Opinion

JONATHAN TURLEY: AOC's war on billionaires twists America's birth into a socialist myth

Many Founders were themselves wealthy, and their revolution was rooted in property rights and free-market ideals, Turley says

By Jonathan Turley Fox News

Published May 14, 2026 5:00am EDT

Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Comments Print Email Add Fox News on Google

close

Video

AOC on 2028 speculation: My ambition is 'way bigger' than a title

Asked whether she should run for president, Senate or stay in the House, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said her goal is not a position but "to change this country." (Credit: University of Chicago Institute of Politics)

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is fast becoming the greatest fabulist since Aesop.

Recently, Ocasio-Cortez insisted that true billionaires are a capitalist myth since "you can’t earn a billion dollars." However, her greatest work of fiction may be her insistence that the Framers fought against billionaires and would have joined her and other socialists in seeking to eradicate them today.

Bertrand Russell once noted that "there is something feeble and a little contemptible" about those "who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths."

The American left has long peddled such "comfortable myths" as the wealthy "not paying their fair share" of taxes. The top 1% of income earners pay over 40% of federal taxes, and that percentage goes up to 70% for the top 10%.

AOC DOUBLES DOWN ON ‘MYTH’ OF EARNING A BILLION DOLLARS, CLAIMS FORTUNES ARE BUILT ON ‘ABUSE’

However, Ocasio-Cortez has become a liberal Homer for her reputation for spinning collectivist tales. What is impressive is her myth-within-a-myth signature style: "You can’t earn that, right? And so you have to create a myth … you have to create a myth of earning it."

In a discussion at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Ocasio-Cortez gave her revisionist account of the Founders as, surprise, budding anti-capitalists:

"I want to talk about how this is in the heritage of our country, because America was founded … you look at Thomas Jefferson writing to Madison in revolt of British aristocracy. The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time. And we are declaring independence from........

© Fox News