On her European junket, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.-D) elicited chuckles over her comments on the arrest of Nicolás Maduro by means of a military incursion, mistakenly identifying Venezuela as “below the Equator.” The country lies entirely north of the dividing line between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
Was this her “Aleppo moment”?
Hardly. Darlings of the major parties get away with faux pas that minor party challengers cannot escape. (Remember in 2016, when Governor Gary Johnson, running as a Libertarian, spaced out on the Syrian city then in the news?)
Besides, AOC said (or didn’t say) worse.
Asked about China, she yammered interminably, very understanding of the “ascending global power … acting in its own self-interest” but not once mentioning the authoritarian, anti-democratic and generally tyrannical-exploitative nature of communist rule there.
Instead, Ocasio-Cortez castigated the United States for not “investing in science and technology” enough. A very left-Democrat thing to do, going on to characterize “privatized research” as not helping a country maintain global power status.
China does the internal improvements thing oh-so-much-better than the U.S., she insinuates.
But “would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops,” she was asked, “to defend Taiwan if China were to move?”
AOC stammered for 20 seconds. All that public investment in alternative energy is supposed to, somehow, prevent China from trying to nab Taiwan!
The U.S. should “make sure that we are moving,” she concluded, “to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.”
Can we retreat that quickly? It has arisen.
On the world stage, our Bronx savant is in her own very special hemisphere.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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