Christmas seemed to come early for Democrats in recent days, when media-darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – New York’s freshman representative – dazzled teenyboppers, millennials and ageing hippies everywhere with her Green New Deal plan. That plan, as even Hottentots in Africa know by now, calls for radical deconstruction of America’s economy, infrastructure, transportation, and overall standard of living to combat the looming danger of climate change which, if unaddressed, will destroy the world in 12 years – according to climatologist-in-chief Dr. Ocasio-Cortez. She claims that we can save the earth by trashing the greatest economy in history, without reference to what 1.4 billion Indians and the same number of Chinese are doing to the environment. Democrats’ newest messiah also promises free college, free medical care, free sex-changes and 70% taxes on “the rich” to pay for all the free stuff. Democrat pols are knocking each other over trying to get into photo-ops with their New York Wunderkind.
Since her upset victory in the November election, which made her the youngest representative in U. S. history, Ms. O-C has furnished acres of good copy for the Mainstream Media, who have been endlessly charmed by her good looks, attractive persona, rapid-fire declarations, and radical politics. (As grandpop used to say: “She could talk the hind leg off a mule.”) A mere month into her first term in the House of Representatives, the Great Mentioner has already posed her as a possible Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2020. Indeed, she looks like she could be a “female Obama,” Providentially sent to deliver her party – and the country, of course – from the ongoing horror of Trump. She is sweeping the field. It’s a miracle – almost a Rapture.
Unfortunately, the Great Mentioner failed to notice that the Constitution specifies the minimum age for the presidency at 35 (years). Although Miss Ocasio-Cortez can be elected to the Senate by turning 30 in October, she will not be eligible for the presidency until 2024. Despite this limitation (details, details…) she continues to draw followers and media-coverage like an outhouse draws flies.
Although several well-known Democratic senators have entered the presidential arena, Ms. O-C continues to suck all the air out of the room whenever she is present – and even when she isn’t. This must be immensely frustrating for Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Bernie Sanders, et al, who thought 2020 would be their golden opportunity to take the much-coveted brass ring. But how can they get the media-traction they need when a flashy, lippy, well-turned-out twenty-something in a white suit gets all the attention?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Barack Obama wasn’t Irish, but he certainly had their celebrated luck. He was widely regarded as one of the luckiest of presidents because he drew septuagenarian Senator John McCain as his opponent in 2008, and milquetoast Mitt Romney in 2012. Vietnam War vet McCain didn’t want to look racist, so he never laid a glove on the inexperienced, slick-talking freshman senator who claimed to have visited all “57 states” and grandly promised to stop the rise of the oceans. Mr. Romney knocked the president all over the ring in their first debate, but failed to follow up with hard-hitting ads and aggressive speeches that would have put the klieg lights on Mr. Obama’s weak economy and unpopular policies, including Obamacare, $4.00 gas, and the lowest percentage of Americans working since the 1970s.
I recall these aspects of Mr. Obama’s luck to introduce the newest contender for the “lucky” title. Mr. Trump isn’t Irish either, but he has already established his own claim to the title by having drawn Hillary Clinton – one of the least attractive candidates in history – as his 2016 opponent. Although the beneficiary of slavering media coverage and glittering predictions of a historic win, plus an outrageous attempt by Mr. Obama’s DoJ to discredit Mr. Trump by planting spies in his campaign, Mrs. Clinton exhibited a high degree of political ineptitude and tone-deafness. She told coal-miners she would destroy their industry, and called millions of ordinary working-class Americans – whose support she needed – “a basket of Deplorables.” She also insulted the intelligence of millions of voters by playing dumb about national security laws when she stored classified information on her personal computer. Obama’s FBI Director James Comey let her skate on violations that would have sent ordinary citizens to the pokey, but voters were wise to the whitewash.
While Mr. Trump issued ringing promises to rallies full of cheering voters in traditionally Democratic states, Hillary Clinton stayed out of those states and concentrated on supporting every possible minority and crack-brained sexual-identity interest group on the West and East Coasts. She won some big states there, but not many others. Mr. Trump carried 306 electoral votes in 30 states, to her 232 votes in 20 states. It was a historic victory, all right, but she didn’t win it.
One commentator (who wished to remain anonymous) said Mrs. Clinton reminded him of a dog which imagined that it understood firearms because it enjoyed days of hunting with its master. She had spent considerable time near the presidency, but had obtained no understanding of the people whose votes she needed to win the office.
Mr. Trump’s win so confounded the conventional wisdom on how the election would turn out that Democrat insiders convinced themselves that Russian interests must have interfered with the election-process, and possibly with the actual vote, to turn the outcome Mr. Trump’s way. These Democrats, plus a gaggle of Republicans who also didn’t want Mr. Trump to win, contrived a political stampede which convinced Mr. Trump to allow appointment of a Special Counsel to determine whether he or his campaign had “colluded” with Russian agents to steal the election.
If Mr. Trump thought Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation would clear up the Russian collusion charge quickly, he was much mistaken. The Mueller-probe has ground on for nearly two years, generating one dashed hope after another for the Never-Trumpers, but producing nothing except prosecution of some small-beer crimes and process-violations (e.g., lying to the FBI, etc.) unconnected to the Russia-theory. The investigation has been a drag on Mr. Trump’s presidency to the point where some analysts have suggested that the Special Counsel’s probe has simply become a last-ditch effort to smear the president enough to prevent his re-election.
But that investigation now appears ready to end – not with a bang, but with a whimper. Insiders say Mr. Mueller might not even report his “findings,” such as they are. Other experienced bunnies suggest that the new Attorney General won’t release the report, even if Mr. Mueller writes one. And now, at the worst possible time for Democrats, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has burst upon the political scene as an unexpected Christmas gift for the GOP side of the aisle.
Mr. Trump is now poised to clinch the lucky-title by running against any candidate of a Democratic Party that has been pushed so far to the left by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and her compadres that the center-right public will almost certainly reject their program. Even if Ms. O-C cannot be Mr. Trump’s direct opponent in 2020, she will be his de facto opponent. Mr. Trump will be able to frame his opponent – whoever he or she may be – as a representative of the gang of fools who want to abolish cars, airline travel, fossil fuels, and modern conveniences. His foil will be the grass hut with dirt floor and smoky cooking-fire that Democrats have planned for us, while he highlights the booming economy he has achieved via lower taxes, deregulation, and re-negotiated trade-treaties.
“Go ahead, vote Democrat if you must,” he will say, “but stock up on plenty of dried buffalo doo-doo for cooking and heating. You’re going to need it.”
Even some of the Democrats’ most important (and generous) backers – e.g., former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz – are voicing opposition to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s absurd pronunciamentos, which they know to be completely disconnected from reality. Mr. Schultz has alarmed Democrat pooh-bahs by suggesting publicly that he might stand as an independent candidate for the presidency. If he does so, he would certainly draw off Democrat votes and hand the win to Mr. Trump.
Real-world politicians like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, who know that climate-change is just a scare-story to separate voters from their money, are hanging back in the shadows, praying – if Democrats actually do that – that the Ocasio-Cortez star will wane, taking her crazed socialism/climate-change schtick into oblivion. But smart GOP politicians, undoubtedly including Mr. Trump, will do their best to paint Ms. Ocasio-Cortez as the new “leader” of a Democratic Party that literally wants to take us back to the Stone Age. She will be the early Christmas Gift that keeps on giving.
Democrats’ Vision for America’s Future