My kids—particularly my daughter—are currently obsessed with Aladdin. Not the 2019 remake, but the 90s version in all its animated glory. So, as you might imagine, I’ve got the songs and the script coursing through my head on repeat.

I found myself hearing Aladdin’s voice in my head this last week, oddly enough in relation to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Don’t worry, it’ll make sense. Give me a minute).

You know that part of the movie where it dawns on Aladdin (as he’s in the death grips of Jafar towards the end of the movie) that he could get out of that pickle by getting Jafar to ask Genie to turn him into a genie himself? Here, just in case it’s not as crystal clear in your head as it is in this momma’s mind:

“Slave, I make my third wish!  I wish to be an all-powerful genie!” roars Jafar. “All right, your wish is my command,” says a reluctant Genie, as he side-eyes Aladdin and mutters, “Way to go, Al.”

Baddabing, baddaboom, Jafar’s a genie. Before he’s had a chance to revel in his new-found talents, Aladdin makes his move:

“Not so fast, Jafar!  Aren’t you forgetting something? You wanted to be a genie, you got it!  And everything that goes with it!”

(Cut to a shocked Jafar who realizes what he’s done, is reduced to prisoner of his own lamp, and is subsequently tossed into desert oblivion by Genie.)

That last part—the part I highlighted. THAT’S what I wanted to get at. That line was in my head this week when I saw this tweet flash across the screen of my TV:

Literally, in my head: “Not so fast, AOC!  Aren’t you forgetting something? You wanted FDR, you got it!  And everything that goes with it!”

So—just exactly what is “everything that goes with it”?

Seriously though. I’ve never fully understood the rationale behind why the Democrat party and its burgeoning class of ultra-leftists adore historical figures like FDR who—historically—are kinda problematic.

So, you want to return to the glory days of FDR? You got it.

Yeah, let’s return to imprisoning—without a shred of due process or even any real evidence of sabotage— “over a hundred thousand west coast American citizens and aliens with one-sixteenth or more Japanese blood.” Oh, and then not do a thing to rectify the injustice when the war was over.

Yeah, let’s return to when European Jews (unlike today’s petitioners of refugee status) were trying to flee actual mass extermination and were refused safe harbor by FDR.

Yeah, let’s return to when lynching was a regular occurrence—and FDR did nothing to support legislation to stop it, “for fear of alienating white Democratic voters in the south.” He had bigger things to worry about, what with the New Deal legislation needing southern support and all. (Sidebar: it’s AOC and her party who routinely try and, for lack of a better phrase, whitewash history during this period, trying to ensure that it’s white Republicans and not white Democrats who were the perpetrators of racism.)

Yeah, let’s return to when a black man named Jesse Owens represented the United States in the Olympics and—after winning four gold medals and being treated like trash by Adolf Hitler—was then ignored by FDR upon their return.  As this piece put it so well, Owens’ win in Nazi Germany succeeded in “undercutting Hitler’s white-supremacy dogma…”and FDR didn’t even so much as acknowledge him—or the 17 other black athletes representing our country during those Olympics.

Yeah, let’s return to sweeping economic policies (namely, FDR’s New Deal) that saw thousands and thousands of black Americans left jobless, discriminated against, and penniless when, for example, the Tennessee Valley Authority “flooded an estimated 730,000 acres of land behind its dams.” While farm owners got settlements, “tenant farmers — a substantial number of whom were black — got nothing.” Indeed, the New Deal was permeated with the stench of Jim Crow influence, particularly the fact that “there were a number of major pieces of new deal legislation that were substantially modified to conform to the demands of southern racists. These included: The Agricultural Adjustment Act, The Social Security Act, The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), and The Federal Housing Act.” This same author notes, correctly, that “the results of those efforts still have impact on the lives and wealth of African Americans today.”

Sidebar: it’s the AOCs of the world that love to paint “Make America Great Again” as some kind of racist trope (despite the fact that under this president’s policies, minorities have never done better) when it fact it is HER party that longs for a return to the olden days when the lines were very clearly drawn between the races. And while we’re at it, may I remind everyone that as this was going on, the American Southwest and its Hispanic population were treated just as horrendously, and affected just as negatively by segregationist New Deal negotiations. I love the movie “Giant” for illustrating this fact, as it is so often left out of the dialogue and forgotten. And lastly, kudos to this writer for pointing out that whether FDR condoned the racism actively or chose to ignore it because of political pressure is irrelevant. He’s wrong either way.  

Sadly, it’s not just the way minorities were treated under his policies—which incidentally, made the depression WORSE. It’s the lasting economic and governmental impact felt by ALL Americans to this day. All of the broken social programs that AOC and her ilk are constantly preaching about fixing and making even bigger? They’re all largely from that golden era of unbridled government expansion under FDR.

Perhaps the greatest (or most sinister, rather) legacy we’re left with is that “in place of old beliefs about liberty, we have greater toleration of, and even positive demand for, collectivist schemes that promise social security, protection from the rigors of market competition, and something for nothing.”

Boy, doesn’t that sound like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

As long as we’re educating ourselves on the matter of FDR and AOC’s desire to return to his legacy, let’s get a few simple fundamentals down. It’s simple, I promise:

• Racism is bad.
• Collectivism has never worked.
• Everything always costs something.

And you can take those facts to the BANK.

Bottom line: AOC would do well to learn her history (again) before insisting we return to its darker chapters.

Mary Ramirez is a full-time writer, creator of www.afuturefree.com, and contributor to The Chris Salcedo Show on KSEV 700 Radio in Houston, and on Newsmax TV. She can be reached at: afuturefree@aol.com; or on Twitter: @AFutureFree