Running for reelection in 2012, then-President Barack Obama stated at a rally in Roanoke, Virginia, what was the mantra of the Democratic Party at the time regarding the creation of a successful economy: “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
For many Democrats in 2012 and during the course of the Obama presidency, that somebody else was the not-so-invisible hand of the government, ready to pick winners and losers in the economy; be it working to regulate the oil shale revolution out of existence that would have made America energy-independent, filing one federal lawsuit after another against the coal industry that is the life blood of many Midwestern states, and pouring money down the drain on the Solyndras of the world and other government pet projects that would only work on the drawing boards of Washington, D.C., regulators.
Still, the emphasis was a begrudging acceptance of private sector success. “You built a factory out there? Good for you….” (Elizabeth Warren, August 2011), a backhanded compliment toward the free market, with the standard, tax-and-spend, “spread the wealth around.”
No more.
In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress, the first person to win her first election to Congress from New York as an out-in-the-open socialist since 1914. It was a long drought, but it ended in a torrential flood, as the missives and policy proposals that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has taken can attest. It is said that you can recognize a person by the company he or she keeps, and as a member of Congress few people are more important company to keep than your senior counsel and policy advisor.
Enter Dan Riffle, a veteran Capitol Hill staffer and attorney who served Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and coined the term, “Every billionaire is a policy failure.” You have to respect his honesty. He has hoisted the banner to the top of his Twitter page. The modern Democratic Party is no longer about taxing and spending. It’s about telling Americans who want to succeed in our free market economy that there is a ceiling. Do you want to start a successful business that can cure diseases and make a lot of money in the process? You don’t need that money. Do you want to work on ending the obesity crisis and have your company listed on the stock market? You don’t need that company. Do you want to have quality health care and keep your own doctor if you want to? You don’t need that doctor.
Respect the honesty and understand the agenda. Get out to vote.
Vlad Ghenciu
Porter Ranch
