If you had to sum up this moment in American history, what would you call it? Maybe the "Age of Fraud." We’re living in a time when the most powerful people in the world masquerade as the least powerful, a time when billionaires pose as helpless victims (don’t criticize Bill Gates!), when a women who literally identifies as "the Duchess of Sussex" tells Oprah she’s oppressed and Oprah nods in empathy, because Oprah’s oppressed, too.
In a moment like this, it’s not surprising that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez feels deeply sorry for herself. Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress a few years ago at the age of 29, beating a longtime incumbent in a race no one thought she could win. Her previous job, famously, had been waiting tables and tending bar at a taco place in Union Square. People made fun of that, but we haven’t. Say what you will about Ocasio-Cortez’s views, that’s a legitimately impressive achievement. If your daughter did that, you’d be proud.
But Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t seem proud. She seems aggrieved.
With every passing year, as her fame and power grew, she appeared angrier and more brittle. Within a month of arriving in Washington, Ocasio-Cortez had amassed a larger social media presence than any member of Congress. As of Friday, she has 12.6 million Twitter followers, nearly twice as many as Nancy Pelosi, who has been doing this for half a century. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has one of the largest political megaphones on earth. But she wants more.
IS AOC ALL TALK, NO ACTION?
Ocasio-Cortez now insists that not only should she be able to speak totally unfiltered to millions, but that no one should be allowed to disagree with what she says. In February, her office sent a mass email to supporters asking them to report anyone who criticizes her to the tech monopolies for punishment.
"Scan your social media to find posts with misleading information," the email read, "use the built-in report feature to flag them for moderators."
What is this? It’s pretty straightforward, really. Here you have one of the most powerful politicians in the country using the most powerful companies in the world to censor her political opponents.