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In a blistering attack on the political establishment in Washington, DC, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) this week left little doubt whom her colleagues serve — and it is not the American people, but rather the corporations and wealthy donors whose campaign contributions secure their reelection. 

“No matter which way the political pendulum swings, Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that “corporate and global interests remain Washington’s sweethearts.”

As a result, “The average American family can no longer survive on a single breadwinner’s income as both parents have to work in order to survive,” and many young people “feel hopeless for their future and don’t think they will ever realize the American dream.”

It’s tough to find fault with any of that… but there is just one thing: These quotes didn’t come from the lawmaker best known as AOC — but rather from a colleague who often also goes by her initials: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). 

We took them from a scathing 10-minute video in which MTG announced Friday night that she plans to resign from Congress on January 5. 

Americans should watch it. 

Because, when you take away the southern drawl and the bits about identity politics, much of what Greene said could have come from Ocasio-Cortez or her mentor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). 

Judge for yourself. Here is one of them talking about party spokespersons and consultants trying to gaslight Americans into believing that things are going well: 

[Americans] know how much credit card debt they have, they know how much their bills have gone up.  … They actually do their own grocery shopping and know food costs too much. Rent has increasingly gone up and up. They have been outbid by corporate asset managers too many times when they put in an offer to buy a house. 

They’ve been laid off after being forced to train their visa-holding replacement. The college degree they were told to earn only left them in debt with no big six-figure salary. They see more homeless people than ever on their own community streets. They can’t afford health insurance or practically any insurance and they just aren’t stupid.

And here is the other on the cost of housing:

I believe that homes are not slot machines for investors and Wall Street to extort working families out of every last dollar that we have. Home is sacred. And when your landlord doubles your rent overnight or when housing prices skyrocket, because Wall Street treats our housing market like a casino, your government and your public servants should fight to help you keep an affordable roof over your head.

Sure, if you are paying attention to some specific turns-of-phrase, you can figure out that the first was Greene and the second Ocasio-Cortez, but essentially they are saying the same thing. 

In her video, for example, MTG railed against “neocons, big pharma, big tech, [the] military-industrial leaders, and the elite donor class that can never relate to real Americans.” 

Conversely, this is AOC earlier this year at a rally in Los Angeles: 

For years, we have known that our political system has slowly but surely become dominated by big money and billionaires. Time after time, we have seen and experienced how our government and laws are more responsive to lobbyists than to the will of everyday people. 

We’re not saying that they’re exactly the same. Obviously, there’s a lot that separates them. However, there’s also a lot more common ground than anybody, especially their supporters, might think. 

However, those powerful interests that they are both talking about want to make sure that they remain on each other’s throats.

In her video, Greene says that elections are won nowadays by “whichever side can convince Americans to hate the other side more.” 

That’s shockingly astute — especially from someone with a long record of antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+, and Islamophobic rhetoric. 

The people paying the bills of politicians and controlling which news the American public consumes want to keep it that way. 

They want voters to focus on things like abortion, how much money police departments should or shouldn’t get, or trans rights, and not on how corporations and billionaires are sucking Americans dry in pursuit of extra profits that widen the wealth gap more every day. 

Both AOC and MTG understand this. 

In her Los Angeles speech, Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that extreme wealth inequality requires “toxic division and corruption” to survive, because the “agenda of dark money to keep wages low and to loot our public goods to give to the rich is deeply unpopular with people of all backgrounds, all parties, and all places.” 

In other words, if these Americans were to focus on economic issues instead of on identity politics, they could disrupt this system. 

On the same topic, Greene stated that, once the “American people realize and understand that the political-industrial complex of both parties is ripping this country apart,” and that voters “possess real power over Washington,” then she would be happy to help them rebuild the country. 

Of course, in order for it to be rebuilt, the current system would first have to be torn down. 

We believe that both AOC and MTG would like for that to happen. 

What is particularly interesting is that Ocasio-Cortez, who began her congressional career as more of an outsider after upsetting a 10-term incumbent, seems more likely to be able to do so through the system, while Greene, who was once in Trump’s inner circle, would have to do so as a pariah now.

Until a few weeks ago, we never thought that we would say this, but we hope that MTG keeps speaking out on these issues. 

And, maybe, both her supporters and those of progressives like AOC will realize that there is a lot more that unites them, especially when it comes to populist issues like affordability and opportunity, than that divides them. 

Judge for yourself. 

Take away the partisan rhetoric and their profound disagreement on social issues, and the two sound a lot like.

And it would be the worst nightmare of the oligarchs and corporate overlords that rule the country if regular Americans were to figure that out, and if someone, perhaps AOC herself, managed to harness their discontent into the kind of political revolution that would shake up a system that only benefits those at the very top.