To hear her tell it, a healthy political discourse is based not just on a legal right to free speech but the feeling that everyone has the chance to speak their mind. This commitment to listening is one of the key pillars of Omar’s politics. “Recognizing that, and allowing for a space to be created for those voices to be uplifted, was something that I learned within my family that has allowed me to now pause and listen and watch for the cues, and to take account of what different perspectives are being shared, and how important and enriching it is when everybody truly feels like they can actually step into their power.” “The idea of cultivating debate and open discussion was something that was very important to my grandfather, who was the head of the household,” she says. And for Omar, her family - who she says saw themselves as a community - helped set the terms for how she thinks about democracy to this day. To understand this woman, who lives rent-free in the heads of so many conservative pundits, it helps to know where she came from and how she got here.
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