With elections coming up (again), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent me a request for a campaign donation.
It’s not the only request I’ve gotten. Seems like dozens of Congressional and Senate candidates need money. But not all of them used to work as waitresses. I would hardly think a waitress could afford to fund a Congressional campaign, with her modest salary. Even if she earned generous tips, which I bet Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did.
She has also worked as a bartender, so not just a waitress’ salary. In fact, I imagine she worked multiple jobs, as most waitresses do.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez represents a district in New York City — the eastern part of The Bronx and part of north-central Queens. So although I can support her campaign monetarily, I can’t actually vote for her.
She wonders why some people are mad. She wonders if it’s because she used to be a waitress.
Curiously enough, my own Congressional representative, here in southern Colorado, is Lauren Boebert. She also worked as a waitress, and maybe as a bartender, to judge by photos I’ve seen.
Ms. Boebert liked to wear a handgun while pouring iced tea. And a t-shirt that said, “I Am The Security.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is one of the few “working class people” who have been elected to Congress. Apparently, Ms. Boebert is another.
After dropping out of high school to have a baby, Lauren Boebert took a job as an assistant manager at a McDonald’s in Rifle, Colorado, west of Glenwood Springs. She later worked for a pipeline company, doing filing. In 2013, she and her husband opened Shooters Grill in Rifle. Shooters Grill, according to her congressional disclosure forms, lost $143,000 in 2019 and $226,000 in 2020.
Maybe she should have kept the McDonald’s job?
I worked in a restaurant all the way through college, and then later became a journalist, which is sort of “working class” except you don’t earn tips.
On the subject of working class, there were 175 members of the American Bar Association serving as our U.S. representatives during the 117th Congress (2021-2023). Being a lawyer is a type of work, and I hear it pays pretty well. A lawyer would generally have more money than a waitress. But maybe these lawyers in Congress were struggling a bit, and needed a second job. Paying alimony, maybe? Mortgage on a $4 million house?
Some of the lawyers are Democrats, and some are Republicans. Like with the waitresses. Ms. Boebert is about as far right as a former waitress can get, and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is, by contrast, about as far left as a person can go and still call themselves an American.
So of course some people are mad. We’re not mad because we have waitresses in government — it’s not ideal, but it’s a sight better than having lawyers.
And we’re not mad because some of the former waitresses are fascists, and some are communists. That’s to be expected.
We’re mad because, who’s going to serve the iced tea?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.