Topic: WorldNetDaily
James Zumwalt is creepily concerned with the conception of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in his March 27 WorldNetDaily column:
The safe assumption is, on the evening of Jan. 11, 1989, as President Ronald Reagan delivered his farewell address to the American people, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) parents were preoccupied. Nine months later, AOC was born. Sadly, had her parents listened to Reagan that night, they could have gained invaluable insights to share later with their democratic socialist-to-be daughter.
Reagan shared several pearls of wisdom that evening – wisdom clearly lost on AOC.
Zumwalt seems to be weirdly suggesting that if her parents had listened to Reagan's speech instead of having sex, Ocasio-Cortez might never have been born and there would be one less "socialist" in the world.
The speech in question is Reagan's farewell speech in 1989, in which he talked about patriotism and national pride. Zulwalt then lashed out at Ocasio-Cortez:
Three decades later, in AOC, we have a congresswoman who denigrates America as “garbage.” We have a woman representing constituents who knows little about American history and the values that once made our nation great. We have an elected official who, despite having an economics major, has little understanding of tax incentives and budgets. We have a legislator who, prior to taking office, admitted little knowledge on Middle East matters, yet now asserts herself as an expert by condemning Israel for “occupying” Palestine.
Despite Reagan’s call for an “informed patriotism,” in AOC we have neither – her lack of the former inhibits her ability to possess the latter. Instead, she seeks to totally destroy a system she fails to understand, replacing it with one which, historically, has experienced nothing but abject failure.
Zumwalt once again relies on fringe right-wing websites to support his attacks, which is where the utterly false claim that Ocasio-Cortez called America "garbage" comes from. In fact, she was explaining that right-wing views have become normalized in America -- particularly on immigration, where conservatives defend caging children and forcibly using psychotropic drugs on them -- and that her ideas "sound radical compared to where we are, but where we are is not a good thing,” adding that we shouldn't settle for being merely "10 percent better than garbage."
Zumwalt probably thought America was "garbage" during the Obama years, so he has little room to talk.
Zumwalt concluded by huffing:
Reagan ended his farewell address referencing early Pilgrim John Winthrop’s description of the America he imagined as a shining “city upon a hill.” Asking “how stands the city,” Reagan proudly proclaimed America, “still stands strong and true. … Her glow has held steady no matter what storm” she endured. However, the socialist storm AOC favors is a Hurricane Katrina in-waiting. Hopefully, an informed public, recognizing what Katrina did to New Orleans – and despite the media’s naive promotion of AOC’s ideology – will recognize socialism’s similar destructive potential to impact the city upon a hill.
