It is not often that a member of the legislature anywhere serves as a waitress at a bar. But that’s exactly what US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did during the last week of May. No, it wasn’t that the congressional lightning rod commonly known as AOC was moonlighting to make up for a shortfall in funds. She was waitressing to make a point —or two.
The first-year congresswoman was, indeed, a bar waitress when it struck her that she could do something else: run for Congress. Now some critics seek to shame her by urging her to return to that job. So, she just did, not out of shame but to back up her retort that there is nothing shameful about being a waitress.
Officially though, AOC did the waitressing to draw attention to the plight of people who make a living as bar/restaurant waiters and waitresses. They are usually minimum-wage earners, that is, people at the bottom rung of the payment scale. In fact, in 43 of the 50 states, it is legal to pay them less than the minimum wage on the assumption that they would make up for it in tips.
Well, AOC wants to change all that. To begin with, she wants to see the federal minimum wage of$7.25doubled by 2024. In addition, she wants to make it illegal for employers of tip-earners to pay them less than the minimum wage. And so she is a passionate supporter of the Raise the Wage Act that is currently making its way through Congress.
AOC’s passion for this cause speaks to the need for a government that is truly representative of the people, a government that is truly by the people. It is not that one has to have experience as a tips-worker to be their advocate. But who better to do so than someone who does have that experience? Who can more credibly articulate the experience to fellow legislators than she?
Alas, democratic governments virtually everywhere are dominated by people of the professional class, in other words the elite. In countries, such as Nigeria, with a long history of military rule, retired generals dominate.
In general, the closest that top leadership comes from the ranks of the masses has been from workers’ unions. In 1990, for example, Lech Walesa, an electrician at a Polish shipyard, went from being the Solidarity union leader to becoming Poland’s president. And in 2002, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former metalworker with a fifth-grade education, became the president of Brazil. More later about Lulu, as he is called.
In the United States, everyday people get elected as mayors of small towns, but it is rare that they rise to state leadership, let alone an office in Washington. The one occupational group that occasionally breaks the mold are actors. As celebrities, they are not exactly everyday people, but they’re not usually thought to have the managerial heft to be governors and president.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan, the TV pitchman and moderately successful actor, defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter to begin a two-term presidency. He became known for his trickledown economics, which focuses on creating wealth at the top on the assumption that it would lift up people at the bottom rung.
Inevitably, Reagan was criticised as insensitive to the plight of the poor, but he rejected that criticism. “I might not have lived near the railroad, but I lived close enough to hear the trains go by,” he once said, referring to America’s imagery of poverty.
Before becoming president, Reagan also served as governor of California. He was followed years later by another actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s not exactly surprising, as California is the home state to Hollywood.
The most improbable ascendance to political leadership in the US has to be the election of professional wrestler Jesse “The body” Ventura as governor of Minnesota in 1999. When Ventura announced his candidacy, it was national news but for jesting sake. But the man who made a living slamming others on the canvas had the last laugh. He won the race and occupied the governor’s office, albeit for one tumultuous term.
The country that most stands out for electing improbable people to top offices is Ukraine. Its current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was not just an actor, he spoofed the president. In effect, Ukrainians elected him president because he acquitted himself well comically playing the role.
In the election before that, heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko was the leading candidate. But he decided not to contend in order not to split the reformist vote. He instead became the mayor of Kiev, the capital city. It is not out of the question that when the curtain falls on the actor-president, the boxer-mayor will replace him.
The best case of leadership by an everyday person, however, has to be that of Brazil’s Lula. He grew up in poverty. And with little education, he managed to become a metalworker. Thence he became active in union matters and not long after, his charisma shot him up to the leadership. He then played a major role in founding the Workers Party, which soon had him elected to the Brazilian Congress. From there, he began to vie for the presidency, eventually winning it in 2002 with 61.3 per cent of the votes.
True to his background, Lula pursued policies of uplift of the masses. “By increasing the minimum wage well above the rate of inflation and broadening state help to the most impoverished with a family grant programme…, he helped some 44 million people and cemented his support among the poor,” the BBC reported earlier this month.
Not surprisingly, he was re-elected in 2006 by another wide margin of 61 percent. And by the time his term ended, his approval rating was a whopping 90 per cent.
Alas, today the 73-year-old is serving a combined nine-year prison sentence for two corruption convictions. They are both related to free renovation of his properties during his tenure, which prosecutors said constituted illegal exchange of favours.
Lula’s imprisonment has rivetted Brazil. Was he guilty, as a succession of Brazilian courts has affirmed, or was he done in by those who sought to upend his grassroots appeal? The truth probably lies somewhere in-between.
What is most pertinent here is that leaders like him and AOC who have the common touch tend to do well for the people even if they fall short in some other ways.
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