Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) made a series of silly comments during a Thursday appearance on comedian Ilana Glazer’s podcast.
But one of the most egregious statements she made came when she said black Americans created democracy.
“There are— there are very few, like, real archetypes of, in my opinion, truly what America is all about,” she said. “I think about the civil rights and voting rights movement and how Black Americans really created democracy in this country. That's right. That's exactly right. How they literally made something from nothing.”
AOC continued, touting the achievements of Native Americans and immigrants. “It is just beyond me. I think about how, like, Native people have survived and preserved and treasured their culture,” she said. “I think about— and I think many of us think about immigrants, which, if you aren't from one of those first two populations, you are certainly from largely the third. And so many of us, like, have our story of our parents, our grandparents, our great-great-grandparents, and so on and so forth, and who, like, come and make something from nothing. And I think that's a big part of also the most inspiring elements of what America is all about.”
AOC says "what America is truly all about" are the stories of Black people, American Indians, and Immigrants: "Black Americans really created democracy in this country." pic.twitter.com/wAzQoVcW6g
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 7, 2026
Here’s a question: What do you get when you cross historical ignorance with virtue signaling? That’s right, folks, you get someone like AOC.
For starters, America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Our government has democratic elements in that we elect our leaders, but it’s not a direct democracy.
But that’s not the real issue here. The problem with AOC’s comments is that black people weren’t involved in the establishment of American “democracy.” However, they were involved in forcing the country to live up to the Democratic ideals it claimed to champion.
Sure, many black Americans fought in the Revolutionary War. Heroes such as Prince Estabrook, Salem Poor, James Armistead Lafatyette, helped to defeat the British, which paved the way for the Framers to establish the United States of America.
But black people were not given a voice in creating the country’s founding legal document. This is because most were enslaved and couldn’t have had an impact on establishing the constitutional republic.
However, black people were instrumental in fighting for their right to participate in the electoral process while ensuring that the Constitution applied to everyone, regardless of skin color. In so doing, black Americans pushed the country further toward honoring its founding promise that it had ignored for decades: To promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
AOC’s comments reflect a common ignorance among folks on the left who claim to support marginalized groups. The lawmaker said what she said not because it is important to her. She said it because, like most of her fellow progressives, she has to show us all how virtuous she is for acknowledging the contributions that minorities have made in the shaping of the nation. If only she actually meant it.
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