First off, anyone who expects an old white guy (like me) who has spent virtually his entire life in the Republican Party (not like me) to act and speak "woke" is quite simply being foolish. When someone comes from a place unlike our own they will not effortlessly share our political culture.
Schmidt's words have to be read in the context of what he is doing. He is reaching out to AOC because he recognizes that she is a leader who represents the views of a large swath of the American people. That is in and of itself a major acknowledgement of AOC, and to an extent intrinsically grants her greater respect than she gets from some centrist segments of her own Democratic Party.
When he praises a former waitress for being a former waitress, I can see how that can come off a bit clumsy to some, but it doesn't to me. A lot of us throw around catch phrases like "the dignity of work", but the rubber really hits the road at the literal workplace when it comes to class relations in America. One of the many ways that people can be divided into two categories is this one, those who carefully calculate exactly what a 10% or 15% tip amounts to for services received, and those who automatically well exceed that when leaving a tip. Some people who always try to give exactly 15% do so because money is tight for them too, though they still want to give their fair share, however many literally begrudge being asked to chip in more than is socially expected of them, and that includes a lot of rich people. Some who give larger tips may do so to show off how well off they are, but most do so because they understand that the extra income that big tips bring in makes a real difference in the life of someone who works long hard shifts in a restaurant. Until shown evidence to the contrary, I will accept that Steve Schmidt falls within that latter group.
To my mind Schmidt is acknowledging something of major importance that too few in politics are willing to call attention to. Our Congress is chock full of very wealthy individuals, and the vast majority of the rest had solid middle, if not upper middle, class jobs before they got elected.We NEED more former waitresses in Congress, just like we need more former mail sorters, and former child care workers representing us there. No, I do not think Schmidt was being condescending, I think he was recognizing the worth of the work AOC performed formerly, and thus acknowledged how it critically helped inform her vision of America, a vision that he is agreeing must be at the table when decisions effecting millions are made.
Again, Steve Schmidt is reaching out to AOC, who is barely past 30 in years and only recently arrived in Congress, as an important political leader in America. That is nothing if it is not respectful. But more important than how Schmidt relates to AOC now is his reason for reaching out to her. To my mind it is extremely telling that Schmidt openly signals that he is willing to listen to and learn from the likes of AOC inside a broad political coalition while he simultaneously rejects working with the rightest elements drawn to the Republican Party. Schmidt wants to work in good faith with the Left, to save America and our democracy from the Right. That, I believe, is highly significant, and I, as one person on the left, welcome his stance and applaud it.
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