A Big Parade

Conservatives are wrong to be focusing on Ocasio-Cortez. She is not what is worrisome.  To paraphrase an old columnist, she is only the majorette twirling a baton as she struts  in front of the marching band while the parade was planned and the music selected by someone else.  The thing to worry about is that  some people who make the decisions for the American left and  the traditional media now want this particular parade.

It does not matter that the Democrats’ next nominee for president probably will not campaign on killing all beef cattle and dairy cows in the country, banning air travel, and partially or completely demolishing all buildings in the country (though several supposed serious candidates of theirs have endorsed a plan demanding these thing among others).  Neither does it matter that a Soviet-style direct expropriation of people’s property via a so-called wealth tax is not likely  either.  What does matter is that many of the American leftists who count now feel safe to drop pretense and  demand that level of power openly. 

They’ve wanted it all along, but with a few infrequent  exceptions such as the McGovern campaign most of them kept it mainly to themselves because they knew Americans would not go for it.  For many of them that fear is now gone, and that is something for the rest of us to take seriously and deal with instead of fretting distractedly over the twirlers.