Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez harshly criticized Republican Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday for quoting Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to make his point.
"In case you missed it, while the GOP is calling paying a living wage 'socialism,' a Republican Senator full-on quoted National Fascist Party leader and Hitler ally Benito Mussolini like it’s a Hallmark card," she tweeted.
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to a tweet put out by Cornyn on Sunday in which he quoted the fascist dictator.
“We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become,” Cornyn tweeted in quoting Mussolini.
When some people were puzzled over his use of the quote from a fascist leader, Cornyn sent out another tweet saying, “Since so-called Democratic Socialists have forgotten or never learned the lessons of history, and how their ideology is incompatible with freedom, I guess we have to remind or teach them.”
He later further clarfied his use of the quote, noting that it appeared in Austrian political philosopher Friedrich Hayek's 1944 book "The Road to Serfdom," according to The Hill. In his work, Hayek criticized state-run planned economies, arguing that those systems inevitably devolve into tyranny and fascism.
Opinions regarding socialism have been changing in the U.S., with a recent poll showing that Democrats have more positive perceptions of socialism than of capitalism.