US Democracy Under Threat, Warns New York Politician: “There's a Very Real Risk”

Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that "there's a very real risk: that there will no longer be democracy in the United States in the next ten years because the country will return to Jim Crow policies.

The lawmaker made her remarks during an interview and said that the nation was risking having a federal government that only pretended to be a democracy. The New York congresswoman, however, said that there was still hope to fix the situation but argued that the opening attacks on democracy in the region were already fired.

Threat to Democracy

Ocasio-Cortez said this was done with a "targeted, specific attack on the right to vote across the United States," particularly in regions where Republicans held power. She argued that GOP members threatened the country's democracy by changing electorates and demographics and embodied white-nationalist, reactionary politics.

The Democrat accused lawmakers of repeatedly conducting sophisticated takeovers of the nation's democratic systems. She argued they wanted to turn them into undemocratic systems to overturn the results that a party in power may not agree completely, as per Yahoo Sports.

The lawmaker made a specific prediction when she said that the United States is heading towards returning to the Jim Crow era of disenfranchisement and oppression of Black Americans and other minority groups. Ocasio-Cortez cited "Jim-Crow style" laws that are restricting voting access that many lawmakers have been proposing, primarily in Florida, Texas.

The Democrat said that the efforts were slowly replacing history with institutionalized propaganda from white-nationalist perspectives in schools across the nation. Ocasio-Cortez said that the essence of the new regulations was exactly like the Jim Crow policies.

According to Business Insider, she said that while there were many others who compared the laws to something or someone else, history has shown the real basis of the legislation. The New York lawmaker said that the United States was now faced with the question of if the last five to six decades after the Civil Rights Act is going to go to waste.

Longstanding Feud

The situation comes as Ocasio-Cortez is butting heads with many Republican lawmakers over several issues rampaging across the nation. She continued her feud with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by posting a video on social media showing her dancing with the caption, "Ted Cruz could never."

The New York lawmakers posted the video on her social media accounts on Sunday after appearing at a Texas campaign event held for progressive candidates Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros. Ocasio-Cortez could be seen dancing to cumbia-style music along with Texas Democrat campaigners and supporters.

Ocasio-Cortez and Crus have been in a longstanding feud after the former accused the latter of supporting people who were trying to get him killed during the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. Last year, the New York congresswoman said that the situation was not a joke and that people involved need to take responsibility for their actions and words. She told a crowd on Sunday that there was still a chance for Democrats to "flip" Texas thanks to the two candidates she supported, Independent reported.