New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is taking heavy fire after recasting the American Revolution as an uprising against the ultra-wealthy rather than an overreaching crown.
The New York Democrat told an audience Friday at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics that “The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time, and we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and the state,” according to the New York Post (NYP). The remark came during a sit-down with longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod.
Ocasio-Cortez expanded on her economic view during the 90-minute conversation. She told the attendees the country needs to revisit older tax structures because taxation involves “the construction and organization of oligarchy in our economy,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. She clarified that her target is the system, not individual wealthy people. (RELATED: Not Like We Needed Another Example, But AOC Just Had Her Worst Case Of Historical Stupidity Yet)
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee pushed back hard, telling the NYP the Revolution was waged against “a large, distant, overly intrusive government that recognized no limits over its own authority to tax, regulate, and eat out the substance of the citizens it claimed to serve.” Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told the same outlet that “If a 9th grader writes this on her history test, she gets an F,” noting wealthy American merchants bankrolled the war.
Ocasio-Cortez told comedian Ilana Glazer’s “It’s Open” podcast a day earlier that “You can’t earn a billion dollars,” arguing such fortunes stem from rule-breaking and labor abuse.
Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro fired back at that claim on social media, saying that “Billionaires get rich by innovating and risk-taking, offering new and better goods and services at prices people are willing to pay.”
Ocasio-Cortez sidestepped 2028 White House questions from Axelrod, telling attendees her “ambition is way bigger than that,” according to a transcript obtained by BizPac Review.