Fox News is terrified that Americans actually agree with Ocasio-Cortez

Fox News is very upset that the average Americans in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) district agree with her ideas about taxing the super-rich.

The conservative, pro-Trump propaganda network sent reporter Lawrence Jones (who has a history of embarrassing himself on air) to New York’s 14th Congressional District, apparently hoping to find voters who would bash the freshman Democrat.

They were disappointed.

Asked by Jones about Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to tax earnings over $10 million at a rate of 70 percent, one woman said she agreed: “I am all for it.”

“Absolutely, they make so much money, tax them!” another woman emphatically said.

One man said he thought 70 percent was actually “too low,” and that a 90 percent marginal tax rate on income above $10 million would be a better idea.

“The people believe in her,” Jones said incredulously. “People should be afraid.”

“I don’t know what’s scarier: her policies or the fact that so many people will agree with her,” fretted Fox and Friends co-host and consummate Trump booster Brian Kilmeade.

Jones and Kilmeade seem terrified that a popular member of Congress might actually represent the views of her constituents.

The constituents Jones interviewed were also receptive to Ocasio-Cortez’s push to abolish ICE because of the agency’s repeated abuses of immigrants.

“Yes,” one woman replied when asked if she thought the agency should be dissolved. Another man interviewed said he wasn’t sure if ICE needed to be fully abolished, but that he did think “major changes, radical changes” need to be made.

Fox, and other members of the right-wing media like Rush Limbaugh, have trained their sights on Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive members of the new Democratic House majority — precisely because of how popular they are.

For many years, Fox has refused to challenge the Republican-backed economic policies that have mostly benefited the super-rich.

But the public has been extremely receptive to more progressive economic ideas like the ones Ocasio-Cortez is promoting — and has largely rejected the kinds of ideas Fox promotes.

The tax scam that Trump and Republicans passed may have been hailed on Fox News, but it has been a big dud in public opinion and has done nothing to help the economy.

By contrast, Ocasio-Cortez’s 70 percent marginal tax rate idea isn’t just popular — it’s also something America has successfully tried before. The top marginal tax rate went as high as 91 percent under President Eisenhower, and fell to 70 percent under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. These were some of America’s most economically prosperous decades.

Fox promotes itself as the voice of the people, but has allied itself with the worst of the super-rich.

The propaganda network thought it could help bring down progressive Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez. But actually talking to regular Americans is all it took for the effort to blow up in their faces.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.