During last night's Democratic debate, a seriously weirdass ad ran in a number of large media markets, depicting a photo of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez catching fire and burning. Behind the burning face of AOC was the "real face of socialism": photographs of skulls and dead bodies from Cambodia's killing fields. The point, in case you miss it, is that all socialism leads to genocide, as narrator Elizabeth Heng, a failed 2018 GOP congressional candidate, explained:

This is the face of socialism and ignorance. Does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez know the horror of socialism? My father was minutes from death in Cambodia before a forced marriage saved his life. That's socialism. Forced obedience. Starvation. Mine is a face of freedom. My skin is not white. I'm not outrageous, racist or socialist. I'm a Republican.

"I'm not outrageous," huh? Citation Needed, as they say.

Not surprisingly, a lot of viewers wondered what the fuck that was all about, and why ABC would accept an ad that accuses a sitting member of Congress of being in league with mass murderers. (Quick answer: It was an ad buy through multiple local markets; the ad didn't air nationally, so tweeting #BoycottABC won't accomplish anything.) But now people are talking about Elizabeth Heng and her one-woman PAC, "New Faces GOP PAC," which the Daily Beastreports "appears to be purely a Heng-related venture." So who is this loon and why is she insisting AOC will genocide you?

Here's the ad, which is a real piece of work:

New Faces GOPyoutu.be

Slate offers this brief review of Heng's résumé:

Who is Heng, you might ask? She's a former staffer for Rep. Ed Royce, worked on Donald Trump's inaugural committee, and ran unsuccessfully in the 2018 election against Democratic incumbent Jim Costa in California's 16th Congressional district. As a young, minority woman, and the daughter of refugees, running as a Trump supporter, Heng attracted some national media attention during the midterms, with the Wall Street Journal even suggesting she could be "an Ocasio-Cortez for the GOP." There was also some controversy when Facebook blocked one of her campaign ads, which told her parents' story, because it featured graphic imagery of the Cambodian genocide.

So she's trying to become the person who proves just how friendly Donald Trump's GOP is to people of color, and we're sure she and Tim Scott can have long chats about that.

She really is the daughter of a survivor of the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge genocide, and that truly was among the most horrific events of the 20th century. It also has about as much to do with the policies of democratic socialists like AOC as the Holocaust had to do with national health insurance. Which is to say, Republicans can't see any difference between them. The Khmer Rouge didn't seize control of Cambodia by promising universal healthcare or even a Green New Deal, which was totally the wrong color for a bunch of insane Maoists.

And to be sure, the Khmer Rouge did receive aid from the Chinese Communist party, at least until they turned out to be too maniacally murderous -- or, more to the point, not all that helpful to China's regional goals. Again, the problem here is that no matter how much you yell it, American Democrats are not Maoists. (Or at least that's what we want you to believe, while we secretly write love poems about tractors.) Incidentally, you know who drove the Khmer Rouge out of power and ended the killing fields? A wholly different bunch of communists, the very very communist government of Vietnam.

And let's not even START on how the Khmer Rouge were able to come to power amid the corruption and chaos caused by the Nixon administration's secret war in Cambodia. If only the Land of the Free had bombed the country a bit more aggressively and the Democrats had let US troops invade to ensure no one would ever have socialist healthcare, things would have been just fine, probably.

This isn't Heng's first attempt at accusing Ocasio-Cortez of genocide. Back in June, she wrote an op-ed for the Fresno Bee explaining that the Fresno Grizzlies minor league sportsball team was absolutely right to compare AOC to Fidel Castro and Kim Jong Un as enemies of freedom, because some folks said the person who made that briefly controversial video should be fired. This proves the socialists all want to end Free Speech forever.

In any case, it remains to be seen whether Elizabeth Heng will be able to spout Free Republic comments loudly or effectively enough to have any influence beyond this debut national-ish appearance. As the Daily Beast explains, her PAC is so far a sequel to her unsuccessful campaign last year, right down to the funding and the staff:

Of the group's 22 publicly disclosed donors, Federal Election Commission records show that at least 13 of them also contributed to Heng's 2018 congressional campaign, which she lost to Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA) by 15 points.

New Faces GOP's treasurer also ran the finances of Heng's congressional campaign. The super PAC's top vendor, Strategic Perception, also produced ads for the campaign.

The article also notes that while the PAC was formed in March, nearly everything on its website "were uploaded or created this month."

We suppose it all depends on what Heng goes with as a follow up. Possibly Beto O'Rourke's plan to ban assault weapons as a clear echo of the liquidation of the Łódź ghetto? She certainly can't compare any Democrats to Kim Jong Un, the last actual communist leader anywhere. He writes such lovely letters about peace.

[Daily Beast / Slate / Deadline / Fresno Bee]

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