Full disclosure, from the time I was about eighteen years old, with my little understanding of politics at that time (I am forty-five today), I made a conscious decision to declare myself center of the aisle. In other words, straight-down-the-middle-independent. At that time, nearing the end of the Clinton administration with all of its controversies (which seem tame considering today’s mess), I knew that there were some positions that I firmly agreed with liberals on, and some things that deep in my bones, I ran staunchly conservative. This mindset obviously affected my voting habits. I could not align with any particular political party. If a candidate ran and promoted policy which connected with my beliefs, then that’s the person I voted for. Many times, I’d vote third party. To provide more context, I am also an American black man with immigrant and mixed-race roots. No this does not make me special in any way, but I want to add transparency and context (my family held conservative ideals, but were often put-off and ultimately didn’t vote for politicians who held beliefs antithetical to their own).

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So with this, I paid particular attention to the fairly recent exchange between AOC and Steven Miller. These are two people that I do not particularly care for, and it has much to do with both of their personalities, public gaffes as it does with some of their policy positions. To be clear, I’m not saying that they’re all the way horrible, or ignoring how much they mean to their constituents, but with each blunder, I find it harder to cringe without creating dozens of new wrinkles (and lord knows I have enough of those).

INTRODUCTION

If you’ve been under a boulder for the last few months and are oblivious to their verbal sparring last fall (October 2025), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former bartender and New York metro area suburbanite turned congresswoman, and former White House aide Stephen Miller traded jabs, with AOC starting off by calling him a clown, accusing him of insecure masculinity, mocking him for being 4’10” (though he responded that he is a foot taller than that, not that it matters), and urging her followers to laugh at him. Miller quickly fired back in a Fox News interview, saying, “her brain didn’t work” and called her a “trainwreck.” Letting the retort roll off of her back, Ocasio-Cortez later tweeted her amused disbelief that the news host made him watch the clip, which commenced the back-and-forth.

Now seriously, the ad hominem attacks were nothing short of sophomoric and beneath both of them, especially considering their prestigious educations, influential positions, national recognition, and tendency to present themselves as operating on higher moral ground when it comes to their core beliefs. Stephen Miller, who is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, attended Duke University, majored in political science, and became a leader in the school’s Conservative Union. After graduating, he advanced hardline anti-immigration positions early in his political career, later drawing scrutiny for promoting material linked to white nationalist sources. By contrast, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx native of Puerto Rican descent, attended Boston University, where she majored in international relations and economics. She interned for Ted Kennedy, directly assisting Spanish-speaking constituents with foreign relations and immigration issues, then went on to work on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign before running for Congress. She has become a prominent advocate for civil rights, supports more permissive immigration policies, and maintains a strong pro–working-class stance.

It's not surprising then, based on their histories, even without paying attention to their current political stances, that they are where they are, and where they wanted to be. So with that, is it really surprising when someone like Steve Miller said on a Fox News show that “we have people from all over the world that on their own, would’ve never invented the wheel….” when discussing migrants in the context of birthright citizenship, or when he called white protesters “stupid white hippies” at a rally against the National Guard troops called in by the federal government to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C.? My answer, at least, would be no, because at least in this era, many of his supporters and colleagues are saying exactly what’s on their mind and don’t try to hide it.

By contrast, I remember watching a video of Ocasio-Cortez at a National Action Network event in New York back in 2019 where she was speaking to a crowd of civil rights activists. During her speech there, her speaking style changed dramatically, taking on this “Southern drawl” filled with urban slang. “This is what organizing looks ‘lah-ike’…” she said, clapping her hands, and then later, “Proud to be a ‘bartendah’... ain’t nothing wrong with ‘thaaat’.” I couldn’t do anything but cringe. Five years later, she pulled a similar stunt at a DNC speech where she appeared to mimic a Baptist church minister in her delivery. Ugh.

Now you may consider my observations of AOC to be a nothing-burger. This is not an indictment of AOC, but these observations made me sink into my chair. It’s like there’s something hidden beneath, maybe even subliminally (in an implicit bias sort of way), in how she may view certain groups. At those events, her words were simplified and dumbed down, giving off the message that she was speaking to a “less intelligent crowd.” Does she herself believe this? I’m not suggesting she does—I’m not in her head—but that was the impression. You see, it’s almost as if there’s this palpable fakeness that makes me unsettled (and others too, apparently, as there was plenty of online commentary). I am no fan of Stephen Miller either (mostly because of how he presents himself and his fiery, Dr. Evil-like rants and talking over TV hosts when he’s invited onto television programs), but when it comes to him and people who move like him, what you see is essentially what you get. Make sense? There’s really no surprise when they say controversial things. This is why the exchange over height motivated me to write this article. I’ve frequently heard in person and read in online communities as to why the “left is better for shorter guys,” or why “short men should vote conservative.” The idea of any particular party being a better fit for our short brethren is just laughable on its face (seriously, lol). With that, let’s dig into why “If you’re a shorter man, both parties hate you.” 🙂

FRIENDS UNTIL THEY'RE NOT

Back in 2024, my YouTube algorithm pulled up a show called “The PBD Podcast.” The host, Patrick Bet David, whose initial success was multi-level insurance marketing, ended up building this show which became one of the most watched conservative platforms in the world. Regularly pushing conservative messaging and dissecting perceived detrimental policies by Democratic politicians, he made it a point to bring on and support Republican candidates. Fine, that’s what his platform is supposed to do. When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was in the running with then-former President Donald Trump, it’s what Bet-David did on his podcast that made me (who isn’t a DeSantis fan) want to restart my Android phone. PBD brought out a pair of new shoes and asked DeSantis to try them on as a challenge to the public mocking him for being shorter than he claimed to be. “So what?” I thought. What a waste of time. With the issues pressing Americans at the time, and the clock running out until the election, this is what he wanted to talk about? I thought his platform was supposed to support his conservative base—never mind the fact that the PBD podcast is based in Miami. Go figure.

In December of 2025, during a very public falling out between conservative darlings Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, who worked together at The Daily Wire, Owens, who had previously defended her colleague vehemently, said in anger, “Ben Shapiro, [expletive] you and the midget horse that you rode in on.” What? When I thought of the years invested by Owens into The Daily Wire and the amount of animus she dealt with from African American detractors (which is important, because plenty of conjecture suggested she was being “used,” which Owens herself later confirmed on her own show with guest Ana Kasparian), height was her go-to? Never mind their rift as it related to support for Israel (which became a hotter national topic in U.S. political circles than it had been in previous years), never Shapiro’s accusation that Owens was being antisemitic—the final straw was height. Shapiro, by the way, claims to be 5’9”. Commenters on many social platforms dispute that claim, suggesting he is somewhere in between 5’4” and 5’7”. None of this matters, though. According to Owens, he’s a “midget,” with a horse, of course (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Then there’s “The Don” himself. During the 2024 campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly mocked shorter candidates. One example was “Little Marco” (Marco Rubio, who is now his secretary of state). Another example—back in the 2020 campaign—there was “Little Mike” (former three-term mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, who ran for president). Two men who had very successful careers before running for president were now reduced to “little men” – to the point where their height was just as much of a topic of conversation as their policies. It didn’t stop there, though. There was “Liddle Bob Corker,” back in 2017, whom Trump reportedly considered “too short” to serve as Secretary of State, and two years later, via a tweet, there was “Liddle Adam Schiff!” (Democratic congressman from California). Again, go figure.

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TURNING LEFT

The other side of the aisle ain’t exactly sanitized. A few months ago, I was watching YouTube political commentator The Amazing Lucas disparage controversial white supremacist-adjacent political commentator Nick Fuentes in a retort, repeatedly referring to him as short as a means to insult him. The emphasis on the “Sh” of “Short” was all I needed to hear. Likewise, progressive Democratic political commentator and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker also decided to take a jab at Fuentes in October 2025 by calling him a “booger eating [expletive] manlet
“ in response to Fuentes calling him out on one of his broadcasts. Look, I am no fan of, nor have any sympathy for Fuentes, especially after being exposed to some of his racial rants and views on women’s “place” in society on various social media platforms (and even legacy media has been platforming him as of late, which is pretty dreadful), but even having that bias and revulsion toward the guy, using height as the punchline, to point it out as if it were some kind of defect (versus his many character flaws and extreme viewpoints) is completely unnecessary.

And back to Mr. Ron DeSantis. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who like Trump, stands at 6’3”, also felt the need to chime in on DeSantis’s boot-wearing saga by stating back in December of 2023—“Hopefully for Ron, it’s a seated debate so he won’t have to mash his foot into his high heels to look taller. But if not, he’ll definitely be on a twelve-inch step stool so he can peek right above the podium.” This, from the same man who in his inaugural address said, “compassion and empathy are the human connections that make shared burdens easier to bear” when describing a “California for all”. You don’t say? Focusing on someone else we spoke about earlier, Mr. Michael Bloomberg, back in 2020, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren quipped, "I want to talk specifically for just a minute at the top about a thread that is coming our way. And it's a big threat — not a tall one, but a big one: Michael Bloomberg." Her campaign raised five million dollars shortly thereafter. While I’m sure the successful fundraising wasn’t directly tied to the joke, it seems mocking height is good for business.

ANOTHER NOTE

Going back to something I discussed earlier about subconsciously hierarchizing groups, I want to point out something I’ve noticed. Take a look at all of these couples below. Do you recognize something? Whether intentional or not—and I am not trying to denigrate anyone because of their dating choices—do you notice how all of these politicians have been paired with white men? According to the CDC, non-Hispanic white men have the highest mean height among the racial groups measured in the United States. At the same time, whiteness has historically been perceived as occupying a higher position in the social hierarchy in Western society, particularly in the United States. Are all of these couplings intentional? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman who we started off this article with, recently broke off her engagement with longtime partner Riley Roberts (in fact, they go all the way back to Boston University). He also happens to be white (nothing wrong with that). He’s also significantly taller than his Bronx-born ex-fiancée, who stands nearly six feet tall. Ilhan Omar left her ex-husband, who was near her height in late 2019, and ended up with a much taller man, who just happened to be white. She was alleged to have had an affair with Tim Mynett, a political consultant, earlier that year. How about Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson? Her husband is a prominent gastrointestinal and general surgeon. Both are highly accomplished professionals. She’s 5’1”. While there is no public record of Dr. Jackson’s height, when standing in photos, there is a stark height difference. Then there’s former vice president Kamala Harris. She, of Indian and Afro-Jamaican descent, stands at 5’4”. Her husband? Doug Emhoff, also of European descent, stands at 6’2”.

On the right, we have Candace Owens, 5’6”. Her husband, British businessman George Farmer, clocks in at close to 6 feet. A six-inch difference, but he certainly isn’t 5’8”. Vice-President J.D. Vance has been criticized for making statements that were anti-inclusive. His wife, Usha Vance, of Indian descent, doesn’t seem to mind, at least from my point of view, as their marriage is going strong. She married a man who has Scots-Irish roots and stands at 6’2”. She is an accomplished corporate litigator and Yale Law graduate. Then there’s former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley (née Nimrata Haley). Like Usha Vance, Haley is also of Indian descent. The 5’4” politician is married to American businessman Michael Haley. He stands at 5’11”—close enough to tall.

To once again clarify, I have zero issues with interracial dating and couples with a significant height gap. I personally date women I find attractive—race isn’t a factor. Date and marry who you want, it’s no sweat off of my back. However, some people publicly advocate for marginalized groups, while others publicly advocate policies that may marginalize certain groups. Yet neither group’s private dating choices necessarily seem to follow the racial or social divisions present in their political rhetoric. Are all of these pairings coincidences? Now, of course, my observations do not prove anything about their motivations—I’m not in their heads. One could argue that moving up the corporate ladder will put you in proximity to the majority. That’s a fair take. On the other hand, it is interesting that the women in this particular group all happen to be paired with men who just happen to belong to the group with the highest average male height. Go figure.

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CONCLUSION

When I’ve come across comments online from fellow shorter men, who in many cases, naively insist that one party is aligned better with shorter men’s (read: “men’s”) interests, it’s always preceded with some idea that the ideology or values of one party are better for the quality of life for us compact gents, which just makes me chuckle (a lot). It’s like, “listen to the words that are coming out of their mouth, dude!” That’s all that matters. While a lot of talk in political spaces can be classified as “theater,” I’m more inclined to believe that off-the-cuff commentary that a person may feel is “safe” to say closely connects to their own personal beliefs. And as we’ve seen in these many examples, it is not exclusive to one party, nor is it more prevalent in one or the other. This is not a party thing, but rather an aspect of the human condition—the belief in or subconscious practice of following and upholding the perceived social hierarchy.

Now to be clear, the title I gave this article, “If You’re a Shorter Man, Both Political Parties Hate You” was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. I am not suggesting that every member of these political parties literally hates you (lol)—that would be absurd—rather, that the same social animus that exists around the very idea of a man being short does not suddenly disappear because we’re talking politics—the same as it doesn’t go away in corporate settings, medicine, or blue-collar professions. Heightism is everywhere. It doesn’t take a break, it doesn’t disappear because we’re suddenly “older” or because it’s the “21^st century.”

So if you’re going to vote for any political party, vote for the candidate of your choice because that’s who you like and who you feel will deliver on whatever policies are important to you. Don’t think for a second that they’re more “pro-short guys” than the opposition (which is a ridiculous thing to even think about)… Because when they open their mouths at just the wrong time… you might end up caught off guard (or if you’re like me, hardly at all). Do you think I’m wrong? Challenge me! I dare you! Join us and let us know your thoughts on our forum, here at… The Lower View. Thanks for reading!

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