SouthernWorldwide.com – Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, is increasingly being characterized as a fabricator of tales, drawing comparisons to the ancient fabulist Aesop.
Recently, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that the existence of true billionaires is a capitalist myth, stating, “you can’t earn a billion dollars.” However, her most significant fictional claim may be her assertion that the Founding Fathers opposed billionaires and would today align with her and other socialists in advocating for their eradication.
Bertrand Russell once observed that there is a certain weakness and a degree of contemptibility in individuals who cannot confront life’s challenges without the crutch of comforting myths.
The American left has long perpetuated such “comfortable myths,” including the notion that the wealthy are “not paying their fair share” of taxes. In reality, the top 1% of income earners contribute over 40% of federal taxes, a figure that rises to 70% for the top 10%.
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Ocasio-Cortez has, however, emerged as a modern-day Homer for the liberal movement, renowned for her ability to spin collectivist narratives. What is particularly striking is her signature style of weaving a myth within a myth: “You can’t earn that, right? And so you have to create a myth … you have to create a myth of earning it.”
During a discussion at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, Ocasio-Cortez presented a revisionist interpretation of the Founders, portraying them, surprisingly, as nascent anti-capitalists.
“I want to talk about how this is in the heritage of our country, because America was founded … you look at Thomas Jefferson writing to Madison in revolt of British aristocracy. The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time. And we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and power and the state that the voices of everyday people did not exist.”
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In my recent book, “Rage and the Republic,” I delve into the economic philosophy of the Founders as I explore the history and future of this unique republic.
While Ocasio-Cortez references our upcoming 250th anniversary, she overlooks the fact that it also marks the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s seminal work, “The Wealth of Nations.” Smith’s free-market theories were immediately embraced by the founding generation. These individuals had just spearheaded the first major Enlightenment Revolution, founded on the principle of natural rights bestowed by God, not by governments.
Yet, they understood that true individual liberty could not be fully realized without economic freedom. Smith’s economic theory served as the perfect complement to their political ideology.
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The fusion of American democratic principles and free-market economics resulted in the world’s most enduring and successful democracy. In “Rage and the Republic,” I examine the threats facing this republic, including those posed by figures like Ocasio-Cortez, who propagate socialist myths. The book advocates for a renewed commitment to what I term a “liberty-enhancing economy.”
This is precisely why Ocasio-Cortez’s particular myth was so jarring. The Founders were staunch proponents of capitalism and the free market. They were not engaged in a struggle against “the billionaires of their time” over their accumulated wealth. Many of the Founders were themselves quite affluent, including the financier Robert Morris Jr., famously known as the “Financier of the Revolution.”
When adjusted for inflation and current economic rates, Morris would be considered a billionaire today.
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The Founders believed in fostering an environment where everyone had the potential to become a Morris. Their fight was against the government’s appropriation or seizure of property. At the forefront of their stated objectives for the American Revolution were the ideals of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This phrase was largely borrowed from John Locke’s concept of “life, liberty, and property.” Locke posited that property was a natural right, originating from what God had left “in common” for humanity. Existing prior to any government, it was a right inherent to human beings by divine endowment. This hardly represents an enthusiastic endorsement of socialist ideals or, as Zohran Mamdani described it, the “warmth of collectivism.”
George Mason drew heavily from Locke in drafting the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Jefferson then extensively utilized. Mason articulated the importance of “the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
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It is worth noting that the reference to property was altered to happiness in the Declaration of Independence, reflecting the more transcendent values held by these Enlightenment thinkers.
Although condensed to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” in the Declaration, the original concept of property rights was preserved in the Fifth Amendment and later in the Fourteenth Amendment, safeguarding citizens from being “deprived of life, liberty, or property.”
In his 1792 essay titled “Property,” Madison echoed Lockean principles, asserting that effective governance “secures to every man whatever is his own.”
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The recent trend of myth-making on the left is intended to revitalize what I have previously termed “economic factionalism,” aiming to gain political power through such “eat-the-rich” rhetoric. This strategy has historically proven effective. In California, there is a significant push for a “billionaires’ tax,” while prominent far-left figures like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are advocating for a federal version.
Across states ranging from Washington to Virginia, Democrats are actively encouraging wealthy taxpayers to leave blue states by proposing millionaire taxes.
To achieve such radical societal shifts, one must first dismantle the values upon which this republic was founded, convincing individuals that their fundamental connection to capitalism is as fleeting as the existence of true billionaires.
The most profound irony is that Ocasio-Cortez embodies precisely what the Founders sought to counteract. They harbored fears of mob rule and the tyranny of the majority, the arbitrary power that can arise from majoritarian abuses.
Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, and their ilk represent neither novelty nor particularly compelling additions to the political discourse. They are, in essence, echoes of the democratic despotism that Madison and others endeavored to suppress.
