Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and his fellow socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say the only way to end poverty in America is to destroy the economic system that made the U.S. the most powerful and prosperous country on Earth and the land of opportunity.

The claim by the senator from Vermont and the congresswoman from New York is a dangerous lie that ignores economics, history and reality. It makes as much sense as telling a family you will burn down their house so they can get a better one – but then failing to build anything of value on top of the ashes after their home goes up in flames.

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have become the most prominent faces of a radicalized Democratic Party that has moved further left than any time in American history. Not long ago they would have been considered fringe extremists with no chance of winning election to a federal office.

JUSTIN HASKINS: BERNIE SANDERS & AOC SEEK DISASTROUS SOCIALIST REVOLUTION THAT WOULD DEVASTATE AMERICA

Yet incredibly, Sanders is now a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination this year, and Ocasio-Cortez’s supporters talk about her as a presidential candidate in future years. If you pitched Hollywood a movie about these socialist comrades 20 years ago no studio would buy it – it would have been considered too crazy to be taken seriously.

AOC, a 30-year-old who worked as a bartender before being elected to the Congress in 2018, recently complained in a widely publicized interview that too many of her Democratic colleagues in Congress believe “we can capitalism our way out of poverty.”

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