When it comes to the state of the art on the left, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is (to borrow an expression) the tippy tops. She is an idiot’s idiot with a little girl voice that gives expressive form to her thoughts and dreams. If only she were given absolute power, she could produce the kind of rapid change (to borrow another expression) that has reduced Venezuela to poverty and starvation.

60 Minutes featured AOC in its lead segment last night. The segment is posted here (both video and, thankfully, transcript). Quotable quote: “I think there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.”

Here we get to the heart of the matter:

Anderson Cooper: You’re talking about zero carbon emissions — no use of fossil fuels within 12 years. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: That is the goal. It’s ambitious. And… Anderson Cooper: How is that possible? Are you talking about everybody having to drive an electric car? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: It’s going to require a lot of rapid change that we don’t even conceive as possible right now. What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?

We are in the realm of Imagine. She has no idea (and Anderson Cooper seems to think that electric cars are powered by cotton candy). Cooper only takes up the angle that lies at the heart of every socialist utopia:

Anderson Cooper: This would require, though, raising taxes. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: There’s an element where— yeah. There— people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes. Anderson Cooper: Do you have a specific on the tax rate? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: You know, it— you look at our tax rates back in the ’60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system. Your tax rate, you know, let’s say, from zero to $75,000 may be ten percent or 15 percent, et cetera. But once you get to, like, the tippy tops —- on your 10 millionth dollar -— sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more.

In 1960 the top marginal federal income tax rate actually reached 91 percent on income over $200,000 (for single filers) or $400,000 (for married filers). AOC could present her proposal as a modest reform that falls short of the tax levels of the Eisenhower years. Or perhaps AOC would be inspired by the history. Superimposing New York state and local income taxes on top of the 1960 federal rates we could achieve a level of taxation exceeding 100 percent and get serious about encouraging the appropriate “contribution” from the rich.

Socialists like AOC never do tell us what our “fair share” is or how they determine it. I would like to know what my “fair share” is. I think I have been paying more than my “fair share” for a long time, but I would like to know so I can have some peace of mind that they will leave me alone when I get there.

But we will never get there. They never tell us what our “fair share” is because it is 100 percent. We deserve nothing. We have no right to fruit of our own labor. The want it all. As we will recall next month when we celebrate the anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, they offer “the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it.”

Of course, as Lincoln explained their reasoning — see AOC — it is for our own good. They always bestride the necks of the people, not because they want to, but because we are better off for being ridden.