Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez either doesn’t have a great deal of confidence in the abilities of poor Americans to determine their own destinies, or she doesn’t understand language and common expressions.
During a short speech delivered on the House floor Thursday, the freshman congresswoman from New York translated the common “bootstraps” expression literally, and claimed it is “physically impossible” for people to lift themselves up by their own shoelaces.
“This idea of a bootstrap,” she started. “You know this idea, this metaphor of a bootstrap started off as a joke.”
The bartender-turned-socialist-lawmaker added: “Because, it’s a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap, by your shoelaces. It’s physically impossible!”
The “Squad” member concluded: “The whole thing is a joke.”
AOC: “It’s a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap, by your shoelaces? It’s physically impossible."
It'd be a shame if everyone responded to this tweet with their stories proving @AOC's theory wrong.
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For the sake of argument, let’s assume Ocasio-Cortez was telling a bad joke and examine her presumption that even the most impoverished Americans can’t find success through hard work.
The far-left Democrat worked as a bartender before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at age 29. Is the congresswoman arguing that the path to success is impossible for thee but not for me?
Is AOC arrogant enough to believe that a path to prosperity for working-class Americans exists only for her?
And if Americans do find a path to success, how much success is too much? The congresswoman previously stated she believes that any system that “allows billionaires to exist” is “wrong.”
Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter on Thursday to expound on her bootstrap comments.
“What does ‘bootstrapping’ mean to the GOP?” she said. “That you didn’t go to public school? That you didn’t enlist in the military, which is funded by the gov? That you never got a tax break for starting a business or buying a home? That your parents never used food assistance to feed you?”
What does “bootstrapping” mean to the GOP?
That you didn’t go to public school?
That you didn’t enlist in the military, which is funded by the gov?
That you never got a tax break for starting a business or buying a home?
That your parents never used food assistance to feed you?
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Defending herself and attacking President Donald Trump, she also tweeted: “I worked my butt off to get elected against all odds, without any special connections or money. I worked double shifts and wore through my shoes, outspent 10:1 to get elected. Even w/ all that hard work, it would be narcissistic to pretend I ‘bootstrapped’ it alone & w/o others.”
I worked my butt off to get elected against all odds, without any special connections or money. I worked double shifts and wore through my shoes, outspent 10:1 to get elected.
Even w/ all that hard work, it would be narcissistic to pretend I “bootstrapped” it alone & w/o others.
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She also invoked the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who once said: “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
Of course, many of the country’s most renowned, successful and wealthy people — including Dr. King — came from backgrounds that range from humble to financially destitute.
It’s the American dream.
Has the path that allowed AOC to go from bartending at a New York City restaurant to roaming the halls of Congress closed for everyone else, permanently?
If by some chance that path is still open, where does Ocasio-Cortez wish to step in and put a cap on it?
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