CBS has released a teaser of an upcoming 60 Minutes interview between correspondent Anderson Cooper and newly sworn-in Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it’s a reminder of both the promise of the radical new members of the 116th Congress and the familiar disdain most mainstream journalists have of progressive ideas—no matter the scope of the crisis.
In the clip, Cooper questions Ocasio-Cortez about the practicality of the Green New Deal, an ambitious but crucial series of investments into clean energy that the congresswoman helped bring into the national spotlight. His tone is condescending as hell about a series of programs that are trying to head off a melting planet:
Cooper also asked Ocasio-Cortez about raising taxes to fund these progressive programs. Ocasio-Cortez suggested that the burden would fall largely on the rich, who she believes (correctly) aren’t paying their fair share in taxes right now. Believing the rich should pay more in taxes is apparently a very radical take:
COOPER: What you are talking about, just big picture, is a radical agenda compared to the way politics is done now.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, I think that it’s only ever been radicals that have changed this country. Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like social security. That is radical.
COOPER: Do you call yourself a radical?
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah, you know, if that’s what radical means, call me a radical.
Get ready for more of this shit every time she sits down for an interview.