Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deconstructed: Legend vs reality on 'working class'

I hadn’t really checked on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s background before she seemingly burst out of nowhere to be elected to Congress.

I’ve now rectified that, and here you go. Per a PolitiFact type analysis by yours truly, let’s say that a central part of her legend and narrative is …. “Half True.”

(Note: I will have a Part 2 to this, with post-election follow-up and additional "more than two sides" nuance.)

She has claimed to be of "working class" background, yet, per Wikipedia, her dad was an architect and she eventually grew up in a fairly swanky Westchester County burb.

See more about Yorktown Heights on City-Data. (Note: That is generally an excellent place for city roundups across the US on a wide range of demographic data.) Any place that has 20 percent of residents with a graduate degree, yes, a grad degree, ain't a working class town. Note that she won some high school science awards that wouldn't have been possible at less swanky place. The likes of Buster Olney, Susan Faludi and Dave Matthews are among residents there, per Wikipedia’s page on Yorktown Heights. Again, not the Hamptons, but far different from the Bronx where she grew up and where her NON working-class architect dad moved to. Yeah, slummy enough to have a K-Mart, but still.

When I first Tweeted about this elementary research, I got this response within an hour:

If her dad was an architect that means that he had to work every day architects are not oligarchs buying elections the Koch brothers Robert Mercer George soros betsy DeVos Bezos https://t.co/pKcWe7fwfI

— T (@Staley1) January 19, 2019

And, of course, that's BS. As explicitly noted above, I never claimed she lived in the Hamptons, nor did I claim that her dad was any of the above.

The feds said in 2015 that an average architect made a little over $75,000 and the bottom tier, even, made just over $45,000. In other words, not rich, but at least as much if not more than a decently paid school teacher, even at bottom. And, solidly above a school teacher on average. About 30 percent or so above.

AOC's dad was NOT working class when she was born and that's not how she grew up economically. Nor, after he moved the family to Yorktown Heights, is that how she grew up socio-economically.

Her dad died intestate. That's sad, but it has nothing to do with being working class. It's simply that a father who died of cancer, unless it was incredibly rapid in onset, didn't spend the money to protect his family with a will. That's all "intestate" means. It doesn't mean he was poor. It doesn't mean he was working class. Just that he didn't have a valid will, and per Wiki on that, New York State has sucky laws on intestacy. 

Also note that she had started a childhood literacy project after graduation and it was only when her mom was in danger of losing their home that she became a waitress in addition to apparently continuing to run that literacy project. Her adulthood after her dad died may have been working class in part, but her childhood? In addition, she chose to move back to the Bronx.

(Update, March 23: Turns out that she still owes the state of New York back taxes from that project/press. The amount isn't that much, so it's a matter of principle. And, since the amount's not that much, why hasn't she paid it yet? She has had nearly two years, and governments are usually amenable to negotiating repayment schedules.)

As for her environmentalism? Protesting at Standing Rock is great. Having the time-privilege to do that is "priceless," per MasterCard, but not available to the working class, generally.

And, after she knocked off Joe Crowley in the primary, Beltway stenos and auxiliaries apparently drank a partial shot of Kool-Aid, too. The NYT claims "she was sent to school in Yorktown." Wiki says the family moved there. (The Intercept says the family moved, but extended family helped them out with a house purchase.) That said, the Old Gray Lady does add that her dad was a small-biz owner. In other words, he was an independent architect, not someone working for a design company, construction contractor, etc. NOT working class. It also notes she worked in Ted Kennedy's office while at Boston U. Even if that was low-pay, she already had a foot in the political door.

Plus, the privilege to be able to do low-pay or intern work for a Congresscritter? NOT working class.

And, per the NY Daily News piece on her childhood literacy project, which was actually a small-imprint book publisher? Even with high student loan overhead ... your typical college grad can't afford to do that, but she apparently could.

And, back to her father's cancer death. None of the stories I've read say anything about when it was diagnosed vs when he actually died and other things. Nor does her own website.  Pacific Standard at least says it was lung cancer, which can at times be fairly rapidly spreading, but not THAT rapid, as in not so rapid for a presumably intelligent small businessman to not have enough time to make a will ... this part is just weird. It seems to me there's some "framing" going on here. That's another reason I'll go with "Half True."

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And, since I'm sure I'll be writing about her more in the future ... she officially gets a tag now.

And updates, like her now living in a non-working class DC neighborhood. And, not being quite as poor as some might think, with $20-$50K in savings, as well as any amount of officially designated retirement savings being listed in official finance filings.

The NY Post claims she doesn't live at her alleged district home address. If true, per the story, that she had also originally planned to run in District 15, not 14, this explains why she won that district's primary as a write-in for the Reform Party. It also partially explains why she rejected that.

At the same time, this piece too is loaded with potshots. AOC could not have started an editorial office eight months ago after defeating Crowley in the primary because she was NOT a Congresscritter and would not be for 7.5 more months.

Some of this may be spitballing and sour grapes by wingers. Some of it "is," not "may be." And, lord knows the Daily Mail just likes to engage in celebrity monkey-wrenching for clickbait. Nonetheless, per Ike's somewhat hypocritical comments about Tricky Dick, she surely knows that she needs to be cleaner than a hound's tooth. And, I'm not a winger. I'm not saying her legend is totally untrue. I am saying it's thinner than she has spun it, and that missteps unravel yet more threads.

On her new digs, no, she doesn't have to slum it. But, she maybe could have found a place with better optics? Ditto on shopping at Whole Paycheck in the middle of the Amazon dust-up.

In other words, I wouldn't make too big a deal out of it.

And, some issues, like her pre-election retreat on BDS, or throwing fellow freshman, Rep. Ilhan Omar, halfway under the bus on Israel-Palestine issues? NOT appearance issues, but political choices.

OTOH, eating a hamburger with her chief of staff (and AOC never claims it's a veggie burger) means that maybe her talking about cow farts isn't perfect. That's the chief of staff for whom AOC is possibly deliberately "underpaying" to skirt financial disclosure rules. So, defend her, liberal websites. As much as you can. (And, if you justified similar restaurant behavior against wingnuts, own your hypocrisy.)

On a hypocrisy scale? On a 1-10? Rates a 2, maybe a 3. No more.

First, wingnuts (and others), she just said we need to stop eating beef "breakfast, lunch and dinner." She never mentioned going vegetarian. So, even my 3 might be too high. And, it's probably time to do a separate blog post.

That's especially since AOC might have close ties with a bankster, yes, a #bankster, who was a major funder of The Young Turks and Justice Democrats.

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Per her Wiki page, I'm waiting for her likely ungrounded claim to have Sephardi Jewish ancestry to be deconstructed. And, this isn't just on her. In New Mexico, many Hispanos claim to have Sephardi ancestry and its more likely that they're descended from Protestant Adventist converts of the late 19th century. And, as for a breast cancer mutation proving Sephardi Marranos in New Mexico? Uh, no, Jews haven't so often married within their religion as the story claims, among other things. Also, Smithsonian doesn't tell you that those families denied being Jewish, as NIH reports.  And the British Medical Journal notes the mutation arose more than once. There's just too much "looseness" to satisfy me here still. Beyond that, if the mutation goes back to before the start of the Common Era, it could have arisen in Herod's Idumeans or something. And, yeah, I'm going to go there — at times, it comes off like Oklahomans claiming to be one-eighth Cherokee. That's you, up in Massachusetts.

Seriously ... given that an estimated 3.5 million direct descendants of Marranos exist today? Scattered all over Latin America and beyond? I highly doubt her claims. And, I find it "interesting" that she made them between the election and starting office. She may sincerely believe what she said her family found. I'm skeptical.