AOC invokes MLK to defend comments calling ‘bootstrap’ meritocracy ‘a joke’

In the clip she posted, King criticized the treatment of blacks by the government, saying the government failed to give African Americans their due. King said that many blacks had no “economic base” by which to pull themselves up.

The freshman congresswoman continued defending her comments, which took heat from some on the Right, by saying she was helped by other people to get elected. “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,” she said. “Even w/ all that hard work, it would be narcissistic to pretend I ‘bootstrapped’ it alone & w/o others.”

The 30-year-old congresswoman’s defense follows comments she made earlier this week during a committee hearing in the House. “I also want to thank you about bringing up the poverty draft and this idea of a bootstrap,” she said. “You know, this idea and this metaphor of a bootstrap started off as a joke because 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.”

Ocasio-Cortez has blasted a “bootstrap” meritocracy before, calling it a Republican talking point in 2018. “Ah yes, of course, it’s classic Republican ‘bootstrap’ meritocracy: where the smartest, hardest-working, most fitting person for the job just so happens to be your son-in-law,” she said.