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To prevent policy action by the “squad” of far-left congressional Democrats (Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley), conservatives should seek to debate them at every opportunity. Doing so, we can persuade Americans that the squad’s ideas aren’t very good and articulate how our ideas are better.

Such an approach is far superior to screaming “Send her back!” at Ilhan Omar and throwing profanity laden insults or threats at any other member of the squad. That course only risks making the squad a more sympathetic cause to people otherwise skeptical of their ideas.

Conservatives should have confidence in a better tradition, the source of enduring American democracy and prosperity: the marketplace of ideas. Where capitalism fosters creation of the best new goods, services, and technologies, so too does our democracy empower the best policies. We should trust in this ideas marketplace. After all, the squad doesn’t offer particularly stellar ideas.

Let’s start with Omar.

While the congresswoman is often too casually criticized, her ideas are quite bonkers. For just two examples, Omar appears to be anti-Semitic and is in favor of gutting our military. Explaining her recent vote against defense spending, Omar said, “We should be using some of this money to address the housing shortage in this country.”

Forgive me, but more crappy public housing isn’t going to do much to protect us from Chinese imperialism, Russian expansionism, and international terrorism.

Ocasio-Cortez seeks a massive government expansion at the expense of individual earnings and individual choices. She benefits from capitalism while simultaneously deriding it. Her inner circle exudes a zealotry in tune with historic enemies of humanity.

Tlaib also doesn’t appear to have much affection for Jews, nor does she offer much belief in or support for the private sector. But Tlaib does like to swear a lot. Is her example a good template for persuading more Americans to vote Democratic? I think not.

Pressley is probably the squad’s intellectual star. Even then, Pressley’s hard line socialist agenda is omnipresent. Pressley recently attacked Secretary of Urban Housing and Development Ben Carson for lacking “empathy and humanity.”

Why such anger? Because Carson doesn’t want to build as many new public housing projects as Pressley seeks. Instead, he promotes social mobility over reliance on government services.

The basic point is this. Socialism is a defective ideology in absolute divergence with our marketplace of ideas. Socialism aims to control that which the marketplace aims to empower. Socialism aims to dictate that which the marketplace constantly creates. Socialism aims to remake America into a nation where “know better” politicians make a few choices in supremacy of a marketplace of choices by entrepreneurs, consumers, and voters.

History and present day reality suggest that’s not a very clever idea. To prevent the squad from expanding their power, conservatives should focus on the policy, not the personalities.