If one could sum up everything that is wrong with American politics today and put it all in one rather small, strident, annoying package, you would call that package Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). She’s loud, she’s annoying, she’s strident, she’s opinionated while being ill-informed, and honestly, she gives every indication of being not very bright. There’s an old saying, “An empty vessel makes the most noise,” and if we apply that to politics, Ocasio-Cortez could drown out a German death metal concert.
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Now we learn that she is also paranoid; she thinks that former President Donald Trump, should he win reelection in November, may give her a nice stay in the Crowbar Hotel:
Ocasio-Cortez spoke with podcast host Kara Swisher for her show, “On with Kara Swisher,” which published the interview Thursday. They touched on the power of technology corporations — including Ocasio-Cortez’s “tangle” with Amazon and tech moguls’ conservative fundraising — Israel, artificial intelligence and the upcoming presidential election.
“I mean, it sounds nuts, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy threw me in jail,” she said. “He’s out of his mind. I mean, he did his whole first campaign around ‘lock her up.’ This is his motto.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she takes Trump “at his word.”
Her “tangle” with Amazon? Do they mean, perchance, her loud opposition to an Amazon facility that would have brought thousands of good-paying jobs to her district? The one Amazon backed out of because of her opposition?
While she has a point about the “lock her up” line, that wasn’t aimed at her but at Her Imperial Majesty Hillary I, Dowager-Empress of Chappaqua, who actually did take pains to hide correspondence and improperly handled classified information – and about which nothing was done.
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But AOC, predictably, makes this all about her, as she told Kara Swisher:
“I take him at his word when he says that he’s going to round up people. I take him at his word when he threatens journalists. I take him at his word,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I feel like what we saw in his first presidency was an amuse-bouche to what his intentions are. He has learned from his mistakes of appointing professionals, and he will not make that mistake next time.”
She’s right about one thing: It’s unlikely that Donald Trump will repeat a whole lot of mistakes he made last time, like hiring foxes to guard a fox house. At least, we hope he has learned that lesson because if it’s a swamp that needs draining, you need a backhoe, not a flock of mosquitoes. But as far as rounding up people? As far as rounding up her?
The best thing a newly re-inaugurated Donald Trump could do would be to leave her right where she is and to tweak her with the occasional barbed comment just to make her squawk. She has proven to be her own worst enemy, even if her deep-blue New York district will probably keep electing her as long as she wants the job.
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For Donald Trump, AOC may be the perfect foil. She combines strong opinions with very little actual knowledge, which makes her a perfect sort of reverse sounding board for policy trial balloons: If a proposal makes AOC cry out in outrage, it’s probably worth doing.