Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., may be the heroine of the Democratic Party’s left, but she needs to read more history.
She recently compared her “Green New Deal” to the Allied victory in World War II, which perhaps evokes the amusing image of her leading George Patton’s 3rd Army or the 6th Marine Division in an effort to stop the forces of genocide — er, climate change. Or something.
But it gets worse. Last weekend, Ocasio-Cortez added another feather to her cap by declaring that President Trump’s border wall is a new Berlin Wall. She gets it exactly backward.
“No matter how you feel about the wall, you know, I think it’s a moral abomination, I think it’s like the Berlin Wall.” AOC continued: “I think it’s like any other wall designed to separate human beings and block out people who are running away from the humanitarian disasters. I just think it’s wrong.”
No matter how you feel about Trump’s wall, constructing a national border barrier to prevent unauthorized access is self-evidently different from building a wall designed to trap people inside. The difference is more than physical — it’s one of basic political morality. The important distinction between the Berlin Wall and Trump’s wall is the intent: imprisonment versus protection.
The Berlin Wall prevented individuals living under socialist tyranny from realizing the offer of a life in freedom in West Germany. At a basic level, for Trump’s wall to be anything like the Berlin Wall, it would have to be garrisoned by armed guards who fired at Americans trying to accept an explicit invitation from Mexico to cross the border.
The comparison of these two walls draws attention to an aspect of socialism that Ocasio-Cortez should find embarrassing. It also evinces a great deal of historical ignorance. This isn’t solely a liberal failing, but any member of Congress should want to do better.
