The progressive wing of the Democrat Party made its presence known in the 2016 presidential race with the campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. His socialist platform of free health care, free college, higher minimum wages and the like made him a popular choice of progressives, a fancy name for Democrats who have no real concept of how economics work.

As loveable as a crumudgeon as Sanders was to his supporters, he’s a little long in the tooth to build a political movement around for the 2020s.

Enter Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Latino woman who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

A year ago at this time, she worked as a bartender. Today, she’s hoping to become the youngest female elected to Congress, having won the Democratic congressional primary in New York last week over U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, who has been in Congress for nearly 20 years.

Grassroots political upsets are always newsworthy despite the party affiliation. But when it’s a young female Latino defeating an older white male, it’s especially big news for the political left. When she runs on a socialist platform, it’s even more exciting.

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Ocasio-Cortez is already a media darling, having appeared on everything from “Meet the Press” to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Everyone loves how she’s campaigning with the pledge of helping the proverbial “little guy.”

Well, almost everyone.

A former co-worker of Ocasio-Cortez is saying some not-so-nice things about the candidate, and especially not nice about someone who is a card-carrying socialist.

Ocasio-Cortez spent four years working at a restaurant called Flats Fix. She quit her around the start of this year to run for Congress.

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According to Richard Johnson, a staff writer for The New York Post’s PageSix.com, “One waitress has a bad memory of working with Ocasio-Cortez as (she) tended bar during the very busy Cinco de Mayo celebration in 2017.

“At the end of the night, when it came time to split the $560 in tips she had gotten at the bar, Ocasio-Cortez gave the waitress only $50. After the waitress complained to her manager, her take was doubled to $100, a source said.”

Johnson quotes the waitress as saying, “It says so much about her character. from that point on, I wouldn’t talk to her. I couldn’t look at her.”

If the story this waitress tells is true, it suggests Ocasio-Cortez supports a brand of socialism that mirrors that of Sanders. True socialism would dictate that all of the tip money from that night’s haul at the bar be divided equally, with no consideration given to who worked harder than anyone else.

Sanders, who has turned his promotion of socialism into a $1 million-a-year endeavor, is all for equal distribution of other people’s money, as long as he gets to keep as much of his as possible.

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If Ocasio-Cortez has been watching Sanders’ political career of late, she’ll see socialism can be very lucrative — for herself, of course. It’s pretty hard to knock a Democrat out of office in New York, so she could be on track for something that pays far better (and has better benefits) than being a bartender.

And, she won’t have to divvy up her tips with any of her staff members.

Capitalism is great. Just ask the socialist politicians who benefit from it.

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