Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Tom Perez, the Big Labor Establishment-backed Democratic National Committee Chairman, declared that the upstart Berniecrat, Bronx-native Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the future of the Democratic Party. She rocketed to the forefront of Democratic politics when she had trounced liberal Democratic House leader Joe Crowley 57%-43% in a Democratic primary upset. She's young, a minority, and energizing to the Left. She also opposes secure borders, wants Medicare for all, demands the abolition ICE, and she calls housing "a right." In other words, she's a socialist.

As expected, the liberal press, including The Nation, wrote a glowing review of this self-avowed Democratic Socialist Millennial of Puerto Rican descent who campaigned hard for Bernie Sanders in 2016. The likely reason why Perez called Ocasio-Cortez the Democratic Party's future is that he fears losing his job. The left tends to cannibalize itself when the younger generation demands socialist outcomes at a faster rate. Instead of heeding the past and ignoring these demands, the leadership and doubles down on this self-defeating insanity.

None of this sick, self-defeating cycle among left-wing partisans should surprise us. During the French Revolution -- the template for every modern, radical, self-destructive political movement -- the liberal reformers established a freer, more equitable system, but clashed with the increasingly radical, upset Jacobins. Where did this dangerous arrogance spring from? A growing secular self-importance, which arose out from the growing split within the Enlightenment movement. Not content to challenge traditions in order to arrive at the truth, these radicals derided and discarded all Western legacies. They wanted tear down everything in order build up something new based on their "enlightened" ideals.

The French radicals, the progenitors of Ocasio et al., wanted to create perfected men within an ideal society. Their utopian agenda meant dispensing with God, rejecting Christian revelation (not just Catholic tradition), and inventing a new society by force. Thus came the Terror, and with it the tool to shape this "brave new world": the Guillotine. Facing foreign invaders without and civilian uprisings within (human nature resists being told what to do, even if it's "for the common good"), the Revolutionary leaders enacted the Law of Suspects. They arrested and eliminated anyone opposed to their "free and equal" ends. When even Robespierre's violent confidants thought he was going too far, Robespierre shoved them under the national blade for treason, too.

A century later came the Russian Revolution. Lenin's communist agenda brought forth not just a worker's revolution, but abolition and then execution of the Russia royal classes. The inevitable infighting followed, which gave Joseph Stalin the upper hand, while his rival Leon Trotsky got an icicle in the chest. The quest for naked power and self-interest among communist agitators will crowd out the push for the common good and egalitarian ends. These left-wing revolutions inevitably collapse upon themselves.

Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer, blogger, and political commentator on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. Listen to him on Blog Talk Radio at The State of the Union with Arthur C. Schaper. Follow him on Twitter @ArthurCSchaper and on Facebook. arthurschaper@hotmail.com