The congresswoman says in the book that her own father still calls her “Iron Lady,” a throwback to her teenage years, when a teacher said of the young Omar, “She’s an Iron Lady.… If it were Ilhan against a hundred men, I would worry for the men.” Despite their very different politics, Omar calls Thatcher “my greatest shero” and “a self-starter in the grandest of ways.” Omar also writes in the book that she has a perhaps surprising answer to the old ice-breaker question of which famous person, living or dead, she would want to meet: former U.K. Despite all the talk about fractures between the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party, Omar’s book includes warm words for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who helped to orchestrate a change to a ban on head coverings in Congress to allow headscarves and religious headwear. That is the only way actual growth happens.”Ī personal sense of pragmatism seems to be one of the things Omar admires most in politicians. “The ability for a society to continue to flourish really is based on people's ability to feel like they have a safe space to want to engage in that debate. It's easy to go for the fast cancellation of people and voices,” she says. “Today, in the way that we have our political spaces carved out, there really isn't too much recognition of different opinions. 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.

This is what america looks like