OPINION:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a socialist and therefore, has no place in U.S. government, no rightful role representing the Constitution, because socialism and a democratic-republic, such as America is, do not mix.
That being said: The young socialist nonetheless had a chance to shine, and she blew it.
She had an opportunity win some hearts and minds and political points, all the while overturning the perception she has a problem with facts and history and Jews — and she turned her socialist nose high into the air and said thanks, but no thanks.
What happened? She was invited by a Holocaust commemoration group to visit the Nazi concentration camps, and she flatly said no. For the most spurious of reasons. She saw the trip as a trick by “the far-right” — as yet another way the ideological right “manipulates these moments for political gain.”
Oh, geesh.
The “these moments” to which she referred was her wildly ridiculous labeling of President Donald Trump’s border detention policies as government-sanctioned concentration camps. Even Chuck Todd from NBC ripped her for that one.
“You can call our government’s detention of migrants many things,” Todd said during a recent broadcast. “It’s a stain on our nation maybe, a necessary evil to others, a deal with untenable situation perhaps. But do you know what you can’t call it?”
He then played a clip of Ocasio-Cortez saying, “The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border.”
Ridiculous, right?
Todd then tore into Ocasio-Cortez’s defenders — defenders that included a wave of blinded-by-the-lies types, both political and scholarly class — and he posed this question: “Are we really so ensconced in our political bubbles, liberal versus conservative, that we cannot talk about right versus wrong anymore? Some things are bigger than partisanship. Or at least they used to be.”
Excellent point.
Which circles back to Ocasio-Cortez and her missed opportunity to soothe and smooth and calm ruffled, angry feathers.
Jonny Daniels, founder of From The Depths, reached out to Ocasio-Cortez with a letter of invitation to travel to Germany and tour a real Nazi concentration camp with members of his group, and with a 93-year-old Auschwitz survivor named Edward Mosberg (a.k.a. Mausberg). This is what the group does; the invite was not an attack on Ocasio-Cortez.
“We at From The Depths have brought over 100 international parliamentarians to visit the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination camps, parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, including over 20 Representatives of the United States Congress, both Republicans and Democrats alike,” Daniels wrote, as The Daily Signal reported.
Ocasio-Cortez’s response?
Nope, not gonna go. And Rep. Steve King from Iowa can’t make me.
If only childish were the word that applied here.
King, hearing of the invite, tweeted to Ocasio-Cortez that he “went to Auschwitz & Birkenau with Eddie Mausberg & Jonny Daniels … and had a profound personal experience. ” King then recommended she “please accept their offer.”
Ocasio-Cortez could’ve gone high, but instead went snippy.
“The last time you went on this trip it was reported that you also met w/ fringe Austrian neo-Nazi groups to talk shop,” Ocasio-Cortez shot back. “So I’m going to have to decline your invite. But thank you for revealing to all how transparently the far-right manipulates these moments for political gain.”
Sadly, Ocasio-Cortez jumped the shark on this one.
First off, it was the Holocaust remembrance group, not King, doing the inviting. And second off, a good life principle is that when a chance to learn approaches — snag it. Don’t run.
The invitation to Ocasio-Cortez was to tour an area of grave, somber, tragic history, to glean a first-hand sense of the horrors of some of the darkest days of humanity — to see and smell and feel a moment in time that indeed, should never be repeated. To hear, first-hand, the lamentable story as it unfolded in the words of an actual survivor.
To then be equipped to tell and retell that story in a way few others in America — those without the means to travel — can and ever could.
But Ocasio-Cortez said no to that experience, to that opportunity to learn. Why? Because she smelled a political rat. For shame. Shameful.
Political rat or not, the education she would have received was real.
Ocasio-Cortez had a chance to experience the truth, and she chose, for petty politics, out of thin-skinned political-based fears, to stay sheltered and blind. Which is really not that surprising, given her politics. Isn’t that just the way of socialists, to close eyes to facts?
Regardless, she should’ve accepted the tour. Ocasio-Cortez had a chance to rise and even shine. Instead, she chose the path of trifling and cowardly. Yet more reasons she doesn’t belong in American politics.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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