Washington, D.C., February 19, 2019 - Two months ago Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a 29-year-old mediocre cum laude college grad and a barista in the Bronx struggling to make ends meet. Today she is an elected member of Congress hailed by liberal pundits as an expert in everything from economic strategy to foreign relations and climate change policy.
How to explain Ocasio-Cortez's sudden intellectual transformation? It's a clear case of "infused knowledge," argued the Rev. Joseph Josephson, S.J., of the left-leaning Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.
"The way it works," Rev. Josephson explained, "is that when a charismatic, young politician enters the fray, there is a sudden infusion of knowledge. It doesn't matter that she doesn't know that our bicameral Congress has two chambers, not three, or that she doesn't know that to pay for $40 trillion in entitlements you have to raise, well, $40 trillion. All that matters is that she's young, charismatic, and liberal. That makes everything she says absolutely brilliant."
"This sort of 'infused knowledge' only works for the liberals," Rev. Josephson was quick to add. "It doesn't work for conservatives. With an ignoramus like Trump, for example, it's okay to laugh and ridicule the missteps. But when Ocasio-Cortez can't string together coherent sentences, it's like poetry. She may not be factually right, but that's okay because she's morally right. She's, um... 'aspirational.'"
For evidence of Ocasio-Cortez's sudden infusion of political savvy, Rev. Josephson pointed to her bold "New Green Deal." "Seriously, how else could she have come up with the idea that providing basic income for people who are 'unwilling to work' would be the boon for the U.S. economy that is so clearly is?" he asked.
"All you have to do is look at the countries that provide a basic income to know how well it works," Rev. Josephson added. "France, Finland, Bulgaria -- these are the type of places that are sparking true innovation and entrepreneurism right now. Sure, we have Amazon, Google, Space-X, etc., in in the United States. But Bulgaria has... well... Okay, let me think for a moment"
Rev. Josephson resumed after a pause, "Now remember: It's less about the facts and more about the aspirations. Surely you can see how aspirations, not dollars, drive the economy."
Rev. Josephson deftly turned the interview to Ocasio-Cortez's amazing ability to build consensus. "I mean, how better to get farmers and the folks in the aviation business on your side than to say that you hope to shut down their industry within ten years?" he said. "And if you can't convince the backward rubes in flyover country to stop eating hamburgers made from 'farting cows,' then you could always send them off to reeducation camps to receive their own infusion of knowledge."
Indeed, true consensus-building, as Rev. Josephson explained, is telling the folks who raise the food you eat that you are going to make doing so as hard for them as possible. And if you want to build the cross-isle bridges that are necessary to get things done in Congress, then surely the best strategy is telling Kansas voters that electing a Republican these is akin to voting to be a slave state in 1861.
"Ocasio-Cortez has a bright future in Congress," Rev. Josephson concluded. "Her bull-in-the-chinashop approach will surely get so much accomplished. Really, all she has to do is continue accusing her fellow Democrats of basing their decisions on being white and male to win them over to her side. It's an absolutely brilliant strategy."
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