The Victim Queen of Fashion Avenue

Pity poor Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( aka "AOC"). The second-term Congresswoman, with 13.4M Twitter followers (she trails only Bernie Sanders in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has 7.9M, by comparison), darling of the Left, leader of The Squad, poster child for Democratic Socialism, author of the Green New Deal, fashionista par excellence, and heir-avaricious to Bernie Sanders, dropped a dump truck full of woe-is-me manure in discussing the possibility of her running for the Presidency in 2024 (yes, shocked-face-readers, she will turn thirty-five before the next Inauguration Day and is therefore eligible), in a fawning, hagiographic fluff piece in this month's GQ.

I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible. But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color. People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September. And that weighs very heavily on me. And it’s not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center. This grip of patriarchy affects all of us.

In one fell swoop, she played the gender card, the minority card, the victim card, the ‘systemic’ card, and a 'sinister forces' card, all while wistfully embracing the possibility as a long-shot. If she was playing Hearts, she'd very well be seen as "shooting the moon." In woke-speak, this is called “intersectionality,” and elevates her above the single-oppression plebes and also-rans in the grievance hierarchy.

As a reminder, AOC made sure we all knew that she feared for her life during the Capitol riot, even though she wasn't even in the Capitol.

I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.

If we are to believe her narrative, her path to the White House is not impeded by her far-left political views, nor by her divisive and accusatory style, but instead by relentless bigotry and more than a little murderous intent.

In the words of John Stossel, 'give me a break.'

AOC is the poster-child for many things, including (though she'd rather not be) my recent observation that the biggest oppressors in our culture are often the ones who claim to be the most oppressed. Despite her junior status, she has had outsize influence on her party’s agenda, has been instrumental in the leftward shift of the Overton Window, helped take Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) from farcical fringe musing to mainstream embrace, and by savvy manipulation via social media, has been a substantial contributor to the re-branding of socialism.

She is a reflection of our culture's consecration of victimhood and elevation of style over substance. Her embrace of (a vague iteration of) socialism is a resurrection of a universally failed, destructive, and murderous (irony alert) ideology that should have been buried decades ago. Her policy ideas are equally destructive - her Green New Deal alone would sink much of the country into poverty and misery, while accomplishing nothing of any value or benefit (except for the few well-placed and well-connected). Her embrace of MMT (which makes her economics degree the equivalent of week-old used fish wrap) worked its way up the food chain and into our current bout of inflation. Her firebrand style does nothing to promote unity or comity, and instead pits Americans against each other.

Yes, the picture on the right is Photoshopped, but is it really any more fake than the original?

Forgive me for not buying into her perpetual victim kabuki, nor her high fashion photo-ops. I cannot say whether she actually believes her own bullshit or if she's a cynical, manipulative carnival barker - but it doesn't matter. In substance, style, and example, she embodies so much that's wrong with modern politics. That she is as successful as she is speaks to some old aphorisms about representative government.

Is this the government we deserve? If we keep voting for style over substance, for stunts over sober sanity, for those who tweak our emotions instead of those who respect our rights and liberties, and reward those who divide us rather than seek comity, yes it is.

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Chapter 1 - A Catastrophic Failure
Chapter 2 - A Brief History
Chapter 3 - A Society Rooted in Individual Liberty

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Peter.