Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is all over the place right now. And no, not just her mind and socialist rumblings she utters, her face is literally everywhere. A starlet of the new Democratic Party. Leftists cannot get enough of her. But oddly, neither can Conservatives. In fact, she is dominating conservative media by and large right now (I say as I am part of conservative media writing an article about her).

Now I do get a chuckle here and there at her often ridiculous views. But more recently I’ve been astonished by the obsession with every line this woman utters. And no, not because “evil cuckservatives are harassing a strong independent Lantinx woman!” (I should write for Teen Vogue). And you won’t hear me defend her dumb lines, or even some of her more reasonable ones, because socialism is just indefensible. I’m saying that us conservatives need to proceed with caution here, and learn a lesson from the Left they are just coming around to today: you give a spotlight to your opponent, and they might win.

The rise of then-candidate President Trump is a fascinating subject, one that many “smart” people have failed to analyze because they think he is a Hitler figure. And to their detriment, because they can’t stop him without taking a serious look in the mirror at the mistakes they have made. What are the mistakes they made? They took views he expressed (that mirror Obama and Bill Clinton views often) and treated them as alien and extreme. The main one is that they mocked him. They preyed on every little word he said, something they do today at an even higher rate. Anytime he said something they seemed ridiculous (and to be fair most people and myself included find some things he says off-the-wall bonkers) they would hammer him for it. Every spelling mistake in a tweet, hammered for.

Why is that a mistake? Because President Trump is a master persuader, according to hypnotist and Dilbert comic author Scott Adams. That spelling error ridiculous statement, even an “Untruth” would get the media to spread and repeat his words. They media couldn’t get enough, their ratings were great because of candidate Trump. That alone may have been the push to put him in the White House: the massive reach he got thanks to his opposition propping up his every word for virtue signaling points.

Now are you starting to see the parallel between how Donald Trump was allowed to rise and how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is currently ascending? Did I mention Scott Adams finds her to be a master persuader as well?

Let’s just start with a couple of talking points regarding recent outrage of her. Whether she is baiting or not remains to be seen, but either way conservatives are swallowing the hook. She got you conservative pundits. Have we already forgotten her Amazon tweet?

When we talk about bringing jobs to the community, we need to dig deep:

– Has the company promised to hire in the existing community?

– What’s the quality of jobs + how many are promised? Are these jobs low-wage or high wage? Are there benefits? Can people collectively bargain? — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 13, 2018

“She should be grateful that the area near her district is getting jobs! Who cares about the net tax revenue of that area, I’m sure Amazon hiring a few employees there is enough to make up for the lack of taxes they are paying there and incentives they have been given.” That was the argument conservatives had. That same argument is used for taxpayer money to go towards building sports stadiums for franchises worth hundreds of millions (a crusade I will go on in other articles). And I don’t doubt that there will be a net benefit to the local economy to the district of Representative-elect Ocasio-Cortez. But to paint her as ungrateful and to find yourselves defending Amazon? Have you no shame? This Amazon deal is Crony Capitalism on steroids. Amazon is owned by the richest man in the world, liberal Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. Amazon workers have been mistreated (sexual harassment, no bathroom breaks employees just pee in a trashcan). Our embarrassingly-run postal service is held hostage by Amazon. And now low wages at the company are finally rising, workers are being replaced with robots. Sometimes-Libertarian Tucker Carlson, a Fox News opinion host, has been on a recent crusade against Amazon. If the Libertarians are balking at this crony capitalism, how in the world can you be on the side of Jeff Bezos? Moreover, the image conservatives are now painting of themselves are as corporatists. Nice, whether or not it was bait, conservative media got hooked in, and defended Amazon. Hillary Clinton allowed us to paint the Democratic Party as the party of corporatists. Here comes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an outsider. She might be bought and paid for, she might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, she might be groomed by the “establishment” of the Democratic Party. But damn, she is doing a hell of a job appearing to be far from and enemy of the corporatist establishment, even more so than President Trump who often puts too much trust in the establishment by giving them a pretty big seat at the table for the sake of continuity of our country and lack of governing expertise (which is understandable I guess).

How about another recent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “controversy”? She had the audacity to say that election day should be a holiday. A holiday where people have off of work to do their most important civic duty. The horror! No seriously, conservatives have tried to mock her for this. Is it because the Republican talking point is that it is okay for voting to be super hard for the working class because Republicans don’t think they can win over the working class? Yes, Karen in suburbia, I’m glad you can go to your uncrowded polling station in your minivan with ease. What about people with no cars that live in areas with little public transportation? People that work long hours? College students that weren’t harassed enough by liberal and civic duty clubs on their campus to fill out mail-in ballots (I might be speaking from experience here)? Voting hours are too short, polling stations have long lines and are crowded. Since when did Republicans become Stalinist, demanding workers must work at all costs?

How is Columbus Day a holiday but Election Day not? — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 18, 2018

The parallels of Trump and Ocasio-Cortez are there. The high energy, the boots on the ground campaigning.

Some folks are saying I won for “demographic” reasons. 1st of all, that’s false. We won w/voters of all kinds. 2nd, here’s my 1st pair of campaign shoes. I knocked doors until rainwater came through my soles. Respect the hustle. We won bc we out-worked the competition. Period. pic.twitter.com/RbpQMYTiWY — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) June 29, 2018

(Here is Nigel Farage, UKIP leader that propelled Brexit vote, speaking about getting boots on the ground to win an election)

The left has hardly learned a lesson since the election of President Trump on how to stop him. While we can laugh at them for not even owning a mirror let alone looking in one, we conservatives are ignoring the lessons the left should have learned. Representative-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a trailblazer. By the time we have a chance to look in the mirror, she will have the White House (she is too young to run for a while but insanely pushing to amend the Constitution to allow herself to run) or at the very least be the Democratic Party’s de-facto leader. By the time we conservatives have a chance to look in the mirror, the big-buggy eyes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be staring back at us instead.