Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Republicans are "scared of us," meaning herself, because after all, she's the boss. It may be that Pubs are scared, but not as scared as Democrats like Rotund Jerry Nadler. Sandy has forced the primary candidates to tip their hands on how far left they're willing to go. Without her noisome prodding, they could have backed off a bit and pretended to be less extreme than they are, thus enhancing their electability.

It's not that Jerry the Round really minds what she's pushing; he doesn't care one way or another as long as she doesn't intrude on what he is pushing. But beyond that, and what should worry him, is that he knows room has to be left in the economy for honest, productive business to function; otherwise, there's nothing for DC parasites to leach off of. And government-organized corruption, in the runaway socialism Ocasio-Cortez preaches, so cripples an economy that only the most thuggish and ruthless can thrive. Those few make the rest suck up to them so they don't get the proper fun out of lording it over the honest schleps people who work for a living.

In short: Parasites need healthy organisms, and the parasite of all-encompassing socialism kills an economy as cancer shuts down a pancreas. The old politics of His Rotundness recognized this and left some wiggle room for producers. Sandra evidently and loudly doesn't and won't, and that does scare official Washington. Her willingness to throw out the baby with the bathwater would defenestrate them and her.

This thinking parallels the political argument Jeanne Kirkpatrick made 40 years ago in her powerful essay "Dictatorships & Double Standards." Some kinds of corruption are less debilitating than others. Ordinary folks can get along and even thrive in economies where corruption stays within certain bounds. Economies can't bear wholesale rot of the kind socialism unfailingly delivers.

And rot is what Ocasio-Cortez is pushing, though she seems blissfully unaware of it. A mere 29, she hasn't lived long enough or seen enough or thought enough or read enough to understand why socialism is so voraciously, all-consumingly destructive. It undercuts motivation and punishes innovation, fomenting envy, resentment, and jealousy. It takes a certain insight into human nature to grasp how these undermine an economy, and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez neither has that knowledge nor wants to hear about it.

Some clever soul came up with the perfect description of a lack of understanding combined with cocky, sassy certitude: invincible ignorance. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's invincible ignorance scares the powers that be on both sides. That she attracts voters should worry all thinking people.

Image: Dimitri Rodriguez via Flickr.