Have we ever seen a bigger crash-and-burn cycle on the foreign policy stage than that provided by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Reportedly, AOC planned to use her participation in the Munich Security Conference as her debut into the ranks of serious contenders for Democrats' 2028 presidential primaries. Instead, Ocasio-Cortez turned Munich into her own personal Dieppe.
I feel very confident, after watching her performance the last few days, that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will not get that reference without clicking that link. History is not her strong suit, as we can see in this clip. Duane also highlighted it briefly, but it's worth a closer look for its hilariously idiotic ackshually qualities.
Ocasio-Cortez tried to take a swipe at Marco Rubio, whose speech in Munich received broad acclaim and enthusiastic responses. She attempted to fact-check a gracious reflection on how much Europe has influenced American culture and heritage by ... exposing her utter ignorance of history.
AOC tries to take a swing at Sec. Rubios address in Munich:
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) February 15, 2026
“You are starting to see the ascent of the Right, even in places like Munich. Marco Rubio’s speech was a pure appeal to Western culture.“ pic.twitter.com/Ksh5HpH5FL
Rubio’s speech was a pure appeal to Western culture. My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain. I believe the Mexicans and descendants of African slave peoples would like to have a word on that.
What did Rubio actually say in his speech? “The entire romance of the cowboy archetype," Rubio noted in his speech, "that became synonymous with the American West – these were born in Spain.”
And he is absolutely right.
Not only did the cowboy archetype originate in Spain, so did the horses they rode in on. Literally. Horses had gone extinct in the Americas for thousands of years before the first Europeans came to the Western Hemisphere. Spanish explorers reintroduced horses in the 15th and 16th centuries in their efforts to settle the Americas, as well as the cattle ranching that had long been part of the vaquero culture in Spain.
The Daily Wire offers a brief history lesson:
The word “cowboy” itself is a direct translation of the Spanish word vaquero (from vaca, meaning cow). The tradition began in the medieval hacienda system of Spain and was brought to the Americas by conquistadors like Hernán Cortés and Gregorio de Villalobos in the early 1500s. These Spaniards introduced the first horses and cattle to the Western Hemisphere.
The “look” and equipment of the cowboy is almost entirely Spanish in origin: The lariat comes from la reata; chaps is a shortened form of the Spanish chaparreras, which were leather leggings used to protect riders from brush; the western saddle came from Spanish war and ranching saddles, and even the Stetson hat comes from the Spanish sombrero.
The rodeo dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when Spanish hacendados held annual rodeos to gather, count, and brand cattle. Spain introduced the ranching association and the system of branding cattle for ownership.
Note well that the cowboy/vaquero culture existed in the Americas long before African slaves ever arrived in North America. Rubio was right on the history, and more to the point, was trying to be gracious in acknowledging Spain's contribution to American culture in citing it. Ocasio-Cortez couldn't recognize grace if it dropped on her head.
In fact, AOC couldn't even get basic geography correct in this appearance:
AOC: The US shouldn't engage in actions like the one against Maduro just because Venezuela is “below the equator."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 16, 2026
Venezuela is not below the equator.
Got a round of applause anyway. pic.twitter.com/CMn9m154zZ
Venezuela is entirely above the equator. What that has to do with the policy or justification is as much a mystery as the globe is to Ocasio-Cortez.
Nor was that the only offensive part of AOC's charm offensive in Munich. She also took a moment to lecture Germans about "whiteness," which must have had them scratching their heads:
AOC: “Whiteness is an IMAGINARY THING.”
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) February 16, 2026
“There’s a very big difference between whiteness and national... like your actual culture. Whiteness is an imaginary thing. Being German is real. Being Italian is real, being English [is real].”
Imagine if she said the same thing about… pic.twitter.com/5SkQQshlgY
Er ... does Ocasio-Cortez consider "blackness" to be a real thing, or also imaginary? Can one be imaginary while the other is real? And more to the point, Germans probably know that "being German is real," but it's the Left that keeps wanting Germans to forget it in favor of "diversity." The EU has been experimenting with the destruction of national cultures for the last twenty-plus years, with disastrous results. The Left tried that here in the US during the four years of the Biden regency without a thought for "American" being a real thing, except the pan-Americanism of the open-borders crowd.
What about economics, also a focus of the Munich conference? Ocasio-Cortez endorsed a federal wealth tax, a hobby-horse agenda item for Democrat socialists, which the federal government can't impose without a new constitutional amendment to authorize it. She then got a lecture from an Argentinian politician who has seen this movie before, and warned Americans about the ending:
AOC in Munich giggles excitedly when asked if she will impose a wealth tax as president. Moments later, her ignorance is exposed by Argentinian politician Daiana Fernández Molero, who has actually seen the destruction caused by a wealth tax. pic.twitter.com/FQn6iEtxTC
— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) February 16, 2026
That lesson is not limited to Argentina. Norway imposed a wealth tax in 2022, and the results were predictable. Capital fled, AIER's Jon Miltmore reported the next year (as did The Guardian), and the country ended up losing money:
“More than 30 Norwegian billionaires and multimillionaires left Norway in 2022, according to research by the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv,” reports wealth correspondent Rupert Neate. “This was more than the total number of super-rich people who left the country during the previous 13 years, [the paper] added.”
Did you catch that? More “super rich” Norwegians left Norway in 2022 than during the previous 13 years combined. The reason wealthy Norwegians are fleeing the country is not a secret. ...
Norwegian Business School professor emeritus Ole Gjems-Onstad estimated that the wealthy Norwegians took with them a total fortune of $54 billion when they left. This means that the wealth tax, which was projected to increase revenue by nearly $150 million annually, will result in about 40 percent less revenue than it currently generates. Luca Dellanna, a management advisor and author, points out that Norway collected about $1.46 billion on its wealth tax in 2019. But the exodus of the wealthy will result in an estimated $594 million in lost revenue.
Finally, what about security? Global security was the main focus in Munich, or at least a close second to Euro-American security. Ocasio-Cortez got an opportunity to address security for Taiwan, a high-profile topic for decades in American foreign policy. When asked about it, however, Ocasio-Cortez clearly had no answer for it, and could barely form a coherent sentence, as I noted in Saturday's Final Word:
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Rep. AOC just SELF-DESTRUCTED while trying to represent America in Germany
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 13, 2026
"Should the US commit troops to defend Taiwan?"
AOC: "Um, you know, I think that, uhh, eh, this is such a, uh, you know, I th-I think that this is a, umm, this is of course a, uh, a very… pic.twitter.com/VfT98vKhZY
Ye gods. That alone should derail any hope by Democrats of having Ocasio-Cortez rising to the occasion in 2028's primaries, or really at any time. The problem is that Democrats don't really have great options at the moment. Even Barack Obama lamented that Democrats with any foundation are aging out, and he wants the younger generation to step up:
In an interview with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen that was published Saturday, the 64-year-old said part of the reason his own elections were so successful was because he was young at the time.
“I’m a pretty healthy 64, feel great, but the truth is, half of the references that my daughters make about social media, TikTok and such, I don’t know who they’re talking about,” he said. “There is an element of, at some point, you age out. You’re not connected directly to the immediate struggles that folks are going through.”
Former President Joe Biden, who was Obama’s vice president, was the oldest man to assume the presidency at the age of 78 in 2021. His decision to seek reelection in 2024 repeatedly drew concerns from voters who wondered how the octogenarian would be able to handle a second term in the White House. The fears were only amplified after a disastrous debate performance full of gaffes and losing his trains of thought. Obama, who had originally supported Biden in the election, went on to campaign for Biden’s younger replacement atop the ticket, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, after Biden ended his campaign.
Yeah ... how did that work out for Democrats?
If Ocasio-Cortez doesn't get the reference to Dieppe, perhaps we can adjust the analogy by calling the Munich Security Conference her Waterloo. I suspect, however, that this is what she'll have in mind.
