Your last graph says a lot about our political culture. Democrats have been running away from FDR’s New Deal since RayGun first claimed “government is the problem”, but Republicans have shot well past RayGun’s business centered vision for America and are now in full fascist mode. I’m sure that RayGun would find little common ground with Trump voters, just as their Jesus would likely be repulsed by them (unless he was just kidding or speaking in some secret MAGA code).
This kind of trajectory only exists in an environment with no discernable resistance. There was nothing “moderate” about the town hall meetings that led to Obama’s healthcare legislation and the culture that prevailed was as much about violence and the continual threat from the extreme right as it was about actual policymaking. Democrats, many having their own self-interests in the status quo, offered up no pushback and the legislation ended up looking like an insurance exec’s wet dream.
AOC is doing nothing more than presenting bold resistance to the trajectory that is more than obvious in our government and she realizes the core motivation for it isn’t from the right, which will always be radically self-destructive if unimpeded, but from the lackluster ideas and vision of the left. This realization comes naturally to her as an economist that subscribes to Modern Monetary Theory and its view of our economic reality.
Knowing that America, as the monopoly issuer of its sovereign fiat currency, can never “go broke” and can afford anything that is available and denominated in dollars, only limited by real resources, presents possibilities that are going to be needed for mitigating our world climate crisis if your generation (I’m a boomer) is going to have any potential for a productive and fulfilling life. Because a generation of Democrats chose to be “moderate” in the face of conservative extremism your generation “MUST” be radical.
Fortunately, real-world economics support you. Please explore and gain an understanding of MMT, which is the basis of AOC’s policies, so you can effectively have her back when the right and moderate Dems present all of the “pay for” objections and phony constraints on America’s potential to lead again and solve the most pressing issues facing your generation.
