Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect writes about the unique power of the youngest freshman in Congress:
AOC’s Achievement: Making Americans’ Progressive Beliefs Politically Acceptable. Of all the reasons that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is driving the right crazy, one of the most important is this: She’s advancing presumably radical ideas (by the right’s standards, anyway) that actually have massive public support.
Green New Deal? Fuzzy though its meanings may be, it brings together regional development policies for the huge region of the country that private capital has long since abandoned, climate change policies in a nation where climate-change apprehension is at an all-time high, full employment and decent wage policies for a nation where even voters in Republican states are casting ballots for higher wages and better jobs. Before AOC, whose radar was a Green New Deal even on? Since she joined the protestors in Nancy Pelosi’s office, a far-flung majority of Americans now see it as a way to address all manner of problems.
Likewise with taxing the rich. When AOC made the case for a 70 percent tax rate on annual income over the $10 million threshold, CNN’s Anderson Cooper responded as if she’d just called for collective farms. Now that Senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing a wealth tax that would compel the rich to pay an even fairer share of their bounty to support the common good, pundits are beginning to notice that the public has been supporting much higher taxes on the rich for a very long time. Since 2003, Gallup has annually asked the public whether they believe the level of taxes the rich pay is too high, too low or just right. The percentage saying “too low” has been in the 60-percent-to-70-percent range every year.
So it’s not hard to see why AOC is driving the right crazy. Forget the dancing, not to mention the racism and sexism that underpins many of the right’s complaints. It’s that she’s giving voice to progressive ideas that the public actually supports but that have long gone unvoiced by nearly everyone in power who has a megaphone they could use. She’s game-changingly brilliant at promoting progressive public policy. To the right, if I may steal from the Bard, such women are dangerous. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Meanwhile:
Virginia Students Learn in Trailers While State Offers Amazon Huge Tax Breaks
https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/54704-virginia-students-learn-in-trailers-while-state-offers-amazon-huge-tax-breaks
I posted that yesterday
“Driving the Right crazy”=amusing those people (including liberals, like yours truly) with her embarrassing and underwhelming lack of basic knowledge of historical precedent, basic economics and what used to be called “common sense”). In driving her party to the extreme Left/Socialist wing, she all but ensures Trumpbots to prevail yet again in 2020.
I truly don’t know of anything awful that AOC has said. What did she do that was worse than Trump, Lindsey Graham, or Mitch McConnell. She wants everyone to have health insurance. She wants a green economy. She wants people with high incomes (over $10 million a year) to pay higher taxes. What’s so bad about that?
“…extreme Left/Socialist wing…”
Yeah, single payer healthcare so people don’t die in the streets. That’s practically Communism.
Do you people even hear yourselves? Do you understand a word of what you say, or are you just programmed robots?
Go Alexandria.
Contrast AOC with the coffee billionaire Howard Schultz. What’s his biggest problem? Almost 30 million uninsured? Nah. Income inequality? Nah. His biggest concern is the national debt, universal health care is a non-starter for Mr. billionaire who has the best health care available. He doesn’t give a fig about the millions uninsured, he claims we can’t afford Medicare for all or single payer. I’ll tell you what we cannot afford, giving trillions in tax breaks to people like Howard Schultz. He has nothing to offer, just more centrist toxic filth. As if we don’t have enough centrists and corporate hacks. AOC is a breath of fresh air and dares to challenge the centrists and the corporatists like H. S. We need more people like AOC, not more centrists who seem to think we can’t afford universal health care and tuition free college.
Kudos to AOC for helping to normalize the conversation in government. For years the radical right wing has dominated the language of government with their small government, anti-regulation, business ready rhetoric. Corporate Democrats have moved so far to the right that they lost a number of blue collar votes in 2016. Bernie has been saying many of the same things as AOC, but he was portrayed by the media as “crazy old Bernie.” He like AOC captured the attention of younger voters that want to hear about what government will do for people and the environment. Young people are demanding to be heard and want our nation to become more progressive. I hope the DNC is listening. Now with Howard Schultz declaring his candidacy as an independent, Democrats should be worried. They do not need another Ralph Nader splitting the vote giving us another four years of Hades with #45.
I still think that Jackie Goldberg and the Los Angeles teacher’s union should make that phone call to AOC and ask her to fly to Los Angeles at their expense (no fee – just expenses), not hers, so she can stump with Jackie Goldberg in front of the media’s cameras. That should be worth more than a million dollars in exposure.
Just sent AOC a donation. Bernie pioneered turning American political discourse to the left. He put “democratic socialism” on the map of US politics–free college, medicare for all, etc. AOC has carried it farther into mainstream. And yes, American public opinion has been strongly favoring higher taxes on the rich for last 2 decades, but tone-deaf Obama and Hillary were too busy with Wall Street to act on it.
“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” The last American Democrat.
The top marginal tax rate under JFK was in the 70% range. What the rich should do for their country is pay their fair share in taxes.
Joe, what did I tell you about facts based in reality and history? Didn’t I tell you it was irrelevant? 🤨
Interesting that GOP ignores Bernie but AOC drives them crazy!
Go AOC!
She is moving the debate in the right direction.
In case you missed the only good thing to come out of Davos this year:
There’s a better clip on Twitter from Now This, but I can’t figure out how to download it here. It includes this but also a wonderful smackdown of an elitist Yahoo (both description of him and his employer) by the head of OxFam.