ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Happy birthday, happy 30th birthday, happy Oct. 13 birthday to you, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

America has a present for you: It’s called the Constitution.

In between jetting off to Denmark for climate change activism and getting haircuts that cost a week’s salary for the very type of downtrodden people you say you represent — perhaps you could read it.

And therein lies the second biggest problem with socialists: their hypocrisy.

“Spending the day in Denmark after C40, enjoying the social democracy that treats healthcare & education as rights, zero-carbon as priority, & infrastructure as a key public good,” she tweeted over the weekend, above a video clip of herself as she moseyed across stones steps in a pool of water, pausing to give a perky shrug the camera lens’ way.

My, how carefree is the life of a socialist.

This is the woman who, a little more than a year ago, was the secular world’s prime example of Nobody.

She was a bartender and waitress.

She was an underachiever, a reported cum laude graduate of Boston University who had nonetheless put her degree in international relations to work slinging beer and shots for the rowdy party-going types.

Then she ran for the House. Then she defeated Democratic long-timer Joe Crowley — 10-term long-timer — as well as Republican opponent Anthony Pappas. Then she became a political shining star, carting a Democratic Socialists of America card and a hard-charging “let them eat from the taxpayer dole” devil-may-care ‘tude toward hard-working Americans’ dollars. After all, taking from the rich and giving to the poor can be such fun — and oh so lucrative for political careers. Yes?

Ocasio-Cortez’s pinned tweet, since July of 2018, has been a series of checkmarks by “Medicare for All; A Living Wage & Labor Rights; K-16 schooling, aka Public Colleges; 100% Renewable Energy; Fixing the pipes in Flint; Not Hurting Immigrants; Holding Wall Street Accountable.” And her rhetoric, post-election, has been nothing shy of demanding more, more, more for those who don’t work for it, haven’t earned it and certainly see no need in trying to work or earn it.

It’s her contribution to the American Dream.

It’s a reminder of how many “rights” she believes people are born with — and how many tax dollars she needs to pay for these “rights.”

But here’s the matter to mull: Does Ocasio-Cortez truly believe that a country that provides for its citizens all the services that accompany these unicorn wishes could survive economic collapse? After all, when Ocasio-Cortez touts “Medicare for All,” or A Living Wage, or Public Colleges, what she’s really touting is taxpayer-provided health care, taxpayer-funded paychecks and tax-paid college educations.

That there is any money in America’s coffers at all is due solely to the private sector — the free market.

Take away the free market, you take away the money that feeds the government. That’s how it works, folks. Government doesn’t generate its own revenue stream, absent taxation.

Ocasio-Cortez’s failure to recognize that is not just ignorance. It’s hypocrisy.

The very system that allowed Ocasio-Cortez to rise from humble beginnings, grab the reigns of power and travel to overseas destinations to enjoy the beauty of serenity of select spots in foreign lands, the very system that gives her such freedom and independence and opportunity — capitalism — is the very system she condemns. It’s the very system she seeks in America to destroy.

Ocasio-Cortez ought to be saying thank you to taxpayers — to America, land of the free, home of the brave, country of the capitalistic opportunity. Instead, she’s biting the hand that feeds. And smiling and shrugging for selfie shots in the process. Hypocrisy. Hypocrite.

And that’s just the second-worst thing about socialists. The first?

The worst thing about socialists is they have no rightful place in America’s government. They don’t belong.

The fact they serve at all is an affront to the country, the Constitution and the blood, sweat and tears shed by so, so many who formed, fought and continue to fight for our nation of exceptionalism.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley.

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