I’ve done this guy’s returns for years. He’s in his 70’s, retired, crewcut, strong New Yawk accent. He’s a conservative, retired blue collar worker. He came in this morning. As I finish his returns, I notice he lives in the Bronx.
“By the way,” I ask, innocently, “who’s your Congressperson?”
He thinks for a moment. “Oh, it’s that new girl!” he tells me. “I don’t know about her. She comes on too strong.”
Of course he sees her that way. For all I know he watches Fox. But here’s what I do:
(1. Agree and pivot.)
”Yeah, I know what you mean. And, you know, I don’t agree with everything she says (I lied, mostly), but she has some ideas that are worth looking at. Like, for example, That tax on people who make over $10 million. That will never apply to either one of us. But, you know, way back when people paid a lot more than 70% on a lot less than $10 million. This won’t affect you or me, but it will affect the CEO who makes a billion dollars a year. It used to be that instead of paying the CEO a billion dollars, they would instead invest in paying the workers, which is a deduction.”
“Yeah, I remember that, he replied. Workers got paid more.”
“And about free tuition,” I continued, “I remember when City University was free.”
“Yeah, CUNY, I remember that!”
“She’s not talking about Harvard. She’s talking about when CUNY used to be free. She wants that again so that people can afford college.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea!”
(2. Two for two. Let’s keep going)
“Again, I don’t agree with everything she says” (I guess that’s true. There must be something she says that I don’t agree with), “but some of her ideas are important. I think she comes on strong so that the ideas can be heard. Take the Green New Deal. She’s not proposing a law. It’s like, JFK didn’t ask Congress to pass a law to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, but it became a framework. It became something we moved towards. It was a set of principles. The Green New Deal isn’t a law, but it’s something to work towards to protect the future. Do I agree with everything in it? No, but it’s a place to start a conversation.”
“Yeah, I can see that. These young people are looking to the future.”
“Exactly,” I continue. “Again, are there things in the Green New Deal that I don’t agree with? Probably. But it’s a place to start. These are ideas. And the conversation is starting because she comes on strong so that people pay attention. It’s for the kids who care about what happens 40 and 50 years from now.”
“Yeah!” He agrees. “Before I wasn’t sure about her. But now I can see how she’s getting her ideas out there for the young people, for the future.”
(YES!)
There was more to this of course. This is a condensed version. But those were the important points. He came into my office thinking that AOC came on too strong (you all know what that means — a woman who does not know her place). He left appreciating her ideas, and what she is doing for young people.
My work here is done. And, he got a refund. ;-)