Don’t just laugh at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Follow her lead

[Right_in_Virginia]

Don’t just laugh at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Follow her lead
Conservative Review, Nov 19, 2018, Chris Pandolfo

Conservatives are very eager to make Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the butt of many, many jokes. The temptation is strong because the young far-left progressive keeps giving her mockers ample material. Take the most recent example from the weekend, a video clip of Ocasio-Cortez calling on progressive activists to take back “all three chambers of government.”

“Haha, look at the dumb progressive who doesn’t understand how government works” is easy content, but conservatives shouldn’t write off Ocasio-Cortez as a joke. They shouldn’t make fun of her dwindling savings account. They shouldn’t reduce her to a caricature of a progressive Millennial for clicks and views. Instead, she should be taken very seriously.

Think about what she’s actually doing here. Ocasio-Cortez has an activist leftist base of support, some 1.2 million followers on Twitter alone. She’s a rock star on the Left, and she’s using that star power to rally her supporters to the cause of helping Democrats take full control of the government. Why? So Democrats can advance a socialist policy agenda of single-payer Medicare for All, create a congressional select committee on climate change to introduce radical government regulations on the economy, create new “free college” tuition entitlements, and pay for it all by cutting military spending, raising taxes, and borrowing more money.

These are the big ideas on the Left. Dangerous and radical ideas, but as she told the Atlantic in a recent interview, she’s not going to sit back and let Washington D.C. continue with the status quo.

“I don’t have the luxury, nor does any member of Congress have the luxury, of waiting to govern … Let’s just get things done. I’ll be really quiet if we get things done. If we pass ‘Medicare for all,’ I’m going to be silent as a lamb.”

Where is the equivalent agenda for conservatives? Which conservative members of Congress are this ambitious? And which members are calling on the activist grassroots of the conservative movement to run for office to change Washington? That’s what Ocasio-Cortez is doing on the Left.


More:  https://www.conservativereview.com/news/dont-just-laugh-at-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-follow-her-lead/

[Oceander]

Very good points. 

In other words, an idiot with a bomb-vest is still extremely dangerous, notwithstanding her idiocy. 

[Fishrrman]

"Don’t just laugh at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez..."

She's easy to laugh at, but we do so at our peril.
There are millions upon millions eager to follow her and others like her right down the yellow brick road to communism.

Remember when folks laughed at the concept of "Atzlan"?
Down in the sunbelt, are they still laughing?

[Dexter]

Conservatives are giving her a ton of name recognition. That's probably not a good way to fight her ideology.

[LMAO]

From the article
"Where is the equivalent agenda for conservatives? Which conservative members of Congress are this ambitious? And which members are calling on the activist grassroots of the conservative movement to run for office to change Washington"

Bears repeating

[mountaineer]

Here's another:

Why Nitpicking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Will End Poorly
November 21, 2018
By Emily Jashinsky   
The Federalist

... The incoming congresswoman seems to be the perfect avatar for a certain flavor of woke millennial progressivism, one boosted by a sense of confidence that’s severely out of proportion with its command of basic facts. Recall Ocasio-Cortez’s epic stream of unforced gaffes this summer, which made her look more like the freshman who comes home from one semester of college ready to overthrow capitalism than an elected official.

But in their critiques of Ocasio-Cortez, some conservatives are repeating the mistakes President Trump’s detractors, left and right, made against him. Denigrating unpolished, less-than-flawless politicians who speak to the working class is not a great look, as it turns out. When conservatives swarm Ocasio-Cortez for mistakenly mentioning “all three chambers of Congress” (before immediately correcting herself), it looks petty and elitist. Save the dunking for legitimate absurdities like this one*.   ...

*Her core agenda item will reduce the problem of funeral expenses because it will provide more Americans with access to healthcare, she explained this week during an interview on CNN.

“Americans have the sticker shock of healthcare as it is. And what we're also not talking about is why aren't we incorporating the cost of all the funeral expenses of those who die because they can't afford access to healthcare? That is part of the cost of our system,” she said.

[jmyrlefuller]

Where is the equivalent agenda for conservatives? Which conservative members of Congress are this ambitious? And which members are calling on the activist grassroots of the conservative movement to run for office to change Washington? That’s what Ocasio-Cortez is doing on the Left.

The problem conservatives face is that their message no longer resonates.

O-C speaks to a generation that faced a substantial collapse, with fewer opportunities to break in and higher entry expenses for doing so. Every millennial can relate to her problem with not being able to find an affordable place to live in DC. "Just move" doesn't work when you can't afford to live where the jobs are and you don't qualify for any of the jobs that are there. Capitalism, or at least the bastardized version of it we have today, has failed a lot of people.

In other words, she is exploiting the same angst Donald Trump did to take the Republican primary despite widespread opposition from conservatives, just to a younger, different audience.

Republicanism is so entrenched in the "let's cut taxes, that'll solve everything" mindset that they don't realize that income inequality now ensures a huge chunk is off the tax rolls already anyway.

What is the conservative message that resonates? Is there one anymore? Is there anything compelling that the average working-class voter can look at the conservative, then look at the socialist, and decide the conservative has the better plan for him or her?

The best hope, I think, that we have is to emphasize OPPORTUNITY. If there's anything that socialism lacks, it's that. Socialism requires such control over the economy that it stifles opportunity and innovation. If a conservative can get that message across, and get it to work, we can defeat socialism.