Incoming Representative Ocasio-Cortez came up the hard way. She grew up in the Bronx, New York with working-class parents. The new representative supported herself as a bartender, and she could not afford a Washington, D.C. apartment after she was elected. The beauty of her upbringing is that she identifies with regular people, and she has a fantastic new idea.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested eliminating Columbus Day and instead, creating a federal holiday called Election Day. So many working people have trouble getting to the polls after and before work. Many people get paid hourly, so should the voting lines be long, their pay could be docked — or worse.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:
‘…how is Columbus Day a holiday but Election Day not?’
The Daily Mail Editor David Martosko wasted no time beating up on the representative. He was being ugly about the so-wrong stereotype about Hispanic people not liking to work. That is absolutely not true. They put white American workers to shame. He tweeted:
‘AOC hasn’t even started the job yet and she’s already angling for more vacation days.’
The new representative wasted no time coming back to Martosko. She tweeted “I am willing to compromise:”
‘While I would disagree with your complaint that Americans get too much vacation time (we work some of the longest hours of any dev country & have no Fed required paid leave), I am willing to compromise by eliminating Columbus Day to give Election Day off. See? I can be pliant.’
Of course, federal law allows people time to vote, but most don’t realize that is so — including their bosses. A federally mandated holiday would get many more voters to the polls. Republicans do not like the idea, because the more people who vote, the fewer Republicans get elected.
Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during his 2016 presidential campaign. He returned the favor by writing on his web page:
‘…cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy. We should not be satisfied with a “democracy” in which more than 60 percent of our people don’t vote and some 80 percent of young people and low-income Americans fail to vote.’
Twitter world lit up. Check out some of our favorites below:
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
