are seeking is a return to a rules based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West, we’d look the other way for inconvenient populations to act out these paradoxes, whether it is, you know, kidnapping a foreign head of state, whether it is threatening our allies to colonize Greenland, whether it is looking the other way in a genocide. Hypocrisies are vulnerabilities and they threaten democracies globally. And so I think many of us are here to say we are here and we are ready for the next chapter, not to have the world turn to isolation, but to deepen our partnership on greater and increased commitment to integrity to our values.
