On Sunday, shared a video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at SXSW, talking about about President Reagan's legacy and how he "pitted" whites against browns and blacks.
"And one perfect example – a perfect example – of how special interests and the powerful have pitted white working class Americans against brown and black working Americans in order to just screw over all working class Americans is Reaganism in the '80s when you started talking about 'welfare queens,'" Ocasio-Cortez said during an interview at the conference. "So you think about this image, 'welfare queens,' and what he [Reagan] was really trying to talk about was – he was painting this photo, he's like painting this really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing that were sucks on our country, right? And it's the whole tragedy of these comments type thinking where it's like because these one specific group of people that you were already kind of subconsciously prime to resent, you give them a different reason, that's not explicit racism, but still rooted in racist caricature, it gives people a logical, a "logical" reason to say, 'Oh, yeah, no. Toss out the whole safety net.'"
New York Times best selling author Craig Shirley has written numerous books on President Ronald Reagan and his presidency. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Reagan Ranch and is considered one of the best Reagan historians out there. Shirley decided to challenge Ocasio-Cortez on her statements about the Gipper by providing facts about Reagan and his presidency:
THREAD: There is no evidence that @AOC ever picked up a book on President Ronald Reagan, so she would not know Reagan favored statehood for Puerto Rico. pic.twitter.com/n6Z1Js4gxg
— Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) March 11, 2019
There is no evidence that @AOC ever picked up a book on President Ronald Reagan, so she would not know Reagan appointed more African Americans to government positions as governor of California than any other executive of the state. pic.twitter.com/n6Z1Js4gxg
— Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) March 11, 2019
There is no evidence of @AOC ever picked up a book on President Reagan. so she would not know he was the president who signed the order creating the Dr. Martin Luther King national holiday. pic.twitter.com/n6Z1Js4gxg
— Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) March 11, 2019
There is no evidence that @AOC ever picked up a book on President Reagan, so she would not know he received over 43 percent of the Hispanic vote in 1980. pic.twitter.com/n6Z1Js4gxg
— Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) March 11, 2019
There is no evidence that @AOC ever picked up a book on President Ronald Reagan, so she would not know the @washingtonpost and the @NYT wrote lengthy articles exposing the massive corruption of the Welfare Queen of Chicago, Linda Taylor, to whom Reagan was referring.
— Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) March 11, 2019
There is no evidence that @AOC ever picked up a book on President Ronald Reagan. so she would not know that Reagan’s economic policies did more for African Americans and Hispanics than any other president in US history. pic.twitter.com/n6Z1Js4gxg
— Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) March 11, 2019
There is no evidence that @AOC ever picked up a book on President Ronald Reagan, so she would not know he created over 18 million jobs during his eight years in office and kicked off a 26 year run of economic growth. pic.twitter.com/n6Z1Js4gxg
— Craig Shirley (@CraigSBPA) March 11, 2019
AOC replied to Shirley but her response was a bit of a head scratcher. Apparently "reading different" books means knowing absolutely no history on a president and making blanket statements about the guy and his impact on America.
Ok great, now talk about Reagan and:
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 11, 2019
- Iran-Contra +
- The gutting of our mental health system +
- The explosion of homelessness under his watch +
- The crack epidemic
Maybe instead of insinuating I’ve never read a book, be open to the idea that we’ve read different ones. https://t.co/aP96oCCBwm
- HIV/AIDS crisis and demonization of LGBT+ community
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 11, 2019
- Union-busting
- Ending the Fairness Doctrine, which launched the polarized media environment we’re suffering from today
Why are we not supposed to talk about these things?
AOC is focusing too much on the actual word "book" in this instance. Shirley isn't talking about just books. He's referring to news articles as well. He's saying that if she wants to make these kind of statements about a president – especially ones that are extremely divisive – they would be rooted in fact.
Before you try to pit all of America's problems on one man, please, AOC, do your research. It would do you and your progressive followers some good.