OPINION:
Newly elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is seeking to fill 13 slots in her soon-to-be congressional office and has sent out an ad for interested applicants to apply.
Might I suggest an historian?
After all, with tweets like the one she just penned, comparing the migrant caravaners to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, surely someone with solid historical sense could lend a frequent office hand.
“Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime,” Ocasio-Cortez just tweeted. “It wasn’t for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn’t for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn’t for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn’t for those fleeing violence in Central America.”
Sigh.
This certainly isn’t Ocasio-Cortez’s only history-related gaffe.
The self-declared socialist — a gaffe-and-a-half in itself, given America’s founding in democratic-republicanism and limited constitutional governance — recently spoke of the “three chambers of Congress” and the “three chambers of government” as the “presidency, the Senate and the House.”
But comparing these economically deprived migrants from points south to the persecution, gassing and murder of Jews by the minions of evil during Adolf Hitler’s reign seems off-the-chart, well, ignorant.
The congresswoman just put out an ad for passionate and creative types to fill the shoes of a deputy chief of staff, legislative director, district press secretary, digital content manager, scheduler, staff assistant, district director, caseworker, community organizer, financial administrator and intern.
A historian who could brief Ocasio-Cortez on basic civics and catch her gaffes before they get to print could prove worthwhile, too.
Sure, the online job description says the congresswoman wants people who frequently think “against the grain,” Newsweek reported. But that creativity shouldn’t extend to “against the truth.”
Some historical facts — like the atrocities committed by Nazis against the Jews — just shouldn’t be glossed and watered and used as moral comparatives for sloppy and skewed political points.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.