Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York arrived at the Met Gala on Monday evening dressed in a custom ivory wool jacket from Brother Vellies with an organza ruffle and the message “Tax the Rich” with her symbol in red on the back.
In the video footage filmed before her arrival, she can be seen heading towards the vehicle that delivered her to the gala, a masked assistant holding the train of her dress as she smiled intensely and gestured with her fans.
Corporate designers and sponsors usually pay the hefty price of admission: $ 35,000 per ticket or between $ 200,000 and $ 300,000 per table for gala guests, which typically includes a quorum of Kardashians, Hollywood A-listers, and supermodels. The star-studded event is often known as the fashion Oscars.
Many elected officials from New York City are also invited, as “museum guests” who do not pay to attend.
Nevertheless, the assistance and dress of Representative Ocasio-Cortez provided easy fodder for her most unleashed critics. On Twitter, Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, labeled her a fraud for sending a message about taxing the rich “while staying with a gang of wealthy left-wing elites.”
Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, tweeted that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is the “gift that continues to be given.”
But more striking than the general judgments of her political opponents was the criticism that Democrat Mrs. Ocasio-Cortez generated from the left: a heart of dissatisfaction of self-described progressive and socialist progressives disappointed by a gesture they said caricatured a progressive cause and stressed his feeling that he does not maximize his ability to fight for the working people of Congress.
Briahna Gray, former national press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders ’2020 campaign and co-host of the“ Bad Faith ”podcast, said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez “has a unique level exactly because people expect more from her.” He said some of the progressive reactions to the suit arose from a more widespread disappointment with some of his political stances.
“People are disappointed with their behavior outside of this context, and this seems to reflect the lack of commitment shown in a purely political context,” Ms. Gray.
Ocasio-Cortez was first invited to the Met Ball in 2019, the year after his victory over former Rep. Joe Crowley, the most significant upset of a Democratic incumbent in more than a decade. He did not attend and the following year’s gala was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This year, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was seated at the table of Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue and artistic director of Condé Nast, who is the long-time guest of the gala.
Some supporters had a simple, negative gut reaction to their decision to attend. “The Met Gala is an event best avoided by sincere socialists,” wrote John Ganz, a Gawker.com columnist who described himself as a supporter who has on other occasions seen Ms. Ocasio-Cortez as a “beacon of hope.”
Danny Haiphong, a socialist activist and writer, said what offended him was not the dissonance of a self-described democratic socialist working with the elite, but that “AOC and the Squad do not take advantage of their huge support base to to demand the same thing as she puts on her dress ”.
Many progressives still credit Ms. Ocasio-Cortez for being a constant advocate of progressive causes. She was the only Democrat to oppose the $ 484 billion coronavirus relief package last year, saying she found it too generous with corporations without providing enough help to the working class.
Together with Mr Sanders, he has pushed to triple the amount of money President Biden has proposed to improve the aging of the country’s public housing system.
He recently joined marathon protests on the steps of the Capitol against the expiration of a federal pandemic-era eviction moratorium that neither the White House nor Congress had hitherto acted to stop.
“Overall, he’s happy to excite people with a different vision for the United States,” said Faiz Shakir, the manager of Sanders 2020’s presidential campaign. “There’s an art: politics is theater. You are discovering ways to encourage him ”.
In fact, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has used the slogan “Impose the Rich” earlier, in campaign merchandise, which Republicans have criticized in the past.
But a group of more left-leaning activists has tried to push the party further and has become increasingly critical of Mrs Ocasio-Cortez.
Some had demanded that Mrs. Ocasio-Cortez and others hold back their votes for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless she agreed to bring the Medicare for All bill to a minimum vote. They have also pressured Ms. Ocasio-Cortez to use her position to force a vote on a $ 15 minimum wage and make more punctual criticism of the Biden administration for defending calls for general cancellation of student debt.
Ocasio-Cortez is seen as an alleged out-of-Congress person, Ms. Gray, however, is “not really doing the kind of things that could really attract a real reaction and a fight that some people anticipated he would do, given his style inside.” The image of his “rubbing elbows with those people” night on Monday irritated some on the left, he said.
According to Mrs. Gray, the dress slogan was also a problem, not because it was too radical, but because it was too innocuous; according to a 2020 Reuters / Ipsos poll, most American voters support a wealth tax on the richest.
“If he had chosen to highlight a message that was not so well received, his act would have looked more subversive, rather than a show comparable to Cara Delevingne’s‘ Peg the Patriarchy ’shirt,” Ms. Gray – Another Met Gala costume that caught the eye for the message it carried.
Other New York City politicians attended the gala this year, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents Manhattan’s former Silk Stocking district, and New York City controller Scott Stringer.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio jumped the ball for years before breaking his attendance streak on Monday night, in the final months of his mayoralty.
“It’s not my cup of tea,” Mr. Blasio said in an appearance on NY1 in 2019 when asked about his absence. “It’s an elite meeting, I’m not an elite boy. Really, let’s make it very simple, it’s none of my business. That’s the kind of place where the elite go and like to be with each other, and I have a different approach. “
Among the advocates of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had Maya Wiley, the former New York mayoral candidate whose campaign Ms. Ocasio-Cortez backed up earlier this year. Ms. Wiley said the Met Gala is part of the fabric of New York City, and self-identifying as a democratic socialist does not mean hating or avoiding the rich who show up.
“We turn it all into a purity contest,” Ms. Wiley said. “Politics should not be about purity. He did the right thing by not avoiding it, saying that this is part of who we are and that we are having a conversation that includes the Met Gala. “
“Going into a space that deals with art, fashion, luxury and wealth and saying,‘ Here’s the conversation we have to face, but I’ll confront it in the vernacular of the event, ’it’s great,” she said. Mrs. Wiley said.
It is possible that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has managed to show a problem at the center of what Democrats are pushing for in the reconciliation bill they are trying to pass later this month. But most of all, the dress served as Rorschach’s last test on Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and whether he is considered to be fighting for the people or aligning himself with the elites.
“I don’t envy her,” said Sumathy Kumar, president of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. “Faced with this question:“ Am I going to this event and using it as an opportunity to spread the message, or boycott? “Usually choose to spread this message”.
Kumar added, “Whether you agree with a tactic or not, there are more people talking about taxes on the rich, and at least that conversation is happening. We will take what we can get.”
On Tuesday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who declined to comment on the article, defended herself from criticism in a lengthy Instagram post. “From the moment I won my election,‘ I and my body have been politically monitored from every corner from every corner, ’” he wrote.
Ultimately, he said, “we all had a conversation about How to record the rich in front of people who put pressure on them and drilled the fourth wall of excess and spectacle.” In a follow-up email to raise funds, he directed fans to buy his own “Tax the Rich” clothing. A t-shirt costs $ 27 and the sweatshirt is $ 58.