In the Debate between Socialism and Capitalism, Choose Democracy, says Ocasio-Cortez

As Don Draper of AMC’s hit series Mad Men likes to say, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”

We might as well crown Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the Don Draper of the beltway — -because there’s no mistaking that she has fundamentally re-shaped political conversation in Washington, D.C., offering a cure to bicameral boredom and a fresh approach to problem-solving.

Whatever your position, it is hard to argue that she has not brought a new zest and energy to the legislative arena with her unapologetic embrace of socialism and her patient, clear-headed explanations of how a much-maligned, indeed historically verboten, socialist politics can provide a vision and path to empowering people in the political process as well as ensuring people access to healthcare, employment with a decent living wage, and an environment habitable for our families.

And while up until recently America’s abiding anti-communism, a Cold War hangover, meant that associating any idea with socialism or communism guaranteed that idea’s hasty and unquestioned death, such tactics are losing traction.

Mitch McConnell, in bringing a resolution to the Senate floor on the Green New Deal, hoping to kill it, called the initiative…