If you don’t fall instantly in love with Elizabeth Warren and her big plans for running the country, is that automatically sexist?
Nope. Warren’s polling and fund-raising problems are not all rooted in the poison of patriarchy. And if Warren 2020 begins to break through, it won’t be because of feminist scolding. It’s because people are getting to know and like the candidate behind the plans.
Plans alone, no matter how bold and brilliant, don’t win the White House. Presidential candidates who forge a human connection with voters do. And that’s also true when men are running against men. Bill Clinton, the man from Hope, beat George H.W. Bush. With help from the Supreme Court, George W. Bush, the compassionate conservative, bested Al Gore. Barack Obama defeated John McCain with “hope and change,” with enough magic left over to beat Mitt Romney in the next election, too.
As for Donald Trump, of course, he ran a blatantly misogynist campaign against Hillary Clinton. But he also wrapped up his racist, divisive policy prescriptions in poetry borrowed from Ronald Reagan: Make America Great Again. Like it or not, Trump connected.
That’s Warren’s challenge. Yes, female politicians have a hard time making the head-heart connection on the national stage. But so did John Kerry.
When it comes to analyzing the senior senator from Massachusetts, put me down as inconsistent. I’ve defended her and written her off. Her decision to take a DNA test wasn’t terrible; her roll-out of results was. Still, if there’s any sense of proportion left in this crazy world, the controversy over Warren’s claim to Native American heritage shrivels to minus-zero up against the presidential sleaziness documented in the Mueller report — not to mention the 10,000 “false and misleading claims” made by Trump over 601 days in office, according to The Washington Post.
Warren’s persuasion skills are powered up by conviction, passion, and the intellectual fire power of a Harvard law professor. I’m not an impeachment advocate. But during a recent CNN town hall, Warren had me leaning more in that direction, when she declared, “There is no political inconvenience exception to the Constitution. This is not about politics, this is about principle.”
She seems to be joking and smiling more often. While I know it’s touching the third rail to say it — just like mentioning “likeability” — that’s good news. Not because she’s a woman — but because after two years of a snarling President Trump, a show of humor, civility, and compassion from any candidate is a welcome relief. Showing empathy is a way to be human, which is always a plus when you want other humans to vote for you. And it’s also a way to get people to pay attention to all those big plans, which are the heart of Warren’s presidential campaign.
As Eric Alterman writes in The Nation, Warren — “unlike every other candidate in the race – or in recent US history” is “providing a detailed road map for where she wants to take the country.”
Can she deliver on that road map? That’s a big question voters have the right to ask. It’s not sexist to wonder about the perils of partisan passion and ideological purity. It’s what’s hurting the country now. Warren is smartly starting to put out examples of issues she has worked on with Republicans. The same problem applies to Bernie Sanders, who comes across as less able to compromise than Warren. And angrier, too.
The most important question: Do Warren’s plans provide the right road map for the country? You can admire her passion for addressing the vast and growing economic power gap between the rich and poor, yet not buy into every Warren prescriptive, from forgiving college debt to Medicare for all. It’s not sexist to question policy just because a woman is pushing it.
Warren may indeed have a plan for everything. But what makes for a nice T shirt slogan won’t on its own, win the White House.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/columns/2019/05/02/sexist-not-love-elizabeth-warren/2K1rimxOjOkvjRRjsVoqWN/story.html
2019-05-02 09:10:59Z
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Is it sexist not to love Elizabeth Warren? - The Boston Globe"
Post a Comment