Contrary to the ideal of a government of and by the people, new research shows Americans are almost always governed by the very privileged
This year at least two races for seats in the US House of Representatives will feature high-profile candidates with significant experience in working-class jobs – the manual labor, service industry and clerical jobs that make up over half of the American labor force. In Wisconsin’s first congressional district, the Democratic nominee is a delivery-driver-turned-ironworker named Randy Bryce, nicknamed “Ironstache”, who takes credit for “scaring off” Paul Ryan. In New York’s 14th congressional district, a former bartender and waitress named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently made headlines for her stunning primary-election upset over incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley.
Candidates like Bryce and Ocasio-Cortez – politicians with significant experience in the kinds of jobs most Americans punch in for every day – are genuine anomalies in 2018, and in US politics more generally.
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