The A.O.C. Effect

Senators Are Piggybacking on Cardi B’s Rage

One exhausting sign of a new era in Congress? Twitter convos between Senate leaders about a truth-telling rapper’s Instagram Story.
Cardi performs at Z100's Jingle Ball 2018.
Cardi performs at Z100's Jingle Ball 2018.By Kevin Mazur/Getty Images.

It’s dicey for stars to engage with politics. Remember all that hand-wringing over endorsements in 2016? Whenever someone who’s famous for, say, transcendent vocals decides to talk about, say, the minimum wage, an impulse to shriek, “Stay in your lane!” seems to overwhelm so, so many. But we don’t talk nearly enough about what it’s like when the tables turn.

Politicians! They’re really tweeting these days, huh? They’re out here saying stuff informally on their public accounts. And they’re talking about the stars who talk politics. Cardi B, for example. Cardi B, talking head for only the news you can use, is furious. She’s furious! She’s busy; she’s wearing good eye shadow; and she’s furious. Here’s Cardi on Wednesday:

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“Hey y’all, I just wanted to remind you because it’s been a little over three weeks,” she said. “Trump is now ordering, as in summonsing, federal workers to go back to work without getting paid.”

She’s referring to the Tuesday news that the Trump administration is calling back to work nearly 50,000 government employees. The shutdown isn’t over—it’s in day 27, now—but they have been asked to work for free. These employees are in charge of stuff like handing out tax refunds or flight safety or making sure the nation’s food and drug supply won’t kill you.

When was the last time government employees were furloughed without pay? Cardi has anticipated such a question. A language warning for the sensitive here. All respectable politicians, et al., tread careful now. She said, “Now I don’t wanna hear you motherfuckers talkin’ about, ‘Oh, but Obama shut down the government for 17 days . . . yeah, bitch! For health care! So your grandma could check her blood pressure and you bitches could go check your pussy at the gynecologist with no motherfuckin’ problem.”

This shutdown, as our CNN correspondent Cardi B points out, is over border-security negotiations, mainly the proposal to divert $5 billion to build a wall along the southern border. “I know a lot of you don’t care because you don’t work for the government or you probably don’t even have a job, but this shit is really fucking serious. . . . Our country is in a hellhole right now, all for a fucking wall.”

She started trending by end of business Wednesday. Now, a monologue like that is pretty normal for Cardi. She told you about Trump a long time ago. She told you about taxes. She told you about F.D.R. She told you about who the #MeToo movement has ignored. She’s been active—at least verbally so. What’s unusual is that any politician besides Bernie Sanders noticed. But, perhaps girded by the success of young-gun congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, they are participating now.

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Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz started talking about whether or not to retweet Cardi, and then Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy got involved. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer jumped on the bandwagon. It can be strange when men of a certain stature encounter youth culture in the wild.

Maybe these senators can still make it to A.O.C.’s social-media 101 course. But for now, I guess we should count our blessings and note that none of them have done the “10 year challenge” to date.

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