Haven't we seen this movie before?
Certainly, there is a sense of deja vu all over again as one watches the right wing hyperventilate over a certain freshman congresswoman from New York. The attacks on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been frequent and furious, but also petty, silly and (in the mental-health sense) hysterical.
Just days ago, The Daily Caller tweeted "the photo some people are calling a nude selfie of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez." But it turns out "some people" are morons. The so-called "nude selfie," depicts only a woman's feet in a bathtub. Yes, some observers claim her bare breasts are visible in a reflection on the faucet, but if that's true, your humble correspondent lacks the eyesight -- and the interest -- to make them out.
Not that it matters, because Ocasio-Cortez is actually not the woman in the image, as The Daily Caller was eventually forced to concede. So this was a political hit job wrapped in a Three Stooges routine. She seems to attract a lot of those.
On Jan. 6, for example, conservative blogger Jim Hoft tweeted the "news" that Ocasio-Cortez "Went by 'Sandy' Well into College." This guy touted as an "EXCLUSIVE" the fact that the woman has a nickname -- like he thought he had solved the Hoffa case or something.
Then there's the since-suspended Twitter account that tweeted a video of Ocasio-Cortez dancing on a rooftop when she was in college. "America's favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is," the tweet said. Apparently, we're meant to be apoplectic to learn she once suffered boogie fever.
And so it goes. Republicans in Congress boo when her name is called. Her wardrobe and lodging are scrutinized. GOP operative Ed Rollins dubs her "the little girl." Rush Limbaugh calls her "some young uppity."
All this lavish abuse, it bears repeating, is for a freshman representative who, at this writing, has yet to do much of anything in Congress. Yes, like Bernie Sanders -- and Martin Luther King Jr. -- Ocasio-Cortez is drawn to democratic socialism. It's fair to question her ideology. It's fair to question anyone's ideology. But that's not what this is.
No, this is that movie we've seen before where the right wing, alarmed by the rise of the scary Other, seeks to manufacture scandal, spread rumor, sow confusion, impute some sense of the sinister. The less they have to work with, the more shrill, desperate and idiotic they become.
Back then, it was Barack Obama. He wore a tan suit, and conservatives sank onto their fainting couches. He greeted his wife with a fist bump and Fox "News" thought it might be terrorism. And how many conservatives, with furrowed brows and studious miens, pretended to believe there was some reason to doubt that he was born in Hawaii?
Obama's "otherness" came of being a black guy with a funny name. Ocasio-Cortez, though, hits the trifecta. She is young (29), a woman and of Puerto Rican heritage. Add her ideology to that mix, and you have a perfect storm of panic for those who consider power the birthright of gray-haired white men.
Ocasio-Cortez is another unwelcome reminder for them that change is here -- and that power will henceforth no longer be the province of a favored few. They've had over a decade to acclimate themselves to that, so it is sad to see the right wing retreat instead to the same old script -- especially since it inevitably reveals more about them and their fraidy-cat bigotry than anything else.
Yes, we have, indeed, seen this movie before. It was a lousy film the first time around.
It has not improved.
Leonard Pitts Jr.
Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald. lpitts@miamiherald.com
