Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez awaits to be introduced to the Women’s March NYC demonstration at Foley Square in New York City, N.Y., January 19, 2019. (Jose Alvarado Jr./REUTERS)

A number of media reports about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to radically jack up the tax rates of some high-income people have cited favorable polling on the question as though that were dispositive. “Look! Nearly 60 percent of those polled like her plan! Look, this one says 70 percent!” Etc.


All good and fine.

A very large majority of Americans support prohibiting abortion in the second trimester. The pro-life side of that fight enjoys well more than a 2-to-1 advantage in the polls, and has for a long time. In the third trimester, it’s even more lopsided, with the pro-life side enjoying an advantage of better than 6-to-1.

Question: How many media stories have you ever seen pointing out that advocates of unrestricted abortion hold a position that is so radically opposed to public opinion that it is supported only by somewhere between 8 percent and 13 percent of the electorate?

A ban on so-called “assault weapons”? Most Americans oppose that. Americans believe by nearly a 7-to-1 margin that government antipoverty programs have done more harm than good.


Etc.