AOC criticizes the 'organization of oligarchy' in the U.S. while visiting UChicago

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) emphasized the importance of the working class and criticized a system that allows billionaires to flourish in a talk she gave Friday night at the University of Chicago Friday.

The New York City progressive began her 90-minute conversation with political strategist David Axelrod by addressing a comment she made on Thursday that “you can’t earn a billion dollars” legitimately. The five-term congresswoman offered clarification by saying she opposes systems that create billionaires, not individual people.

“When we criticize the system, the system has gotten so concentrated that [billionaires] take it as criticism of themselves,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

University of Chicago law student Mark Maddock, 26, said he hopes the congresswoman will run for president in two years.

“Everything's so rough and everyone's a bit downtrodden with the political climate around us right now, so having her here kind of feels like a preview of some hope to come,” Maddock said. “I'm from a rural part of Illinois where our representation doesn't really give as much of a damn about us, as she seems to.”

When asked about her 2028 ambitions for the U.S. Senate or presidency, Ocasio-Cortex said: "Presidents come and go. Senate house seats, elected officials come and go, but single-parent healthcare is forever."

Ocasio-Cortez condemned the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision striking down a Democratic gerrymandered voting map that state voters passed last month.

“We are in an era of a very real constitutional crises about the limits of power,” she said. “I don’t think we should take this siting down.”

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court tightened restrictions on a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits voting practices that result in minority groups having “less opportunity” than others when electing representatives. In its 6-3 decision divided on party lines, the court said the provision only applies to instances of strong evidence that a racial group was discriminated against, not in cases where officials merely want to create more majority-minority districts.

Ocasio-Cortez said she would “absolutely” support further gerrymandering in her state.

Between commenting on political issues, Ocasio-Cortez shared personal stories of her family and work life before she became a “commodified symbol” as a famous politician.

When she spoke about her interest in studying science before she decided not to go to medical school for economic reasons, Axelrod told Ocasio-Cortez she is "kind of a nerd” and “should feel at home at the University of Chicago.”

Friday night's conversation was part of a series coordinated by the University of Chicago’s nonpartisan Institute of Politics, which hosted former Vice President Mike Pence last week.