Believe it or not, my opinion of AOC isn't all that far from yours. I also think she's a bit of an airhead. But the one thing she has going for her over someone like Ted Cruz (IMO) is that I believe that she believes what she's saying is correct. Ted Cruz wouldn't even go to bat for his own wife when Trump went there on the campaign trail, and once Trump secured the nomination Cruz became one of his lapdogs.

Say what you want about AOC, but at least she has a spine.