Knock Down the House

I urge you to watch the Netflix documentary Knock Down the House. My husband and I saw it this weekend and were so inspired we were in tears. It will give you hope for the future, and remind you that there are people among us working assiduously to turn the tide. It follows four women who ran for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections, focusing mainly on the improbable grassroots campaign and stunning victory over a a powerful twenty-year incumbent by the congresswoman from The Bronx, New York, Alexandria Osario-Cortez, aka AOC. She is that one in a million public servant who is the real true deal, equal parts grit, intelligence, charisma, commitment, and courage. I swear she will be president one day, or at least I hope so.

As AOC says, "For one of us to make it, a hundred of us have to try." And by "one of us," she means working class people like the women in the documentary, a new breed of politicians who are not in the image of rich, older, white men, public servants who understand first-hand the struggles of everyday Americans. AOC worked as a waitress and bartender herself while she ran for office. Since her win, opponents have tried to dis her working class roots, but she clapped right back: "I find it revealing when people mock where I come from, & say they’re going to ‘send me back to waitressing,’ as if that’s bad or shameful,” she tweeted. “It’s as though they think being a member of Congress makes you intrinsically ‘better’ than a waitress. But our job is to serve, not rule.”