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‘The People’s Republic of Astoria’: AOC likens NYC neighborhood to China in touting socialist gains in US

January 22, 2023 | | Print Article

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing criticism for comparing the Astoria neighborhood of Queens to the People’s Republican of China during an inauguration ceremony for newly elected state Senator Kristen Gonzalez, a socialist.

“Kristen now stands with us as the youngest woman ever elected to the New York State Senate. Kristen is like the last Infinity Stone to the People’s Republic of Astoria. With her election, we now have DSA members elected to every level of government,” she said.

The “Infinity Stone” was a reference to a plot line from “The Avengers,” and DSA was short for the Democratic Socialists of America.

Listen:

Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to refer to Astonia as the People’s Republic of Astoria in the imitation of the People’s Republic of China triggered outrage.

“Her statement is an insult not just to Chinese Americans who left the communist People’s Republic for a chance to live in a free Democratic society — but to all Americans,” Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan told the New York Post.

“The last thing we need here is to recreate the system where government stifles the market economy, exchange of ideas, free press and independent courts,” he added.

Kagan reportedly grew up up in Belarus when it was still part of the Soviet Union.

Continuing his remarks, Kagan also accused Ocasio-Cortez and her DSA allies of “ador[ing] failed communist ideas that so many people ran away from.”

Kagan wasn’t wrong. Ocasio-Cortez is an avid socialist, if not also an outright communist.

For instance, when the oil industry briefly crashed during the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Ocasio-Cortez celebrated by essentially calling for a “green” revolution.

“You absolutely love to see it. This along with record low interest rates means it’s the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet. *cough*,” she tweeted at the time, according to Insider.

But the tweet provoked so much backlash that she swiftly deleted it and replaced it with this more moderately toned one:

Ocasio-Cortez is also the author of the “Green New Deal,” a radical proposal to completely transform American society from top to bottom by eliminating air travel, combustion-engine vehicles, nuclear energy, fossil fuel energy, and meat.

The “deal” also called for establishing a a utopia where everybody would be guaranteed a job, in addition to free education, free healthcare, free housing, etc.

After she introduced the radical proposal in early 2019, her then-loose-lipped chief of staff went on to admit in during a meeting what it was really all about.

“The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all,” chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti reportedly said during a meeting with then-presidential candidate Jay Inslee’s climate director, Sam Ricketts.

“Do you guys think of it as a climate thing?” he then asked rhetorically, adding, “Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”

These words were heard by The Washington Post Magazine “reporter” David Montgomery, who accompanied Chakrabarti to the meeting and then published a profile about it.

According to Montgomery, Ricketts responded to Chakrabarti’s admission by expressing his belief that the GND has two purposes.

“I think it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s dual. It is both rising to the challenge that is existential around climate, and it is building an economy that contains more prosperity. More sustainability in that prosperity — and more broadly shared prosperity, equitability and justice throughout,” he reportedly said.

Chakrabarti reportedly liked the answer.

“The thing I think you guys are doing that’s so incredible is … you guys are actually figuring out how to do it and make it work, the comprehensive plan where it all fits together,” he said.

“I’d love to get into a situation where everyone’s trying to just outdo each other. I’ll be honest, my view is I still think you guys aren’t going big enough.”

“Well, you know, we’re not done,” Ricketts replied. “When it comes to a nationwide economic mobilization, there’s more to come on this front, for one. And other key components we’re going to be rolling forward speak to some of the key justice elements of this … ensuring every community’s got a part of this.”

Vivek Saxena
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