4 Years Ago Today, AOC Became Our Next President

The Electrifying Leader Our Wounded Nation Needs

Where were you on January 6, 2021?

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was hiding in a bathroom in her congressional office, then fled to another office building before checking in at a designated safe space for officeholders. But she didn’t remain sheltered in place, as her coup-conspirator colleagues had already handed Trump’s mob sensitive information about Democratic lawmakers that day.

We know all this from a livestream AOC held on Instagram on February 2, 2021. She was still raw from the attack. At times visibly trembling, the 31-year old former bartender in her second term displayed brute vulnerability recounting her experience and its lasting impact. Four years later, the livestream has been viewed more than 6.5 million times.

Aside from the fact that it is a first-person primary source account of the worst day in American history since the civil war, you should watch all 89 minutes of the AOC livestream because it reveals everything you need to know about Washington’s most electrifying leader. January 6 may have been the day Donald Trump set the terms for his second presidency. February 2 was the day AOC became his successor.

While other Democrats scrambled to craft press releases, she instinctively understood that this moment demanded raw, unvarnished truth. Speaking directly to millions through an unedited, unmoderated Instagram session, she did something almost unheard of in modern politics: she was completely real. She trembled. She revealed for the first time that she was a sexual assault survivor. She connected her personal trauma to the national trauma unfolding around us. But this wasn't mere vulnerability for vulnerability's sake – it was a masterclass in modern political communication.

Even as she bared her soul, AOC was executing a sophisticated political strategy. She recognized that the right was already working to rewrite the history of January 6th and understood that personal testimony would be the most powerful weapon against their lies. By weaving together her individual experience with our collective democratic trauma, drawing on themes of patriotism and resilience, she wasn't just telling her story – she was helping Americans process what had happened to all of us. In doing so, she demonstrated exactly what Democratic leadership had been missing: the ability to be both strategically savvy and authentically human, to meet voters where they are while elevating the conversation to where it needs to be.

“They’re telling us to move on, without accountability. So they can do [January 6] again. These are the same tactics of abusers…but I’m not going to let it happen to our country ever again.” -AOC (February 2, 2021)

Now that Trump, Musk, and their goons are eviscerating the republic with increasing fervor, the traumatized masses need a focused and forceful opposition to rally around. Yet the Democrats, who are deeply accustomed to taking cues from a leader at top of the party, are in a rare conundrum as the party has no real leader. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi remains the most powerful elected Democrat, but without a formal leadership position or active public persona. Minority Leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer exhibit negligible charisma, garbled messaging, and zero tactical successes from which to claim a replicable template. Even Ken Martin, the newly elected DNC Chair, will be too busy rebuilding the party organization to focus much on leading the public fight against the Trump-Musk administration.

The party truly is up for grabs, which is in part why it stings more than usual to see Democratic figures like Senator John Fetterman amplify authoritarian propaganda. We desperately need a fighter, someone who understands the modern media attention game and can respond consistently to the gravity of the situation. Someone that Dems and the broader left can follow in these tumultuous and terrifying times.

AOC doesn’t beat around the bush, she rejects rightwing framing, and she openly acknowledges the terror Trump is imposing and the impact it’s having on each of our lives. She exudes joy and tactical sophistication in equal measure to her clear-eyed assessment of our national crisis. She won't sugarcoat it, and she speaks directly to the camera—directly to the voters. From her floor speeches in the House of Representatives, to her conversations with media figures like Jon Stewart, to her Instagram livestreams, AOC is meeting the moment in the early days of Trump 2.0 and building momentum just when we need her the most.

The 2028 Democratic primary hasn’t officially begun, but those who step into the breach now will bond with the base and fill the power vacuum that occurs when a party controls no branches of government and its only popular president – Barack Obama – chooses to sit back and more or less leave the world behind. Governor Pritzker has some juice, as does Senator Warnock. I still like Governor Walz. But nobody vying for higher office has the degree of charisma and communications brilliance of AOC, and what’s more: her world view and political brand are deeply rooted in the anti-system, populist energy currently coursing through the country’s political veins.

Emerging from the ruins of four years of Trumpian corruption and destruction, AOC could lead Democrats to a landslide victory in 2028. While MAGA fights ruthlessly for deeply unpopular positions, Democrats have become the sole party advocating for what most Americans actually want – from abortion rights to universal healthcare, from stronger unions to legal weed. Yet they've failed to commit to this popular agenda, losing out on the potential for lasting power. The party needs someone who understands that bold advocacy for policies people want isn't just good politics – it's the path to transformative change. History provides a model for such a moment:

Bernie Sanders, AOC’s mentor and political inspiration, never wanted to run for president. Dragged into the 2015 primary kicking and screaming, with little funds and even less campaign apparatus Bernie nevertheless surged in popularity and nearly lifted the nomination away from the Clinton juggernaut on the broad spectrum appeal of his anti-corruption, anti-oligarchy platform. Similarly 2007 was far earlier than then-Senator Obama had planned for his presidential run, but history deemed it his time so he stepped in and seized the opportunity. If you want to muse patriotic about it, that was the moment he was called on to lead, eight years in service to a more perfect union.

This is AOC‘s time. The stakes are too high for her to wait. Even if she were to lose the party nomination, participating in the primary would cast desperately needed light on crucial issues and common sense solutions too often sidelined in primary processes. But I don’t think she’ll lose. She possesses more raw talent than any other prominent Democrat, and just so happens to credibly speak to the struggles and aspirations that Americans of all stripes respond to in this gaping moment of national crisis:

Yet as compelling as she is, some of us on the left have become disillusioned by AOC moderating on issues and moving toward the mainstream of the party. Most alarmingly, holding out at Biden’s side when it was well past time for him to drop out combined with repeating the indefensible party line on Gaza in her primetime Harris endorsement raises questions about integrity and political instinct. As disappointed as we may be, these choices reflect a learned pragmatism and strategic maturity from someone who will need to appeal to Americans of all types if they are ever to represent more than one blue congressional district. By losing the few, she stands to gain the many.

Meanwhile, those on the party’s right flank have long dismissed AOC either because they disagree with her progressive views, undervalue her skills and resonance, or both. In fact, as President Bush famously quipped, they “misunderestimated” her. AOC‘s youth, gender, and sex appeal have all compounded the fact that she speaks for a bloc of voters the mainstream media and party elite have long ignored. The establishment and the party’s right flank have missed how superior a communicator she is, and are ideologically blind to the inherent appeal of her political project. Between rightwing dismissal and leftwing disillusionment, AOC's true power remains hidden in plain sight. But underdogs who exceed expectations don't just win – they transform their critics into their strongest advocates.

January 6th wasn't just another dark day in American history – it was a harbinger of everything that would follow in Trump's second term: the weaponization of fear, the assault on truth, the celebration of force over law. That day, as she hid from armed insurrectionists who had been given her location by fellow members of Congress, AOC experienced firsthand the raw violence at the heart of MAGA's political project. A month later, she turned that trauma into testimony, that fear into strength, using the tools of the digital age to speak directly to millions of Americans who saw in her livestream not just a recounting of events, but a declaration of defiance.

This is why she must run now. Because she understands in her bones what January 6th really was – not just an attack on Congress, but an attack on the very idea that power flows from the people rather than from force. While Trump seeks to finish what he started that day, dismantling democratic institutions piece by piece, AOC offers something more powerful than resistance – she offers renewal. Where he seeks to break faith in democracy itself, she demonstrates through her every action what democratic leadership can look like in the modern age.

The sickness that erupted into view on January 6th now infects every corner of our national life. But in AOC we see the antidote – a visionary who emerged from that very crucible, shaped by its lessons but not hardened by its hatred. Someone who can help us not just survive this moment, but transcend it.

“I thought I was going to die: ‘If this is the plan for me, then people will be able to take it from here.’ That is the thought I had about you all.” -AOC (February 2, 2021)

AOC has unshakeable faith in the destiny of our nation and is willing to fight to the death for our collective liberation. The question isn't whether she's ready. The question is whether we're ready to choose hope over fear, truth over lies, renewal over revenge. The answer to January 6th – and everything it unleashed – stands before us. We need only have the courage to embrace it.

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