AOC: Conquistador-American

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman to serve in Congress and the most influential freshman. She’s also the most extreme nationalist. Unfortunately, her nationalism has nothing to do with the country she ostensibly serves. Her media prominence and the rise of the Democratic Socialist caucus show that racial identity, nationalism, or even imperialism are acceptable in the United States — so long as they make victims of whites.

In a recent speech, Miss Ocasio-Cortez attacked ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which more and more Democrats say should be abolished. After declaring “human mobility” a “right,” she argued that Hispanics should be exempt from immigration laws on racial grounds. “Because we are standing on native land and Latino people are descendants of native people,” she said, “and we cannot be told [sic] and criminalized simply for our identity and our status. Period.” Needless to say, she pronounced the word “Latino” with a fashionable Hispanic accent.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Representative Ilhan Omar prior to a press conference calling for an end to immigrant detentions on February 7, 2019. Credit: Alex Edelman / CNP (Credit Image: © Alex Edelman/CNP via ZUMA Wire)

By calling all of America “native” land, she casually delegitimized the creation of the United States. This isn’t surprising coming from a “progressive,” but it sounds off key from someone named “Cortes.” Many Hispanics are descended from the original colonizers.

Of course, the former “Sandy” Ocasio-Cortez has a habit of shifting her identity for political reasons. She rebranded herself “Alex from the Bronx” despite growing up in a 90-percent white neighborhood, and ran a primary race that seemed to her opponent so race-based that he complained, “I can’t help being born white.”

After her election to Congress, in another identity shift, Miss Ocasio-Cortez said she was descended from Sephardic Jews who fled the Spanish inquisition and practiced Judaism secretly in Puerto Rico. It’s not clear how this makes her a “native,” nor is it evident how the Powhatans or Cherokee benefit from having Puerto Ricans immigrate to “native” land.

However, “AOC’s” posturing is not unusual for Hispanics. Though Hispanics once organized to be considered whites under American law, it is now politically advantageous to claim to be “natives.” The Aztlán myth is a powerful symbol of Hispanic identity, but even this strange tradition has nothing to do with Puerto Rico. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s claim of indigenous ancestry is about as plausible as Senator Elizabeth Warren’s.

Still, she said something even more eye-opening than that she is an Indian. In a speech meant to justify abolishing ICE, she said this: “We are a nation and land of laws. Not just some people are subject to laws and others are not.” Yet she was specifically exempting Hispanics from immigration laws. People who promote illegal immigration appear to want to exempt all foreigners from American law.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s priorities are skewed. Last week, an MS-13 member murdered a rival gang member in broad daylight on a New York City subway platform. The suspect, Ramiro Gutierrez, had previous arrests and is an illegal immigrant.

The murder took place in Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s district, just a few days after she said ICE “doesn’t deserve a dime.” If the murder victim had been treated roughly by police or smiled at by a white teenager in a MAGA hat, no doubt “AOC” would have called another press conference, but murders by illegal-immigrant gang members can’t be used to extract concessions from whites.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does not identity with the nation for which she is a legislator, nor with the Constitution she was sworn to defend. Given her mixed background, her sole loyalty appears to be to everything and anything non-white. She is just the beginning. Changing demographics will put more resentful non-whites into office. For how long will whites continue to be civic nationalists while no one else is?