OPINION:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez serves a constituency that’s been among the most consistently clamped in the nation when it comes to civil rights, civil liberties and civil freedoms, due to political power-grabs based on drummed-up COVID-19 fears.
But does she hold herself to these same strict anti-constitutional crackdowns? Nope.
Not fully.
When it comes time for Ocasio-Cortez to vacation, she heads straight to Florida, the very state run by the very governor that leftists have spent so many, very many, months and weeks and days complaining has done the irresponsible COVID-19 thing by keeping open and bucking federal mandates.
That Ocasio-Cortez has defended federal coronavirus-tied mandates and attacked conservatives who’ve not, yet taken full advantage of mask-free, mandate-free Florida for a quick vacation with her boyfriend shows all that’s wrong with the Democrat Party in general and socialists and socialism in specific.
From Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter account in March, when Texas announced an end to its mask mandate — this: “93.2% of Texans aren’t fully vaccinated. The state just endured one disaster worsened by selfishness + denial of basic science, and now conditions are being set for another. Repealing the mask mandate now endangers so many people, especially essential workers & the vulnerable.”
Fast-forward a few months and her standards — at least for herself — seem to have shifted.
“AOC pictured dining massless in Miami Beach as Omicron cases soar,” The New York Post wrote a few days ago.
“AOC caught massless again in Miami drag bar as Omicron cases skyrocket,” The New York Post wrote a few hours ago.
“AOC is spotted partying maskless at a crowded drag bar during Miami vacation,” The Daily Mail wrote, also a few hours ago.
It’s like this: Pick a side.
Either the masks work, or the masks don’t work. Either social distancing works, or social distancing doesn’t work. Either vaccinations work, or vaccinations don’t work — and if they work, then masks and social distancing aren’t necessary.
The problem with the two years of coronavirus clampdowns that have been fueled by far-leftist frenzied grabs at power is that the standards for the citizens seem oh, so different from the standards these leftists hold for themselves.
There was that time California’s Gavin Newsom partied inside with a group of non-social distancing and maskless political supporters, all the while the rest of the state was told to stay off the beach.
There was that time San Francisco Mayor London Breed whooped it up at the Black Cat nightclub, all the while telling the minion voting class to “stop the spread of COVID-19” by “wearing a mask, keeping your distance from others, not gathering with people outside your household.”
There was the time Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser traveled to Delaware for a post-election congratulatory party for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ wins, all the while ordering her city’s residents to wear masks, indoors and out, vaccinated or not.
The list goes on.
Democrats are known for their hypocrisies, their “do as I say, not as I do” attitudes, their elitist views, their condescending manners.
But Ocasio-Cortez, proud, loud socialist as she is, brings the hubris to a whole new level.
When outed for her hypocrisy, Ocasio-Cortez turned and attacked the Republican Party as filled with obsessive men suffering “sexual frustrations.” Certainly, that’s one of her more stupid remarks. But what it truly indicates is the depth of evil that marks all of socialism.
Socialists, historically speaking, not only dodge the poverty and misery they themselves inflict.
They sidestep any and all accountability by launching massive attacks against their accusers. And, they attack while all the while truly believing — truly! — they are righteous because they are the victims.
Ocasio-Cortez is a textbook example of why socialism is always, at its root, one big lie. Hypocrisy, elitism, arrogance, misplaced self-righteousness, self-pitying pettiness, and more lies — these are all the marks of that beast called socialism. And America would do well to give all socialists the boot from public service. They do not belong in a country with a Constitution and in a nation where individual rights come from God, not government.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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