Some animals are more equal than others.
And if you're a Democratic Socialst (aka "socialist"), that's apparently OK: with the power of rebuilding society in your utopian image comes great responsibility, which apparently deserves great rewards.
Seems like just a few years ago that AOC's newly-developed champagne tastes were being frantically swept under the rug:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rocked designer duds worth more than $14,000 for her Vanity Fair cover shoot — to attack President Trump as a “motherf–ker” for not paying federal income tax.
The Daily Mail broke down the price tags for all of AOC’s pricey looks in the December issue — an Aliette silk suit worth an estimated $1,000, $3,000 Carolina Herrera suit, $2,500 Christopher John Rogers suit, $815 polka dot Wales Bonner dress, $695 Christian Louboutin slingbacks, $1,450 diamond, gold and floating pearl Mateo earrings and Bvlgari earrings which run an estimated $2,000.
All told, her wardrobe rang up to $14,310.
She angrily lashed back (does she have a different setting?) that the clothes were borrowed. Which may be true - but I'm not sure how many of her constituents are connected enough to borrow cars with $14K, much less clothes.
It's the optics.
But while AOC's Met Gala gown and Vanity Fair duds may have been borrowed, it's pretty certain that Zohran Mamdani's posh African wedding in Uganda was not:
Socialist NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani celebrated his recent nuptials with a lavish, three-day affair at his family’s ritzy, secluded Ugandan compound — complete with masked security guards and a cellphone jamming system, The Post has learned.
Speaking of those masked security guards, let's take a quick aside to get Candidate Mamdani's take on your Second Amendment rights:
We need to ban all guns.
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) May 24, 2022
Fast forward to the wedding:
The gates of the bustling, private compound, which sits in the wealthy Buziga Hill area outside the capital city of Kampala, were heavily guarded by military-style, masked men this week, with guests streaming in and partying until midnight, according to sources in the town who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.
Apparently some peoples lives and property deserve to be protected by people with guns.
Just not yours.
Against that backdrop of patrician excess, this next story almost pales in comparison: Minnesota senator and Democratic Socialist candidate for mayor of Minneaolis Omar Fateh was pulled over for his second texting-while-driving offense, in his BMW.
This from the Minnesota Star Tribune's Rochelle Olson, in a regular pseudo-editorial feature called "Cheers and Jeers", offering jeers at Fateh...:
... a democratic socialist and the DFL-endorsed candidate for mayor in Minneapolis, for receiving two tickets in the past year for violating the state’s hands-free cellphone law while driving a black 2023 BMW X3, according to district court records. At the first stop on Aug. 12 near Mankato, Fateh told the officer he was holding his phone to punch in his GPS coordinates. At the second stop in January, Fateh again told a Golden Valley police officer he was holding the phone to look at his GPS. The officer didn’t buy it, writing on the citation that Fateh had the GPS up on the vehicle’s navigation screen, had previously been cited for the same offense and “knew he wasn’t supposed to have a cellphone in hand.” Fateh paid $135 for the first offense and $158 for the second. Once is a mistake. Twice is a habit. Fateh needs to take a break and pull over before using his phone; texting while driving is extremely dangerous.
DFL apologists in Minneapolis are pointing out that yes, indeed, Omar owns a car, but it's the cheap BMW, and anyway pointing it out is rrrrrrracism. In this case, Keith Harris at the local Racket:
Still, ya gotta wonder if folks would be this worked up about Fateh driving, say, a new F-150. The news surfaced in Rochelle Olson’s column today, which handed out a "jeers" to Fateh for being ticketed twice for violating the state’s hands-free cellphone law.
Harris has a point - but probably not the one he thinks he has.
Minneapolis, especially its self-appointed intelligentsia, have always longed to be New York. The Minneaolis writer moving to New York (and almost inevitably moving back, broken, to take their old job and life back) is as old as Garrison Keillor (who did almost exactly that 30-odd years ago). And to that crowd, the "Ford F150" has social connotations (suburban or exurban, blue collar), just as the BMW - any BMW - does for everyone else (arrogant d-bag).
"Borrowed" five-digit gowns? Celebrity weddings with armed guards? Texting while driving a Beemer?
It's the optics.
