Routine prevarication, extravagant hyperbole, and blatant, shameless lies by pundits and ideologues on the Right (or, let’s play ‘follow the Leader’)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is profoundly unsettling to many on the Right (and perhaps some Democrats as well). Today’s column by Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times is symptomatic of the Right’s fear and loathing of her democratic politics and political policy views in particular:

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political establishment by defeating a machine politician in a New York Democratic primary for Congress last June. Ever since then, Republicans and conservatives have been trying to smear her as a know-nothing socialist ditz unfit to sit in the House chamber with all those gray-bearded sages who have made the House such a model of reasoned and informed debate.

The latest such campaign erupted this weekend. I’m not talking about the unearthing of a dance video from her college years, which backfired spectacularly by making Ocasio-Cortez seem youthful and joyous, but an interview with the newly minted member of Congress broadcast Sunday on ‘60 Minutes’ but released by CBS on Friday. In the interview, Ocasio-Cortez argues for raising the top federal income tax rate on the richest Americans to as much as 70% from the current 37% and using the money to convert the country to renewable energy.

Conservative heads exploded. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) accused her on Twitter of wanting to ‘take away 70% of your income and give it to leftist fantasy programs.’ Right-wing anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist implied that the ‘expropriation’ of 70% of ‘your production’ was coming uncomfortably close to ‘slavery.’ Pro-Trump commentator Ryan Fournier declared that he was ‘not going to work my ass off for the rest of my life for 70% of my income to go to the government.’

All three, and anyone else speaking out in this vein, displayed their rank ignorance of how the federal income tax works. That’s the charitable explanation of their reaction. The only other explanation is that they know how it works, and they were lying about her proposal. (Ignoramuses or liars? You make the call.)” The entire article is here.