Ocasio-Cortez as Lipstick on a Pig

George Will's latest column argues that, at least in one respect, there is little to be excited about -- regardless of one's political orientation -- by the recent primary victory of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. His closing paragraph offers a good summary of his position:

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Today's American socialists say that our government has become the handmaiden of rapacious factions and entrenched elites, and that there should be much more government. They are half-right. To be fair, they also say that after America gets "on the right side of history" (an updated version of after "the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"), government will be truly disinterested, manipulated by no rent-seeking factions, serving only justice. That is, government will be altogether different than it is, or ever has been. Seriously.

That good news, such as it is, offers cold comfort when one realizes that -- as Will correctly indicates -- we are well on the way to socialism. Worse, those who want us further down that road to ruin are in fashion, and aren't listening to the likes of Will, or to legions of conservatives who correctly argue that socialism will fail (again!) to lead us to prosperity. And neither are too many people who haven't considered the question deeply.

That last fact should alarm conservatives, but, strangely, it doesn't seem to. Many seem oddly content with smirking at how "unthinking and unobservant" Ocasio-Cortez or her supporters seem to be. Yes. Socialism is a pig and Ocasio-Cortez is just the lipstick Bernie Sanders and his ilk have been looking for. But our benighted youth were ready to accept that pig, anyway. That fact is nearly as alarming as the lack of solid opposition from the right.

-- CAV