AOC Makes Huge Mistake Challenging Ted Cruz – He Gives Her an Unforgettable History Lesson

It’s one of the left’s most frequently trotted-out canards: Sure, the Democrats may once have been the party of Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and George Wallace — but somewhere along the line, things switched and now Republicans are the real bigots.

Except, as Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York found out the hard way when she tried that line on GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, that’s little more than a big fat lie.

In a Twitter thread so thoroughly entertaining it even caught the attention of Elon Musk, Cruz managed to school both AOC and anti-Trump, anti-Cruz RINO Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

The whole kerfuffle began when Ornstein attacked Cruz for criticizing the NAACP’s virtue-signaling “travel advisory” for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ state of Florida. The senator said the boycott was “bizarre” and “utterly dishonest,” noting that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “would be ashamed of how profoundly [the NAACP has] lost their way.”

“Guess who would have been first in line to filibuster against the voting rights act, and the civil rights act. Yes, Ted Cruz!” Ornstein said in the Monday tweet.

Guess who would’ve been first in line to filibuster against the voting rights act, and the civil rights act. Yes, Ted Cruz! https://t.co/ZljiJED3P8

— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) May 22, 2023

“Nonsense. That shameful filibuster was led by Democrats—your party,” Cruz said.

“My party — the Republicans — proudly voted for the Civil Rights Act in much higher percentages than the racist Dems,” the senator said.

Nonsense. That shameful filibuster was led by Democrats—your party.

My party—the Republicans—proudly voted for the Civil Rights Act in much higher percentages than the racist Dems. https://t.co/MgPZZFTlak

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 23, 2023

Aside from the fact that Ornstein technically doesn’t identify as a Democrat, Cruz was accurate: Back when the Democratic Party treated the Deep South as its own private fiefdom and counted arch-segregationists such as Wallace, Orval Faubus and James Eastland among its members, the GOP was instrumental in passing those key pieces of legislation and ensuring they cleared the hurdle of the filibuster.

But, like the Kool-Aid Man of reflexive liberal cluelessness smashing right through the brick wall of reason, Ocasio-Cortez barged into the conversation with everyone’s favorite anti-Republican whopper.

“Why don’t you go ahead and tell people what happened to the parties after that, Ted,” the congresswoman said.

Why don’t you go ahead and tell people what happened to the parties after that, Ted https://t.co/fiJgIgVZHO

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 23, 2023

I’m pretty sure AOC thought that comment would be a rhetorical mic drop. Instead, Cruz took it as an invitation.

“Sure,” he tweeted. “First, the Dem party founded the KKK. Then the Dem party wrote Jim Crow laws. Then the Dem party filibustered the Civil Rights Act.”

But didn’t the Democrat most memorably associated with the Civil Rights Act filibuster, Strom Thurmond, eventually turn Republican? Yes, but that’s hardly the whole story — particularly when you realize the web of failing, paternalistic government-run systems in which modern Democrats have deliberately trapped underprivileged minorities with their legislative priorities.