The right-wing media machine has been obsessed with freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) since she first won her election because they see her as an existential threat. Young, charismatic and brimming with ideas, she is the polar opposite of the corrupt, ossified plutocrats that fill the GOP’s elected ranks. As such, the Republican media outlets, most notably Fox, attack her incessantly, even when their criticisms are less than tenuous.
This morning, Fox & Friends attacked Ocasio-Cortez over her admirable decision to pay her Congressional staff a living wage. Since Representatives receive a set budget that they then distribute between their costs, including the costs of paying staff, her decision doesn’t cost the taxpayers additional money, it’s simply a reshuffling of the money already allocated her office. In other words, all it means is that her staff will be fairly compensated for their work.
Apparently, Fox finds this basic decency completely indefensible. The hosts of Fox & Friends bemoaned the fact that Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff will make less money now as if they actually care about how much a Democrat is paid.
Absurdly, they said that her decision to pay staffers more is “socialism and communism on display.” How exactly paying someone what their work is worth — which is to say the essential nature of the capitalistic system that Fox loves so much — is “communism” was something they decided not to dig into for obvious reasons.
It was an embarrassing, idiotic performance.
.@PeteHegseth on @AOC paying her staffers a living wage: "It’s actually socialism and communism on display.”
(Poor Pete clearly has no idea what those terms mean.) pic.twitter.com/8s9qd8vJke
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 25, 2019
Now, Ocasio-Cortez has taken to Twitter hit back. She called out Fox and by extension the entire GOP for being “disconnected” from the concept of people being paid enough to survive and mocked their loose usage of the term “communism” to describe her paying her staff well. She then correctly pointed out that the right’s use of the word “socialism” to label any policy they don’t like shouldn’t be taken seriously as it’s their “go-to attack” for any “common-sense, humane policy.”
As usual, she proved herself more than capable of standing up to bad faith criticism.
The GOP is so disconnected from the basic idea that people should be paid enough to live that Fox actually thinks me paying a living wage in my office is “communism.”
So the next time GOP screams “socialist,” know that’s their go-to attack for any common-sense, humane policy. https://t.co/wNe6RGVKVy
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 25, 2019
