Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Trumpism of the left

It’s easy to get carried away with populist rhetoric.

It feels good.

The aim of populist rhetoric is to give “red meat” to your supporters. In effect, that means to tell them what they want to hear.

For Trump, the adulation of the crowd is intoxicating. He doesn’t care whether what he says is true, whether what he says conflicts with what he said just minutes ago, or whether he even knows what he’s talking about. All he cares about is the reaction of the crowd. He enjoyed campaigning — certainly much more than he enjoys governing. That is why he is the first President in recent memory to repeatedly hold campaign-style rallies even after the election was over.

Much has been made about the populist rhetoric on the right. It’s easy to point to his claim that we will build a wall and Mexico will pay for it. Or that he will repeal Obamacare and replace it with something much better and cheaper. Or that he will pay off the federal debt in ten years. Of course he can do none of those. Those promises are completely impractical. They ignore the difficult part of making policy, the part that involves making choices. If we are to pay off the debt, for example, we will have to get the money from somewhere. That involves either raising taxes or cutting benefits, something that rarely…