4 Powerful Female Politicians: Knock Down the House

"Knock down the House" is a Netflix documentary sharing the journey of 4 powerful strong women who are fighting their way through congress for change.

TRAILBLAZER, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, waitress and running for congress in New York's 14th District said, "We're not running to make a statement, we're not running to pressure the incumbent to the left, we're running to win".

As a waitress, she is always judged because she is ‘working class’ but that works in her favour, in order to gain support from people within her community. ‘I started waitressing when the financial crisis hit. My dad had passed away. Working in a non- profit just wasn’t enough for our family because we were about to lose our home.”

Another powerful quote shared within the documentary was by Saikat Chkrabarti who works for Justice Democrats, 'Most people in there are just trying to figure out how to keep their job and win their next election. That's not the thinking that's going to fix climate change, or mass incarceration or these giant problems that are facing us."

TRAILBLAZER, Paula Jean Swearengin was running for senate in West Virginia, and had this to say, “We work harder in these races just ‘cause we’re women. We’re not rich white dudes in suits”. Paula was fighting for her people who weren’t getting any medical care after the mountains and water were being contaminated. She said, ‘If another country come in here, blew up our mountains and poisoned our water, we’d go to war. But industry can.”

TRAILBLAZER, Cori Bush was running for congress in Missouri’s First district. She lives just 9 minutes away from where Mike Brown was killed by an officer without having done anything to provoke that reaction. Since then, the area has been fighting for their rights and Bush has been trying to help make changes. She said, “People are now waking up to see that the problems we have in our districts, are problems we ourselves can fix.”

Another great quote she said was, “Being a woman of colour, our image is really scrutinized. You have to speak like this, you have to dress like this. I decided that, yeah, I don’t care.”

TRAILBLAZER, Amy Vilela was running for congress in Nevada’s Fourth District. She lost her daughter in 2015, when she suffered a pulmonary embolism after not being able to show proof of insurance to receive healthcare and get the tests that she needed. “30,000 of us a year that are losing loved ones because they don’t have insurance… I will never stop. I am not going to allow my daughter to have died for nothing.”

A great aspect to the documentary is the fact that they really and truly share more personal background stories from all the trailblazers, allowing the viewers to see aspects that connect to our own lives. If anything, this should warm your hearts, show support and back these strong women to right the wrongs within these government.