Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) fired back at her conservative critics after she was mocked for saying that it is a “physical impossibility” to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.
Ocasio-Cortez was criticized after a video of her ripping into a traditional rags-to-riches metaphor surfaced on social media.
“It’s a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap, by your shoelaces?” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding, “It’s physically impossible. The whole thing is a joke.”
Watch the video below:
.@AOC on America’s rags-to-riches ideal: “It’s a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap, by your shoelaces? It’s physically impossible. The whole thing is a joke.” pic.twitter.com/9WNf8UE06T
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 6, 2020
Conservatives quickly mocked her comments:
AOC says “It’s a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap, by your shoelaces? It’s physically impossible."
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) February 6, 2020
Next from AOC:
“Nobody actually hs a chip on their shoulder when they say they do. I have not seen a single Lays potato chip on ANYBODY’S shoulder.” pic.twitter.com/rtFcAreAkF
Well, boys, she’s caught on. You can’t put anything over on @AOC. We thought we could trick her into believing in liberty and self-reliance with the old bootstrap dodge, but she was just too smart for us. The jig is up. https://t.co/YwUJAzJhnp
— Andrew Klavan (@andrewklavan) February 6, 2020
In other news, cats don't actually have people's tongues, nor do pots have the ability to call kettles black https://t.co/XN6pA1OsNV
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 6, 2020
A bartender who jumped to a $174k job that now complains isn't enough money for her is complaining that it's "physically impossible" to pull yourself up from the bootstraps in this country.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) February 6, 2020
The ignorance is incredible. pic.twitter.com/bc8e0dyFhP
On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez responded, sharing a video for Martin Luther King Jr. talking about the same issue.
“I see that the right is worked up that we pointed out the myth of bootstrapping when 60% of the wealth in this country is *inherited.* But hey, if you think I’m hopelessly dumb, try listening to MLK talk about ‘bootstrapping’ [and] the racial wealth gap, too.”
What does “bootstrapping” mean to the GOP?
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 6, 2020
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?
Then she ripped into Republicans, asking if it counts as “bootstrapping” to receive loans or tax-breaks to help start a business.
“Question for the GOP: Does starting a business with a 60 million dollar loan from your dad count as ‘bootstrapping?’ Does getting a $2 trillion dollar corporate handout from the GOP count as ‘bootstrapping?’ Asking for a corrupt president [and] his friends.
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.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 6, 2020
Even w/ all that hard work, it would be narcissistic to pretend I “bootstrapped” it alone & w/o others.
Additionally, turning to her own election, she said that it would be “narcissistic to pretend I ‘bootstrapped’ it alone.”
Ocasio-Cortez appeared to be referring to a 2017 study that said in 2010, 60% of Americans inherited their wealth, rather than through working and building their own fortune.
The Washington Post noted that the 2017 study found that the percentage was higher than some earlier studies.