Molly Jong-Fast, Vogue: “AOC isn’t the first woman to be harassed by Republican men. There’s a long list of women who have been through this, from Hillary Clinton to Vice President Kamala Harris to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Powerful women are one of Republicans’ go-to punching bags – but why? I think it’s too easy to blame misogyny. Sure, the Republican Party has many misogynistic tendencies: they elected Donald J. Trump, they let the Violence Against Women Act expire, they don’t believe in paid leave or legal abortions. But I think there’s more to it than that. What really seems to rankle Republicans is that AOC is, quite simply, very effective at her job.”

“AOC is a small-dollar donation raising powerhouse. When the Texas power grid froze and Ted Cruz went to Mexico on vacation, AOC raised nearly $5 million for those affected. She raised another $26,000 for an abortion fund on her Instagram. And her Met gala dress spurred an entire news cycle and a spike in googling ‘Tax the Rich.’ AOC is her own trending topic – and in a world where attention is currency, this is a big deal. Ocasio-Cortez is also extremely talented at something that other Democrats have trouble with: messaging. They pass popular legislation and don’t claim credit for it. AOC, on the other hand, is able to explain to people how Democratic policies help them in a way that they can understand – probably her single greatest asset. We’re living in a political climate where everything is dialed up to an 11. Fox News targets different people every night; the 13 Republicans who voted for Biden’s infrastructure bill were inundated with death threats. But it’s worth asking why AOC has become such an obsession of the right. Historically, powerful women have often been the target of slander or aggression – so maybe, disturbingly, what all this means is that AOC is doing something right.”