Piers Morgan has a reputation for kissing up to Donald Trump. He’s now doing the same for his daughter Ivanka. In the process, he’s made his opinions on working people incredibly clear, via a thinly veiled attack on congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:
Could be worse… Ivanka could have been a bar-tender 18 months ago. https://t.co/xAj8Guc3hH
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 30, 2019
Working-class attack?
People thought Morgan’s thoughts were clear:
But was it that simple? Intercept columnist Mehdi Hasan took Morgan to task:
What’s worse here: the shameless snobbery and elitism from the host of a British morning TV show or the fact that he doesn’t understand the difference between being an elected official and being the daughter of an elected official? https://t.co/jhiB3H9n79
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 30, 2019
Morgan objected to this, leading to the following exchange:
Fair enough – i’ll drop the elitism charge. How about the ignorance bit? You do get that @AOC was elected while Ivanka is there only because she is the daughter of the president? You do get that distinction right? You know what representative democracy is? And what nepotism is?
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 30, 2019
But should Hasan have ‘dropped the elitism charge’? Because the assumption of Morgan’s tweet is that people living at the rough edge of society aren’t qualified to have a say on it. If anything, though, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has shown us that her perspective is what US politics has been missing.
Fresh voices
Ocasio-Cortez’s experience of working bar jobs means she understands what it’s like to be a minimum-wage worker. In fact, she understands what it’s like to be a below-minimum-wage worker. As The Canary previously reported, in the US:
employers can pay workers who earn tips less than other non-tipped workers. According to federal law, an employer only has to pay a tipped worker a minimum of $2.13 per hour.
Ocasio-Cortez commented on the matter, saying:
Any job that pays $2.13 an hour is not a job. It’s indentured servitude.
the way that we give labour dignity is by paying people the respect and the value that they are worth at minimum.
According to some studies, “half of Americans are in or near poverty”. On top of that, a 2018 report found that 78% of US workers are living “paycheck to paycheck”, and also that:
most workers said they are in debt and many believe they always will be.
Although most people on low wages would like to be paid better, raising wages is hardly a hot topic issue among most politicians.
This begs a question:
Does Ocasio-Cortez’s time spent as a bar worker make her unqualified to be a politician? Or does it give her exactly the qualifications needed right now?
Other people’s shoes
There’s no reason why any person shouldn’t be able to see the world from the perspective of another. Despite that, politicians rarely prioritise the interests of working people. As such, the more politicians like Ocasio-Cortez the better.
Featured image via US House of Representatives – Wikimedia / iDominick – Wikimedia
