Ocasio-Cortez: Make socialism great again
Politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deserves credit for spewing enough wishful thinking to fire up a crowd of equally delusional socialists.
Facts do not get in the way of the novice Millennial demanding Medicare for all (yeah); picking up the college tab for everyone (double yeah); and, best of all, fulfilling the anarchists' dream of abolishing ICE (boo-hoo for taxpayers fearful of drug-traffickers and career criminals pouring over our porous borders).
Her list reads like a wonderland of benefits for social justice warriors who are fiscally illiterate and clueless about the end results of socialism. Still, they are not shy about trying to stick their fingers into someone else's heavily tax-burdened pocket. No wonder Hillary Clinton had trouble firing up a crowd of liberals with such promises as "A Better Deal" or "Stronger Together." Voters should feel some gratitude toward Hillary's team for dispensing with the slogan "Because It's Her Turn."
All the passion Hillary lacked on the campaign trail can be found in the female Democratic newcomer, who was the surprise winner in New York's 14th Congressional District race. She wasn't going to measure every word – like Hillary – and her campaign rhetoric on immigration was nothing short of hyperbolic stupidity: "We have to occupy all of it," she said, building up to the "it" of geographic terrain. "We need to occupy every airport. We need to occupy every border. We need to occupy every ICE office," she said, referring to separating families illegally crossing over the border. (She conveniently omits President Trump's order to stop the policy dating back to the Clinton administration.)
Ocasio-Cortez's call to arms has led to a trickle – which could build into a wave – of "occupy" crazed Millennials. They're embracing the rallying cry – without examining the facts too closely. This isn't just righteous liberal anger, but it is anger that requires an outlet. Does this mean that fast food restaurant-owners need to prepare for another assault on toiletries and excessive use of utilities at targeted locations?
Too bad the occupy protesters can't clean up their own horrendous piles of debris they leave behind. Doesn't anyone clean up after himself on the left?
Let's put that aside for now. Ocasio-Cortez knows a good rallying cry when she conjures one up in front of the mainstream media cameras. CNN isn't going to bother her with reality-based questions – which would diminish her party's lofty goals. She's not going to be asked about encouraging her supporters to trespass on government property (ICE offices); harass officers risking their lives every day at the border; or even block airport access, making flights more hazardous for travelers and security agents.
None of this means that her message is falling on deaf ears. She is credited with the spike from 5,000 to 40,000 in membership in Democratic Socialists of America. Now Ocasio-Cortez is sharing the media blitz with the King of Socialism, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as they hit the campaign trail together before the 2018 midterm elections.
Bernie is not one to suggest that Alexandria tone down the giveaway plan of the single-payer plan – as in Medicare for all. He blissfully goes along his social-minded path, even ignoring his own detailed proposal being overwhelmingly discredited in one of the most left-wing major publications, the Washington Post, during the 2016 presidential campaign.
"When Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) proposed a 'medicare for all' health plan in his presidential campaign, the nonpartisan Urban Institute figured that it would raise government spending by 32 trillion over 10 years," according to the Post, "[r]equiring a tax increase so huge that even the democratic socialist Mr. Sanders did not propose anything close to it."
Does that mean socialists need to rethink their plans? In this case, Bernie and Alexandria know that life can be beautiful for all – especially when you wrap yourself in a hermetically sealed echo chamber, blocking out all voices of reason and fiscal responsibility.