A sanitation truck pulled up, the driver reached out his arm to give me a high-five. What that moment tells me is what we did was right. We are touching the hearts of working people. Democrats should be getting high-fives from sanitation truck drivers — that is what should be happening in America. Squad Member and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,

Michele and I are still binge-watching Veronica Mars and I am surprised by how much of the plots and subplots revolve around Class. Class is not something that we are comfortable talking about in America which is one of the things that makes V. Mars so interesting. There are the 09ers – the area code for the right side of town is 90909 while the rest of town is 90908 – and everybody else and while there seems to be more of everybody else, the 09ers get most of the attention, just like in real life. In our national pantheon of virtues being poor is being almost invisible, almost at the bottom, right above being low-class. Both groups are to be either pitied or despised. Most people may walk by, say, a garbage man, and maybe think There but for the grace of God go I but nobody ever thinks, Owh, I wish I was them. They are looked down upon, maybe even looked down upon kindly but, when we look down on people, they are expected to look up to us.

As an aside, all my warning buzzers are going off – do not talk about race or class! Or politics for that matter – so I want to add a couple of mitigators, when I talk about our pantheon of virtues or say we, I know there are exceptions, and I’m trying to be one of them, still, we have stories that bind us as a culture, and money and class, as well as race and religion, drive lots of those stories, maybe most. That does not make the stories true, think of it more like a societal default position. Of course, because we are a good country, nobody is trapped at the bottom, the poor and low-class can get respect by climbing out of their poverty and class – in a socially conforming way like becoming a lawyer or, better yet, a doctor – and changing their sensibilities and taste to something more acceptable to the dominant culture which, coincidently, is us.

I think that deviating from the accepted political culture of Washington is one of the things that most pisses off Liberals about Trump but we often go after him for class and money. “He’s so low class.” or some derivative is a pretty common complaint, but, in reality, it is just used as a slur. Donald Trump obviously is not low class, not in the same way that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is. Another popular slam is that the President is not really rich, he is just faking it which is why he won’t show us his taxes. My favorite slur is, People, say Trump acts like a rich man, but he doesn’t, he acts like what a poor person thinks a rich man is. Both class and money are used as ways of measuring the goodness of Trump because, in our culture, money and class are considered makers of a person’s value as a human being.

In the greater scheme of things, what people choose to wear may not seem important, but it is an outer representation of a person. It is who they are saying they are. Somewhat surprising, to me, what The Squad chooses to wear is that one of the things that I most admire about them. These four women of color, are comfortable with who they are and the way they look, they are not trying to fit in by dressing like a generic Congressperson, they are trying to stand out by continuing to dress like their constituents. After her swearing-in, OC tweeted Lip+hoops were inspired by Sonia Sotomayor, who was advised to wear neutral-colored nail polish to her confirmation hearings to avoid scrutiny. She kept her red. Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman. In her victory speech, Ayanna Presley asked: “Is your appeal broad enough? Are you playing identity politics? Can a congresswoman wear her hair in braids, rock a black leather jacket and a bold red lip?” and answered in the affirmative by wearing exactly that. A little more than a week ago, after one of her numerous threats, Ilhan Omar Tweeted I am where I belong, at the people’s house and you’re just gonna have to deal! over a picture of her wearing a long black dress and hijab.

I remember having a conversation about the patriarchy and rights with Courtney Gonzalas maybe, five years ago, she said something like “They didn’t give me the right to marry, I already have that right as a Human Being”. These are avowed low-class women are saying the same thing, saying “We are as good as you, we have the same right as humans that you do, and that includes being in Congress”.