Knock Down The House: Fresh, new and totally now - how AOC cut a swathe through American politics

You can watch it on Netflix now
Alastair McKay3 May 2019

There is a great moment, halfway through this documentary, where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decides to destroy her opponent in the 2018 Congressional primary in New York’s 14th district.

It’s not the bit where he is actually in the room, though she does it to him then too, mainly by absorbing the impact of his patronising remarks. Nor is it the bit where she takes control of a public meeting in which that opponent, Joe Crowley - then the fourth-most important Democrat in Congress - hasn’t bothered to turn up, sending a hapless surrogate in his place. She’s impressive there too.

But the telling scene, the bit where Ocasio-Cortez shows that her political skillset extends beyond empathy and relatability, arrives when she decodes Crowley’s campaign leaflet, and compares it to her own. Crowley’s is basically a poster, which is surprising, given that he looks like a photofit of a machine politician.

Netflix

But AOC attacks the words, which are mostly about opposing Trump, rather than anything positive. The date of the primary isn’t mentioned. And the leaflet boasts of Crowley’s ability to deliver. “‘Deliver’ means pork,” says Ocasio-Cortez. “There is nothing about the path forward.”

On one level, this film sets out to be an exploration of that path. When she started out, director Rachel Lears wanted to find something hopeful within the democratic process — something that challenged the enervating cynicism of pork-barrel politics. She hooked up with Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, two organisations working to help outsiders challenge the political machine. There are four women in the film, and all of them are impressive. But there is only one winner.

Knock Down The House: Now on Netflix
Netflix

What is the thing that Ocasio-Cortez has? Well, the film doesn’t journey far into the difficult area of policies, preferring instead a less thorny analysis: it’s about representing your community, being yourself, being authentic. But you could say all those things to every potential politician, and all of them would have a go.

Or, you could deconstruct the film and observe that it builds a sympathetic back-story for Ocasio-Cortez that could also serve as one of those manipulative films they show on, say, Britain’s Got Talent, just before a nervous young singer triggers the golden buzzer with an emotive power ballad. So, yes, AOC’s mother tells a story about the time her daughter ran away from home at the age of seven; there’s a video of childhood piano- playing and a tribute to the influence of Alexandria’s late father, who made her believe she had the power.

Or you could look at Ocasio-Cortez’s words, so persuasive in the moment, for clues about the magical thing that she has. If she’s not about delivering, what is she about? She talks about grassroots campaigning (while being endearingly nervous on her first door-knocking excursion). “It’s not about Left or Right,” she says, “it’s up and down.” Or: “I’m running because everyday Americans deserve to be represented by everyday Americans.” Pull apart those two sentences and you’ll see an attempt to avoid the limitations of Left-Right politics, and a deft shimmy past the language of class (at what point does an American become more or less than “everyday?”).

In the end, Lears finds the hope that she is looking for. It’s hard to resist a candidate who is so fresh, so new, so perfectly now.

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