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It hasn't necessarily been an easy year for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In May, for example, the New York Democrat was accosted by one of her right-wing colleagues, while in November, a different one of her right-wing colleagues released an animated video in which he was depicted killing her.
But the congresswoman, who's often known by her AOC initials, has apparently found plenty to feel good about. HuffPost noted:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday gave her constituents an early stocking stuffer, listing Team AOC's accomplishments for the year in a Twitter video. In a clip she called "21 wins for 2021," the progressive lawmaker breathlessly recounted her victories in the face of challenges. Ocasio-Cortez exuberantly noted that she reintroduced her Green New Deal legislation with new co-sponsors, raised millions for victims of the winter storm in Texas and passed, with Congress, nearly $7 million in community project funding for her district in the Bronx and Queens.
The four-minute video appears to have been well received: As of this morning, it's been viewed on Twitter more than 2 million times.
Watching it, one of the unstated takeaways is AOC's intense focus on substantive policy gains. The Democratic congresswoman didn't spend four minutes complaining about her critics or political opponents, she celebrated specific areas of governing where she's either succeeded or made meaningful gains.
I couldn't help compare it to a different congresswoman —Republican Lauren Boebert — who released a year-end video of her own a day earlier.
The Coloradan's video was a collection of video excerpts in which people criticized her on television. In the video's closing moments, Boebert is seen sipping from a mug with the words "Liberal Tears" printed on it.
It comes on the heels of a video making the rounds in which Boebert boasted to an audience, "I'm having the time of my life there [in Congress], because every single day I get to troll liberals."
And if the Republican had been elected to annoy people for sport, instead of serving as a federal policymaker, this might even be worth bragging about.
On the surface, Ocasio-Cortez and Boebert may seem like mirror images. One is a 30-something congresswoman from the left, the other a 30-something congresswoman from the right. Both are relative newcomers to Capitol Hill — the New Yorker is in her second term, while the Coloradan is in her first — who receive more media attention than many of their colleagues.
But those similarities are trivial upon further inspection. As their videos this week helped demonstrate, Ocasio-Cortez's focus is on substantive accomplishments, while Boebert's focus is on "trolling liberals."
It's exactly what one would expect from a governing party competing with a post-policy party.