After 26 moderate Democrats in Congress sided with Republicans on a legislative amendment on gun control, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reportedly made not-so-subtle threats against them. In a closed meeting, she declared that those who dared to cross the aisle were “putting themselves on a list.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reportedly scolded the moderates for breaking rank, saying, “We are either a team or we’re not, and we have to make that decision.” Ocasio-Cortez went further and told the centrists that she was prepared to help far-left activists working in their districts to hijack the primaries in much the same way she herself secured a seat in Congress.
The reason for her anger? The bill for expanding the federal background checks for those wishing to purchase a gun also contained a provision that requires gun sellers to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if the prospective buyer is an illegal immigrant. As an open borders advocate, the freshman congresswoman has been one of the most vocal proponents for abolishing ICE, and therefore she cannot tolerate any Democrats who voted for a pro-ICE amendment, even if it is only supplementary to a gun control bill.
She’s the Boss
While she has grown increasingly bold with time, this is not the first time Ocasio-Cortez has crossed the line into being outright bossy. At a recent Girls Who Code event in New York, she responded to her critics:
“Like I just introduced Green New Deal two weeks ago and it's creating all of this conversation. Why? Because no one else has even tried. So people are like ‘oh it's unrealistic, oh it's vague, oh it doesn't address this little, minute thing.’ And I'm like ‘you try! You do it. Cause you’re not. Cause you’re not. So until you do it, I’m the boss! How about that!’”
While to conservatives this may sound childlike at best and totalitarian at worst, this style of massaging tickles her base in just the right spots. Supporters who are sufficiently enchanted by her story hear this and perceive that she is the lead player on their team. We know from sports that when a player scores a goal, the fans feel that they do too.
Beware of Bold Progressives
Anyone who is familiar with the history of socialism should be alarmed when they hear people on the left become increasingly bold and bossy because as Dr. Jordan Peterson has pointed out, the left does not quickly realize when it goes too far.
It did so in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, China under Mao, Cambodia under Pol Pot, Cuba under Castro, Somalia under Barre, Zimbabwe under Mugabe, Germany under Hitler, Uganda under Idi Amin, and in Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro, as well as many other places. In all those instances, which ended in suffering, death, and destruction, the lead up showed bold leadership and a willingness to radicalize.
This does not mean that Ocasio-Cortez will ever gain the reigns of power in the U.S. or that she has a totalitarian dictator inside of her waiting to come out. But if she is this bossy now, when she has little real political influence, imagine what she and her acolytes would be emboldened to do if they were ever to come into a true position of power.
In some sense, Lenin could be excused for believing in socialism because he did not have the benefit of watching the disaster of his ideology unfold over time in dozens of countries and across different cultures. Ocasio-Cortez has no such excuse, and yet she is prepared to boldly go where many socialists have gone before her – with predictably disastrous results.
