In the 15th century, France was losing its war against England. Historian Stephen W. Richey explains how a 17-year-old milkmaid, Joan of Arc, was placed in charge of the French army after it experienced a series of humiliating defeats. “Only a regime in the final straits of desperation,” Richey explains, “would pay any heed to an illiterate farm girl who claimed that the voice of God was instructing her to take charge of her country's army and lead it to victory.” It was nuts, but in the middle ages they were more inclined to overlook such minor considerations as common sense and evidence.

Fast forward to the 21st century. The Democrats are losing their war against the Republicans. The Dems have not offered up a coherent plan for the country’s future. All they seem to have is a series of ad hominem attacks on President Trump. Like the medieval French, they are “in the final straits of desperation.” What to do? Voila! Along comes the new Joan of Arc—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Okay, so she isn’t a milkmaid from Iowa, but she is an ignorant, 29-year-old bartender from the Bronx. Close enough. The desperate Democrats have imbued AOC with a kind of religious authority that is reminiscent of her French predecessor.

As I explain in Tyranny of the Minority, the ideology of the Left has morphed into our newest religion. “You have to understand progressivism as a kind of religion,” says The Federalist, “specifically, a fundamentalist religion. In this view of the world, evil takes the form of any barrier to your self-expression.” Liberals behave as though

their socialist ideology has been handed down from the mountaintop. No longer regarded as merely a political contest, elections now represent a duel between good and evil. It makes sense, then, that the Dems would turn to a contemporary incarnation of Joan of Arc, a neophyte with no qualifications, as their savior.

With frightening similarities to Islam, the religion of the Left “is an authoritarian movement that wants total compliance with its dictates,” says Daniel Greenfield, Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, “with severe punishments for those who disobey.” Sure enough, AOC demands total compliance with her Green New Deal and has threatened to punish Democratic colleagues that vote Republican by placing them “on a list." Stalin where are you?

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While Joan of Arc was a fanatic of the Christian variety, AOC’s fanaticism appears to have more in common with Muhammad than Christ. The result is the same. Voters are scared to death that the sky is falling. “People who violate the progressive code,” says Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny, “are socially ostracized, sued for discrimination, forced to resign, and driven out of business.”

As we evaluate AOC’s Green New Deal, it should be recalled that religious doctrine often disregards common sense and evidence—the evidence, for example, that socialism doesn’t work. The repeated failure of socialism ought to remove it from serious consideration. No such luck. Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Try telling that to Bernie

Sanders and AOC. As typical progressive liberals, they envision a socialist utopia that will solve all human problems despite the clear proof that it never solved them before. With their Green New Deal, the Left “substitutes glorious predictions and unachievable promises for knowledge, science, and reason,” says Mark Levin in Ameritopia, “while laying claim to them all.”

Bernie dreams of a world “where poverty is absolutely unnecessary, where

international relations are not based on greed, where human beings can own the means of production and work together rather than having to work as semi-slaves to other people who can hire and fire.” When you break it down, it amounts to a lot of hot air. The truth is that the GND must not be adopted because it wouldn’t work, and if it did, it would destroy the U.S. economy and our entire standard of living. There is no evidence that income redistribution would contribute to anyone’s lifestyle, except for the Democratic Party elite that will run the show. Even if we eliminated all fossil fuels, cars, airplanes, cow flatulence, yadda, yadda, the earth’s climate would not be altered by one speck of dust.

GND is based on the faulty science of global warming. “A large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.” Climate change is a natural phenomenon, says geologist Ian Plimer. “It has been going on for millions of

years.” Temperature has been constant for 20 years, says Nobel laureate Ivar Giaever. “Climate changes all the time,” he adds, “and it’s nothing to do with global warming.” In other words, there is no problem. Who in their right mind wants a solution to a non-existent problem?

So why is AOC trying to scare the hell out of us with the messianic prediction that, without GND, the world will come to an end in 12 years? The answer is simple. The Dems care about nothing other than raw political power. Their last savior, Hillary Clinton, lost the election. Under Trump’s presidency, the economy is a roaring success. Perhaps with a new version of Joan of Arc, the Left can convince enough gullible voters that we should destroy America so the Dems can rule over us. Hallelujah and pass the ammunition!

Ed Brodow is a political commentator, negotiation expert, and author of seven books including his latest, Tyranny of the Minority: How the Left is Destroying America.