The New Face of the Democrats

by Mark Steyn
Tucker Carlson Tonight
November 20, 2018

https://www.steynonline.com/9026/the-new-face-of-the-democrats

It's a busy Tuesday for me on TV. I'm starting the day on the curvy couch with Steve, Ainsley and Brian at "Fox & Friends" just after 8am Eastern/5am Pacific - and closing it out with a full hour of grueling guest-hosting on "Tucker Carlson Tonight", across America at 8pm Eastern.

On Monday night Tucker and I talked over the Ocasio Cortez wave washing over the elderly Democrat lions in Congress. Click below to watch:

You can see the full episode of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" here.

~If you prefer me in non-visual formats, I'll be back later this evening for Mark Steyn Club members with a brand new episode of our latest Tale for Our Time - The Scarlet Pimpernel, set in the hell of France's Reign of Terror.

If you're not yet a member of The Mark Steyn Club, we'd love to have you. You can find more details about our audio adventures and other Club benefits here.

© 2019 Mark Steyn Enterprises (US) Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of Mark Steyn Enterprises.

If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club and you take issue with this article, then have at it in our comments section.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to steynonline's free weekly mailing list

Comment on this item

Submission of reader comments is restricted to Mark Steyn Club members only. If you are not yet a member, please click here to join. If you are already a member, please log in here:

Member Login

64 Reader Comments

Tal Bachman • Nov 21, 2018 at 13:51

My two cents:

There are two conflicts floating around in the Democratic Party miasma right now.

The first is Content versus No Content.

Ocasio-Cortez is in the Content Wing. She has lots of ideas, in other words.

Clinton is in the No Content Wing. Despite having run for president twice, she has never articulated any specific ideas, no policy proposals, at all. After all, "I'm entitled to this!" is not a "policy proposal". Nor is "I hate Donald Trump".

Which will win in the end: Content or No Content?

I think Content. Nature abhors a void, and so do most people. We prefer *any* proposed solution to a troubling problem, to no proposal at all.

And as Content begins to win out over No Content, the second conflict will become clear:

Absolutely Horrific Content (AHC) versus Only Slightly Less Horrific Content (OSLFC).

Ocasio-Cortez is the face of AHC. With only a few (accidental) exceptions (see "even a stopped clock is right twice a day"), she embodies every lethally idiotic idea of the past century. Their eventual cost? Massive human suffering.

Tim Ryan is the face of OSLHC. More of an old-time Democrat, he seems rooted in working-class economic issues. The campus crackpot identity politics wing, men having their penises removed and announcing they're now "women", etc., isn't really his thing.

So, question: If Content will eventually win out over No Content, which type of Content will win: Absolutely Horrific, or Only Slightly Less Horrific?

Answer: It doesn't matter, because one is an atomic bomb, and the other is creeping cancer. Both kill you - and the nation - in the end, just at different paces. And as a consequence, both must be rejected forever.

Paul G.

Tal Bachman • Nov 21, 2018 at 18:53

I would love to see a scenario develop where the Ocasio-Ortega/ Maxine Waters wing pushes the Pelosi/Hoyers to impeach Trump. In fact , it would be great if Trump starts goading Waters to introduce articles of impeachment as soon as the Democrats take power. That in itself would ratchet up the tension in the Dem caucus , as well as between Waters and the progressive base if she fails to come through. If the impeachment reaches a vote , the sooner the better; Republicans should vote for it to send it to a trial in the Senate , which Trump obviously can't lose . But discovery would be no holds barred and finally, finally give the country a look at the Obama machinations to subvert the constitution.

Kevin kilty • Nov 21, 2018 at 12:29

Last night I was planning to comment that government in general, and the Democrats in particular have a long history of first-rate ninnies being elected. Mencken for instance said that "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." Who has forgotten Ron Johnson's views on the buoyant stability of islands? So why should we get worked-up over a dimwit with a pretty face?

However, I had a look at her "New Green Deal". It represents not only vast dimwittedness, but also hubris possibly to the point of megalomania. What novice would make such grand, and potentially embarrassing, plans before even being admitted to the club? I mean other than, say, Chelsea?

Brian Buehler • Nov 21, 2018 at 01:33

As much as I don't like to use quotes of evil people, this may be one that the new young Dem socialists believe.

"A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past."
― Fidel Castro

This young Millennial base see themselves as the future of America and the old Dems and the Republican party as the past. Globalists also view themselves as the future and Nationalism as the past. A revolution is taking place as we speak. Not in terms of true warfare, but in a battle of ideologies. One deemed to be good and the other bad. One being welcoming and the other bigoted. One as the future and the other a relic of a bygone age that needs to be replaced. Just as the KKK are the ghosts of the Civil War that we can't escape to this day, similar ghosts will appear if they destroy our history and reshape our nation to their specifications. Fifty years from now, if they win, maybe they will be the ones that are despised by their youth? Hindsight is the great messenger of guilt.

Ray Winchester

Brian Buehler • Nov 21, 2018 at 11:05

Hi Brian, you are absolutely correct. I would like to see what the millennials are like once they have a couple more decades under their belt. When they are paying more tax and everything else.
Then maybe they will have their financial crisis where the super rich had the working man bailing them out.
Remember they are actually supporting the likes of Soros and Goldman Sachs in the globalist rubbish. Hypocrites !!

Randy Inlow • Nov 20, 2018 at 22:50

Hey Mark, You actually made Brit Hume guffaw .... as much as he can ... I saw his teeth ... that doesn't happen very often.

Timothy Hughes • Nov 20, 2018 at 18:59

As far as Ocasio-Cortez's grasp of the structure of U.S government and economics is concerned, ignorance is no excuse. But what is Boston University's excuse for granting her a degree?

Sol

Timothy Hughes • Nov 20, 2018 at 22:42

Unrelated specifically to Ocasio-Cortez, Mark and Victor Davis Hanson touched on this long-overdue subject on "Tucker Carlson Tonight".

Kevin kilty

Timothy Hughes • Nov 21, 2018 at 11:11

Because I am an "insider" in this problem, being a college professor, I can tell you we know nothing about what accommodations, explicit and implicit, she may have had working in her favor. I am instructed by our administration, in regard to particular students, that if they "feel" they have a disability, I am to provide accommodations designed by the most gullible and credulous persons on our campus--double time for exams taken in a location with no security regarding use of other persons or prohibited devices. A first rate dummy can do well in this environment.

Kate Smyth

Kevin kilty • Nov 21, 2018 at 20:37

This is everywhere now; it's infiltrating every imaginable field in an all-out assault on competence.

Bryan Hewson • Nov 20, 2018 at 18:10

Hi Kris Dray
If you're planning a trip to old blighty, I'll roll out the welcome carpet if you can make it to the last piece England holding a weloming to all our kith and kin of every shade of humanity, here in Northumberland.

My last customer today was a refugee Sri Lankan, born '86 so 4 years older than my Son, she came to the UK 10 years ago.
Turns out she and her husband now have a three year old boy born and raised in the land of Bede and Cuthbert.

Having worked in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh we had a great conversation about the way things are different but so much the same, wherever you find yourself

It's a very small world so Kris, please try and make the effort to come up to Northumberland, where we'll all make you welcome

Kris Dray

Bryan Hewson • Nov 20, 2018 at 20:53

Master Hewson,

That is a fine and gracious offer, and I would be honored to visit the cradle of Christianity in England and the home of the Marcher Lords and many fine castles. My children have many things planned for me, but if I can commandeer a car (hopefully an automatic this go round) or hop a train, it would be grand to hike the moors or take a drive through the highlands, if the weather cooperates. I have about a month, so anything is possible. Many thanks.

James Steiger • Nov 20, 2018 at 17:10

Ocasio-Cortez is a predictable product of an educational system that has
become utterly corrupt. A generation of professors who tried to challenge
students and graded with tough standards has now been replaced by
hordes of Deanlets, VPs for "diversity," "Women's Student Office" counselors,
fundraising groups, Athletic Department personnel, and
sessional instructors who can be fired instantly on a whim.

Despite the fact that arts college student rolls are now overwhelmingly female, there
are no initiatives to "correct the imbalance." There are no "Men's Student
Offices," apparently because the geniuses who inhabit "Gender Studies"
faculties can enumerate dozens of ways that women are hampered by
being female, but cannot imagine any disadvantage to being male.

Indeed, I well remember, attending my first NOW meeting in 1972 in Oklahoma City,
and after an hour or so discussing the many ways our society
hampered women at the time, the very bright and open-minded
female moderator asked the (mostly female) attendees to think
about the ways one is disadvantaged by being male.

The group grew silent. They couldn't think of a thing!

My wife was ready to respond, but I startled the group by reminding them that my "privilege"
as a man included being drafted into the U.S. Army and serving 3 years at
near slave wages. Actually, in a sense I was fortunate.
Around 50,000 men had been "really privileged" to
die in Viet Nam. Along with 15 or so women.

As the university system grew more corrupt, it needed to become more "consumer oriented."
The "improvements" were only superficial, but the impact of the corruption was devastating.

Administrator salaries were increasing exponentially (along with those of the
football coaches and Athletic Directors) while tenured faculty were being replaced with sessional instructors.
If students stopped coming, the whole system might collapse. (See Evergreen "University" in
Washington). To keep the consumers happy, the administrators forced lower grading standards AND put student
course evaluations online, thereby allowing students to openly terrorize faculty who
gave tough grades or embarrassed them when they slept in class or came utterly unprepared.
Many top schools began to sell themselves on the basis of extraordinarily plush dorms,
dining halls, and recreational facilities.

The fact that they were no longer being taught to think bothered only a few more gifted students.
The majority accepted their A transcripts happily, only to discover the sad truth AFTER graduation ---
$200,000 in debt AND a career at Starbucks!!

Ocasio-Cortez is the classic "no-nothing A student" who emerges from this kind of university.
She's attractive, "enthusiastic," and can, via substantial effort, memorize enough to get A's in
her courses. She can't think her way out of a paper bag, but in her "Facebook-Twitter-Instagram" cohort,
it doesn't matter. Compared to many of them, she's a genius.

Kevin kilty

James Steiger • Nov 20, 2018 at 19:28

Depressingly on target.

Babs from Cali

James Steiger • Nov 20, 2018 at 22:59

Thank you for your service, James. Much appreciated.

As for Ocasio-Cortez, she may have managed to fool her professors on homework and exams, but she can't fool the educated public. She obviously can't think on her feet, is trying to bluff her way around the media interviews (who largely let her off the hook, apparently), and is relying on her looks and big eyes to make herself seem intelligent, thoughtful and logical. The most frightening thing is that she managed to still get elected. How did that happen? Doesn't speak well for society in her state.

David Elstrom • Nov 20, 2018 at 15:30

Tucker was very generous calling Ocasio-Cortez's ridiculous comments "missteps." But with her political ideology founded on lies and proving its falsity with rivers of blood wherever it has been attempted, it's no surprise that she is a know-nothing. That's the only mentality that could still countenance socialism in the face of real life evidence.

Kate Smyth • Nov 20, 2018 at 13:41

Speaking of new faces... the beard is back!!!

Order has been restored. All is well.

Kris Dray

Kate Smyth • Nov 20, 2018 at 15:14

Yes, a bit of normalcy is welcome this holiday season as we anticipate the brave, new world.

In a similar vein, I will be spending the holidays in England this year. Do any of you Angles or Anglophiles have any suggestions on what to do in the land of Dickens, if you're a Yank who finds himself at loose ends? Suggestions from Saxons and Normans appreciated, too.

Kate Smyth

Kris Dray • Nov 20, 2018 at 19:59

Check out muslimhistorytours.com, which includes options of a Dickensian (albeit halal) flavour.

The "Bloomsbury Tour" has been "... dubbed the Victorian Muslim Tour due to the number of Victorian connections!" (3 sessions daily. Infidels welcome.)

Kris Dray

Kate Smyth • Nov 20, 2018 at 22:02

I am not sure how well a pale American of Irish ancestry and Catholic leanings would be received. Maybe, the children of Muhammed might find a renegade papist who worships with Baptists amusing, but somehow I doubt it. Already, my son has asked me to leave my Stetson at home when we visit the British Museum of Natural History in London...

I have conducted business with Muslims for two decades, so I hope I won't offend you if I pass on these interesting suggestions, Kate.

Best wishes.

Kate Smyth

Kris Dray • Nov 20, 2018 at 22:56

"... pale American of Irish ancestry and Catholic leanings." Heh- substitute 'Australian'. You'd have to go fully-bearded (and I burka'd).

Feeling a little feisty on this subject today, following the news that: "Australia's Grand Mufti and other Islamic leaders are boycotting a proposed roundtable meeting with the Prime Minister over his tough stance on Islamist terrorism after the Bourke Street attack." The fifth column grows bolder by the minute, despite the fact that three more jihadists were arrested in Melbourne yesterday (based on imminent plans for a high casualty shooting), having had their passports cancelled in early 2018 when they attempted to travel to Syria. As our brilliant host recently noted "... the Australian Government's policy is to keep all the jihadists at home so the only infidels they can kill are the locals." The only conclusion to be drawn, based on that policy and continued Muslim immigration, is that our political class is as indifferent to the murders of Australian citizens as the Grand Mufti and co.

Please feel free to share the tips, Kris. And don't forget the Churchill War Rooms on your trip (... unlikely to appeal to your business associates). Scotland - including Edinburgh, the Highlands and Islands - is a must, imo.

Kris Dray

Kate Smyth • Nov 21, 2018 at 11:22

Kate, I had not thought of the Churchill War Rooms, but the Scottish Highlands definitely call to me if the weather cooperates, maybe even if it doesn't and while I tend toward wild, empty places, castles and the history of Edinburgh definitely appeals. Hoping to return in the summer for a wedding and to meet my Irish relatives, but Christmas celebrations and holding my new grandson are priorities.

As for the other business, I grasp and concur with the feistiness. The people of the West have made many a mistake, but none perhaps so lethal as turning their back on God, and trusting their political leaders to have their best interests at heart. Far too many of our leaders have forgotten that to lead is to serve. They seek power, they seek control, and as Mark puts it, the rest of us had just better get with the program.

While it is not popular with many conservatives (we are a diverse lot, after all), I continue to hold to my belief that a resurgent nationalism may be all that saves the nations of the West. I have no faith in the survival instincts of the bureaucrats in Washington, DC or the EU. I will continue to hold strongly to belief in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, as any free soul should.

Best wishes, Happy Thanksgiving, and many thanks!

Kate Smyth

Kris Dray • Nov 21, 2018 at 20:34

"The people of the West have made many a mistake, but none perhaps so lethal as turning their back on God, and trusting their political leaders to have their best interests at heart."

Very succinctly and well-stated, Kris. As for the bureaucrats and their lack of survival instincts (paraphrasing you again) they just simply do not care, as they only seek power. In the case of jihadist attacks, it is sickening to watch the usual tawdry vigils and services after every attack, with politicians lining up to signal their phoney sorrow... as if there's no connection between Islamisation and Islamic terrorism! THEY (the political class) are part of the problem!

Yes, definitely try to get to the Highlands and Hebrides at some stage... all very accessible from Edinburgh, and perfect for a shortish trip with your family if time is limited.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P. Gao • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:36

Always enjoy the cheerful camaraderie!
As for lack of knowledge - the education industry loudly threw 'facts' out - many can remember that period of 'new' - they were going to teach students how to 'find' facts, but not be bothered with any of those pesky things during the school day. Maybe why young adults now don't have a sense of the value of facts. They never had to use them in their schoolbusywork. They also announced English was a hard language to learn, English spelling was mysteries on unfathomable mysteries, math was just hard and handwriting training took up too much time that could be spent on watching cartoon movies for history classes. As usual, with parents working two jobs each, most didn't pay much attention, only half-listening, assuming the result would be well within the parameters of they experienced at school. Nooo.
Modern U.S. Education is a money-raising scheme via a pretend service, apart from being enforced day care warehousing, which doesn't require knowledgeable teachers, but low-wage drones who have a tendency to be mean and get meaner. Just like every corrupt charity of today, Education gets the 'non-profit' tax breaks and aggressively fund-raises with photos of sad poor kids and weepy tales of low-paid employees. They get multi-million-dollar inputs and the employees get 50-cent raises, enough to keep the uneducated staff with no ambition, while forcing good people to leave for careers that actually pay the rent. Where'd the rest of the money go?
No point throwing another dime at any of them. Most need defunding. They spend a lot of that fund-raising on squashing competition from any naively enthusiastic persons who try to start new schools with actual teachers and reliable, credible academics. That scandal in Georgia? The award-winning schools were one big fraud of falsifying test scores. Just like the nonsense of no voter-ID, why are standardized tests all done in erasable pencil or in hackable computer programs?

Sol • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:24

As long as we recycle political terms from hundreds of years ago that have little bearing on the present age, Ocasio-Cortez could be considered founder of the "Know-Nothing Party".

BallBounces in PEI • Nov 20, 2018 at 11:56

Ocasio Cortez represents the triumphant elevation of postmodernism to the political arena. Socialized medicine is an obvious good because it feels good. Any differentiation of human beings based on biological reproductive realities is bad because it feels bad. Emotions trump motions (e.g., Kavanaugh confirmation) and feelings trump facts. Trump voters instinctively understand this and are in fact fighting to keep America on some kind of solid foundation.

BallBounces in PEI • Nov 20, 2018 at 11:43

"Drop out at fif..." I thought Mark was going to say America's college students should drop out at fifty...

John Shuba • Nov 20, 2018 at 10:44

For years now the Democrats have run their party for the actual benefit of elite white liberals. They have done this by compartmentalizing the citizenry into various tightly-defined identity groups based on race, genders, "sexual orientation, ethnicity etc. We all know that. The leadership of the party was (is) a two-tier system. At the top you have the white liberals described by Mark and Tucker - The Pelosi's,Warrens, Bidens, Clintons, Kerrys,, Schumers' etc. Just below them is a layer of (in need of a better term)"Identity Group Leaders." These are black, Latino, Muslim, and other politicians (such as those in the Black Congressional Caucus) who are responsible for keeping "their people in line" and who, in exchange, are allowed to carve out political fiefdoms of power over the groups or issues for which they "identify." Once again the principal beneficiaries of this system are white liberals. .

The "Identity Group Coordinators" keep "their people" walking the straight and narrow principally through fomenting and creating race and ethnic hatred where none actually exists. Take Maxine Waters for instance - She is obviously a horrible human being and a mindless hack. I can't think of anything positive that she has contributed to political life.. Yet she is a valued Democrat because she is black and is adept at,stoking the fires of psychotic rage ("Trump and his KKK buddies are going to put y'all back into slavery") and "keeping her troops in line." She offers nothing but paranoia and a lunatic hatred but for this she is valued because she helps maintain the monolithic hold Democrats have in California.

It may be possible that this two-tier "command system" is breaking down. Having talked in cheap "quasi-revolutionary" language for so long it was inevitable that someone like Ocasio Cortez would come along. Her elevation is not due to her ideas (she has none) but rather because white liberal Joe Cowley slipped up and took his constituency for granted during the primary season. (Also, her constituency is in New York City where she is well-poised to become a media darling.) If Hillary Clinton decides to mount a 2020 presidential run it should prove to be highly interesting. Somebody in the Democratic Party itself is going to villify her as a "Clapped out old White Woman" who does not speak for the Ocasio Cortez's of the party and then all hell will break lose. 1968 redux perhaps?

Rich • Nov 20, 2018 at 10:34

Not sure what the lot will think of this opinion, but I'd prefer if conservative media were a bit friendlier and more indifferent to AOC. We live in a celebrity culture where both political parties, particularly the left, make their politicians idols; by always knocking Cortez for butchering her words, displaying off-putting photos of her and so on, it will only serve to drive people to her defense. Think the inverse of Trump with the major news networks. I'm not defending her ideas - politically, I'm sure she's dumber than a bag of hammers on her best day - but I think it's okay to laugh at the weaknesses of your sparring partner. Hit her on the merits, don't waste time on the mat.

Walt Trimmer

Rich • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:18

OK, I'm sorry but what does the acronym AOC mean in your context?

Chris Hall

Walt Trimmer • Nov 20, 2018 at 13:34

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, or one of the substitute nickname acronyms floating about.

Nicholas Strathy

Chris Hall • Nov 20, 2018 at 14:27

Any relation to the Cortez who famously expunged multiple South American cultures in quest for free gold at the behest of the Spanish government? I only mention it because racial minorities soon to be majorities, are so enamored of claiming their ethnicity. Of course she may have come on her quest for free gold entirely without the influence of any tradition passed on by forebears.

In any case, it's obviously a crackpot racist notion to suggest that any behaviors and traditions are passed down from one generation of a particular culture to another since everyone knows that children learn nothing from either their parents or their surrounding culture.

Marco Rubio said it excellently well the other week on Tucker's show that American nationalism is not based on race but on the postulate that all people are created equal before God. America cultivates a shared common culture the Christian principles of which were written down in the constitution for all citizens to adopt and assimilate to.

Andrew A

Nicholas Strathy • Nov 20, 2018 at 17:10

Famously expunged multiple South American cultures? Not according to one of his soldiers, Bernal Díaz del Castillo's who wrote "Discovery and Conquest of Mexico". What Cortés did was unite tributary indigenous peoples against a despotic and murderous Aztec central empire, and then win.

I seriously doubt that she is related to Hernan Cortés.

Matthew McWilliams • Nov 20, 2018 at 10:19

It seems that the long predicted future is finally here. As I travel around the country I am encountering more and more young people who simply don't know anything. It seems like a broad statement to make, but I mean it. There are legions of millennials who don't know anything at all beyond the social markers created by the Left's identity politics. Now they're starting to elect each other to Congress.

I am reminded of an old Dilbert cartoon in which Dilbert asks Dogbert if love is the most powerful force in the Universe. Dogbert responds, "No. Stupidity, followed by its close cousin ignorance."

Just so, the country that tamed a continent, defeated Fascism and Communism, and put a man on the moon will be laid low by the stupidity and ignorance of its own citizens.

Walt Trimmer

Matthew McWilliams • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:20

The old saying was that you are only one generation away from losing your freedom. We looking at that in the rear view mirror.

Kris Dray

Matthew McWilliams • Nov 20, 2018 at 15:03

Didn't I hear just recently that some 24M younger Americans surveyed responded favorably to socialism over capitalism? If you can't fix stupid, what do you do with it?

I admit I am a bit jaded about politics, but anyone who doesn't shudder at the likes of President O'Rourke and Commerce Secretary Ocasio-Cortez really does need a scholarship to Reeducation Camp.

Roy A Crocker

Matthew McWilliams • Nov 20, 2018 at 16:00

Indeed Matthew - but it's more than mere stupidity and ignorance. Social media and the collective addiction to our electronic devices adds the new element of a troubling and ever increasing trend of virtual disconnection from the real world to a 'virtual reality world' in which 'you' become the center of this largely imaginary and totally meaningless existence. An apathetic and ill informed electorate becomes easy prey for 'pie in the sky' political beliefs such as socialism. The old democratic party used to dance around this issue. Hillary Clinton in a rare moment of honesty following her defeat admitted that her defense of capitalism cost her many votes among the progressive young in the party. Now they are running the party and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the new prototype of the young progressive democrat. We love to ridicule this lovely beauty (her stunning looks are a huge asset) for her ignorance but this totally misses her appeal to young voters. Given that the far left controls most of our educational system and the ever more powerful social media giants along with 95% of the main stream media and entertainment industry it's hard for me to challenge your very pessimistic final paragraph.

PK33 • Nov 20, 2018 at 09:55

Don't look now, but fresh off the loss to Ted Cruz in Texas, "Beto" O'Rourke (Robert Francis to anyone who is not Hispanic) is working overtime on his 2020 presidential primary candidacy as the face of the Democratic party. I've seen seven different articles since Friday on this topic. It doesn't seem to bother the Dems that O'Rourke was arrested on burglary and DWI charges in the 1990's. Apparently it is fine to go back to the 1980's and high school days when considering Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, but going back to the 1990's for a potential presidential candidate is too far because those terrible "Republicans want to use O'Rourke's criminal past against him."

The hypocrisy is astounding, I don't know why I'm still surprised.

Brian Buehler

PK33 • Nov 20, 2018 at 10:13

Beto's presidency as all of the other Democratic nominees will be shut down by Hillary just like she shut down Bernie. Will she get away with it with minority candidates? Yes, turns out she came from the same tribe as Warren and has the same percentage of Cherokee as Warren does. But to prove it, she needs samples from the caravan to test them to see if she is related.

chickensoup • Nov 20, 2018 at 08:55

Ocasio-Cortez

New and more fitting name:

Occasional-Cortical-Activity

Clark Jerrell

chickensoup • Nov 20, 2018 at 10:51

I just call her "Occasional-Cortex". I cannot claim to have thought of it, but danged if it doesn't fit her.

Chris Hall • Nov 20, 2018 at 08:45

I just heard Mark's stint on the curvy couch and I absolutely LOVE the term "Canuckaphobia". I've been suffering from this since moving to the States in the early 90's. I'm terribly oppressed because I happen to know that what Americans call "Canadian bacon" is neither Canadian nor bacon! I also understand curling and 12 man football!

Maybe I can get Canuckosity registered as an official diversity group. We're still waiting for "right wing nut job" to clear through the bureaucracy and it's receiving a lot of push back.

BallBounces in PEI

Chris Hall • Nov 20, 2018 at 11:46

Yes, "Canadian bacon" is an imponderable mystery. I suspect it's a cheap knock-off of peameal.

Chris Hall

BallBounces in PEI • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:19

Sadly, it's not even that. It's low grade ham pieces extruded into a large cellulose sausage casing and then sliced. Shudder. We make our own back bacon at home. It's virtually impossible to get in the States, yet it's wonderfully delicious.

Walt Trimmer

BallBounces in PEI • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:29

It's processed moose meat.

BallBounces in PEI

Chris Hall • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:37

You're right -- so, could it be called a cheap knock-off of back bacon, then? I mean, it's trying to be something; it just fails on every level -- well, it could probably pass as a slice of ham...

Chris Hall

BallBounces in PEI • Nov 20, 2018 at 13:37

Well, it's sort of a cheap knock-off of a slice of ham. How about that? It has not even a smidgen of resemblance to the noble back bacon, IMHO, but YMMV.

BallBounces in PEI

Chris Hall • Nov 20, 2018 at 14:02

Dude, you nailed it. "Canadian bacon" is actually "American ham".

Fran Lavery

Chris Hall • Nov 21, 2018 at 08:12

Don't sweat the small stuff, you've got great thinkers, opiners, conedians and musicians coming from Canada. What more do you need? Oh, and beer! I like that amber beer out of Calgary. First beer I ever had that left no funny aftertaste. As soon as I left Alberta in July I began to search that one out in our local shops. Not an exported beer:( If you can get them to export it to New Mexico, i'll sign up to be the New Mexico sole distributor. I could use a side income flow to support my animal rescue work.

David Coats • Nov 20, 2018 at 08:32

The Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democrat party won't just say to its elderly white leadership, 'hey, we'd like a piece of the action'. They will simply and ruthlessly kill the old codgers and take it. And then they will do the same thing with the Republicans. And, ultimately, they will attempt the same thing with the Constitution and the 'three chambers of government' unless the ignorant lemmings they transfixed with their siren calls of social justice and democrat socialism wake up out of their trance in time to see what's happening.

Tom

David Coats • Nov 20, 2018 at 09:33

They aren't going to wake up, but people not on board with their agenda are going to have to resist with all we have.

David Coats

Tom • Nov 20, 2018 at 10:31

Agree. And true.

Denyse O'Leary • Nov 20, 2018 at 08:21

The most significant point Tucker and Mark raise is the fact that millions of Democrats do not care whether Ocasio-Cortes understands matters clearly or not. But why should they? She is there to make over more public goods to them for free. And she will be judged on that basis.

Americans ought to be grateful that the situation is made so clear to them.

I assume that Biden, Pelosi, and Feinstein actually want a stable political system. But whether they do or not, they are always under the obligation to pretend to. For legions of unattached, unemployed, ignorant, and aggrieved Millennials, stability is simply a reminder that the world continues to belong to people with real skills, character, relationships, property, credit, etc. - people with something to offer the world besides a kick in the face.

Smashing THAT system is their goal. If they can't yet smash Republicans and people who probably vote Republican, they will smash Democrats who are spokespeople for employed and employable Democrats. As one author put it, "Kill all Normies."

Republicans had better enjoy the show because, in the next scene, it will be they, not Pelosi, who are the targets.

Tom • Nov 20, 2018 at 08:13

So much of the current state of politics in the Democrat Party is, in part, because the party is populated by childless white women. I know a lot of these ladies; my parents were very liberal and I went to a extremely liberal college and voted Democrat for years. They are a sad lot, and they channel all that energy that would be dedicated to their children in to concern for everyone and everything else in the abstract; the environment, animals, poor people a long way away, plus other causes. They really are excited by the election of non-white people in a way that is telling. They are as race aware as any Democrats of the past, but in an upside down way. So, it doesn't matter if Ms. Cortez knows anything; it only matters that she's there to punish and oppose. They have no real plans for governing, but that isn't the dynamic in play.

David Coats

Tom • Nov 20, 2018 at 11:01

Agree, although I know far too many well adjusted, highly intelligent, married-with-children-and-grandchildren, Leftist soldiers who should know better but are completely brainwashed.

The Left's objective has always been to deconstruct and take power from the pillars that have enabled our unique American Exceptionalism - Christianity, Family, Constitution. Their excuse is that those pillars are a failure because they haven't produced perfection or prevented moments of evil. That's because Leftists are humanists and thus blind to mankind's innate and fatal flaws. These pillars largely keep these flaws in check because they are continuously engaged in battle. But the metrics show the Left is slowly but surely gaining ground in their war on each of these pillars.

As you say, they don't think beyond the deconstruction, except for the elite Left who have their eyes focused like laser beams on the spoils. Hillary is way ahead of the elite Left's curve in that regard, although I believe she worships the spoils far more than Leftist ideology which for her has become merely a means to an end.

Tom

David Coats • Nov 20, 2018 at 12:39

Agreed, and very well put. I've noted that for many of these ladies, they had abortions, and if they've had a bit to drink, and you listen carefully, they'll let it leak out; they are regretful. They know what they did. "That child would be 32 now..." they'll say. It's sad. Thanks God I turned my ship before it was too late. For women, they have to turn sooner, or it will be too late a lot sooner. Getting them to vote differently is really impossible.

Josh • Nov 20, 2018 at 08:04

"Cortez was elected despite having very little knowledge (of government)".
I believe that would qualify for one of James Taranto's (late of Best of the Web Today on WSJ online) "Fox Butterfield, Is That You?" headings. Not "despite"; but "because of" or "due to" or "for no other reason than". In another context, the late Republican Senator, Roman Hruska defended the allegedly "mediocre" nominee for the Supreme Court, Harrold Carswell, thusly: "Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they?" The bubble-headed barmaid speaks not for herself, but for a constituency that knows nothing of what we used to call "Civics", and cares even less. Freshmen Congressmen (Freshperson Congresspersons?) are not inaugurated, and our legislative branch is not tricameral. Big whoop, they might say, what about free stuff? In Congress, she represents but a few neighborhoods of The Bronx and Queens, but in the hearts and minds of her soulmates--not just Millennials, but those old enough and educated enough to know better--she represents their most closely-held beliefs. We can argue--collegially, constructively--how we got here, but here we are. I, for one, welcome our bubble-headed barmaid overlord (overlady?). I live in Massachusetts; I know how much worse it could be.

Nicholas Strathy

Josh • Nov 20, 2018 at 11:43

Good one re because-of vs in-spite-of. Education in STEM is more likely to produce a brain susceptible to rational thought compared to many of the more nebulous social science streams or even the ever popular law school stream. The rise of China in our day was driven by STEM technocrats. Netanyahu continues pragmatically leading Israel with a brain trained by obtaining an MS from MIT. Germany also leads Europe under Merkel, a quantum chemist. However, the latter example proves that a brain trained in rational thought is not therefore guaranteed to behave rationally. I presume that German generational war guilt is a primary force that overrides reason by willy-nilly welcoming into Germany millions of refugees who are statistically guaranteed to contain not just a few assimilation-resistant individuals but actual terrorists.

In China we see how prosperity shot up under the guidance of just a couple of generations of technocrats compared to the disaster of being led by the poet Mao. Of course bare reason is not the silver bullet solution to governing the affairs of incorrigible human beings of which we are all exemplars.

Kathy Shaidle • Nov 20, 2018 at 07:56

I don't have a university degree either. Neither does Adam Carolla (he barely finished high school) yet he ate Tucker's lunch in a recent interview, without even meaning to :-)

Richard Vinas/TX

Kathy Shaidle • Nov 20, 2018 at 11:35

I would put all of you in the "constantly curious autodidact with tremendous intelligence" category. As an aside, I am using my GI Bill to get a Master's Degree and am constantly surprised at how little the 30-40 year olds in my classes have actually absorbed in their lifetime.

Kathy Shaidle

Richard Vinas/TX • Nov 20, 2018 at 19:21

Yes isn't that odd? I don't know how people don't simply accrue basic information like lint as they pass through life. Never mind school: Even if all you have is a TV, how do you not happen upon nuggets of history, science etc??

Babs from Cali

Kathy Shaidle • Nov 20, 2018 at 23:39

While I have enough college credits to get a degree, I don't have one because I chose to merely take the classes I wanted (art), not the ones I was supposed to take. All my siblings have degrees, and two of them have Masters, yet I've been far more financially successful than all of them (not to brag, but just a fact).

A college education is not the be-all end-all solution to success in the real world for everyone. So I agree with you below, Kathy. I've learned from the school of hard knocks and five businesses, the school of seminars, the school of books and the school of copying what works for others. I know how to apply what I learn and see. I use my common sense. I ask questions. I test things out. I adapt. So I have little empathy for those who just can't figure things out on their own over time.

Thankfully I had a great high school education in a foreign country that wasn't liberal based. But I had a very liberal professor in 2015 who indoctrinated students all semester; I was the lone conservative voice and thorn in her side. My 20-35 year old classmates were bereft of their voices. Truly sad.

Fran Lavery

Kathy Shaidle • Nov 21, 2018 at 07:53

"I don't know how people don't simply accrue basic information like lint as they pass through life," has to be one of the funniest yet thought-provoking observations that I've heard in some time. Thank you, Kathy. I find lint clings mostly to the genuine fibers and wool blends and one can't get rid of it without heavy duty scotch tape and a lot of it. It's not so big a problem on synthetics and slippery fabric. Today's educational system has churned out a whole load of synthetics and slippery people. I love, though, how they can be picked up on the dumb and/or disingenuous radar screen almost as soon as they start speaking. It does help when we go to sort them out. This gives me a new way of looking at people: how do they stack up on the lint test? Few will know what I mean but it'll make sense to me.

Kris Dray • Nov 20, 2018 at 07:25

Ocasio-Cortez: evil genius or idiot-savant? Not to pick on the poor lass, but it's as if the entire Democrat electorate is now required to drink bottled water from Flint, Michigan exclusively. I bet the 10-term Dem who was primaried by this girl must feel really good about himself about now.