Dudes, men, gentlemen, boys, bros…

I need to talk about why a lot of women have the feels about Elizabeth Warren and the primaries.

If you’re already poised over your keyboard, ready to respond and explain things to me, stop. Shut up. Listen. JUST. LISTEN.

We’ve all known from the start that Warren, like any candidate, could lose. It’s simple math – only one person is getting the nomination. We knew this. And we knew it would be an uphill battle under the best of circumstances because being a rich white man is still considered the default qualification for POTUS, and anyone deviating from that has to do extra work to prove the country is ready for them or that they can do the job.

The fact that things have played out the way they have are frustrating in ways previous elections haven’t been, though, and it’s not because our preferred candidate didn’t make it on to the ballot. I mean, yes, there’s that part, but there’s more to it. A large part of it is because we watched Warren jump through the same bullshit hoops we’ve all had to jump through in our daily lives, and while we had hope she might prevail anyway, the glass ceiling held.

I’m sure Sanders voters can relate to the deck being stacked against their candidate. I’m certainly not saying Warren voters are alone in their disappointment and emotions over how this race has been run. I am just, for this post, focusing on why women who supported Warren feel the way they do right now.

From the start, Warren was scrutinized for her electability. Her likability. Before we could even talk about her qualifications or her plans or her platforms, we had to discuss if she was LIKABLE enough, and that never stopped. A lackluster debate performance meant she wasn’t aggressive enough. A stellar debate performance meant she was too aggressive, too loud, too shrill. She ripped out Bloomberg’s still-beating heart and showed it to him, and we were back to talking about if she was “likable” or “too forceful.”

This happens with any female candidate, but for a few shining weeks, we had hope that Warren would transcend it. That the woman who inspired “nevertheless, she persisted” would rise despite people wringing their hands over if she was likeable, something we never discuss about male candidates.

Through it all, even when the numbers looked great, she was blatantly erased from coverage. News outlets posted graphs of the leading candidates, and just… left her off while including those who were trailing her. Analyses of debates, campaigns, etc., simply didn’t mention her at all. She was a strong contender, but she was ignored and erased for no reason, and if that isn’t something that a lot of women can relate to, I don’t know what is. The feeling of being a viable candidate for a task, a job, a committee, whatever, only to be written off from the start because of girl cooties, or of having to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously as male counterparts, is an all too familiar frustration for a lot of women.

Nevertheless, she persisted, and we had hope that Warren could have a strong finish despite concerted efforts to pretend she wasn’t even there.

Unfortunately, questions about her “electability” became a self-fulfilling prophecy. After months of being told she couldn’t win, she didn’t… and I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen comment that “Warren was my preferred candidate, but I didn’t think she could win, so I voted for X.” She could have won… if we’d voted for her. She was electable… if we’d elected her.  

When she was winning, she was taking votes away from more viable candidates. When she was losing, she needed to get out of the way. That dichotomy never seems to apply to male candidates, and it strikes a particularly bitter chord for women who have, all their lives, had their achievements and failures filtered through men. Boys don’t like girls who are smarter than them. If you beat him at something, he’ll feel emasculated. If you aren’t better than every boy on the team, then you don’t belong there, but if you are better, then you’re making them all feel bad for being bested by a girl. The important thing is not what we do and how we do it, but how it reflects on the men around us or their masculinity.

In the end, if all things had been equal, Warren still might have lost. Maybe the majority of voters wouldn’t have been onboard with her plans and platforms. Maybe they would have preferred another candidate. That’s how elections go, and we can all live with that. We’ll never know how it would have gone if she’d been treated the same as her competition. In particular, her male competition. (Because let’s face it, Amy Klobuchar had the same “likability problem”)

And if Warren had lost in an election where she was considered an equal to her competition, where she wasn’t blatantly removed from coverage as if she weren’t there at all, then I think we could all swallow the loss as disappointing but part of the game.

The fact that she had to be twice what her male counterparts were in order to be taken half as seriously, that a white man who’d only had experience as a mayor was taken more seriously than a woman with Warren’s resume, that she could destroy Bloomberg onstage and still be questioned about “likability”…

THAT is why we’re frustrated. Because on smaller levels, we’ve been there.

And for one shining moment, we thought we were going to see a qualified, badass woman win despite every effort to make us forget she was there at all.

I will vote for neither Pete nor Bloomberg in a general election for the office of President of the United States of America. It would not matter anyway because I live in New York, but even if I were in a swing state, the same would be true.

I think the Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle skit on SNL the Saturday after the election of 2016 captures the essence of what Black people have been saying and feeling for decades, if not literal centuries about life in this country; and when I say literal centuries, I mean literal centuries of Black lives in the US.

The fact that a lot of you Hwite people just started to feel a slight draft of injustice in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected; the fact that you all were only incensed at something being so wrong at *that* time; the fact that you had to rise up and take action in the wake of the 2016 election… Where have you been?

You’ve been complacent and blind to the injustice that has surrounded you. Mike Brown was killed and his body laid out for hours in a street in 2014. Trayvon Martin was killed and George Zimmerman found not guilty prior to the election of 2016. HIV rates about Black and Brown communities have remained steady and in some cases have increased.

But “mission accomplished!” So much so that at one point, with regard to a certain national performing arts organization, we were asking the question “are our groups still relevant?” As if there weren’t any non hwite issues to be solved. Willfully blind, I tell you.

And now we have this “blue no matter who” foolishness.

I will abstain from voting if the person that Donald Trump’s opposition puts up has an awful track record with communities who represent *my* multiple identities. The parts of me that certain other marginalized communities have ignored *just* as much as the enemy.

Black and Brown folks: This is the attitude you need to take. If your hwite friends try to give you shit for having this stance, then they’re clearly not listening. Instead, they’re only centering their own agenda which has NOT centered people who look like you, for literal centuries.

moviestelevisionandpolitics:

ms-cellanies:

macleod:

tsg2k17:

I’m sorry, I just can’t forget that Elizabeth Warren claimed to be Native American. I just can’t trust someone who reached that level of peak whiteness.

Her mother told her when she was younger that she was, she wrote an essay on her heritage for college based primarily on stories from her mother.

Last October she did release a report on a DNA analysis that was said to show a pure Native American ancestor appeared in her ancestry “in the range of six to 10 generations ago.” 

All in all, they were able to conclude that she does have native american ancestry, not as much as initially believed, but nonetheless an adequate amount. We need to take another step forward and keep in mind that genetic testing/analysis for ancestry has only been possible in the last 10 years (three years for consumer markets). She wrote her paper in college, and believed her mother all of her life That is why she said that. 

Ancestry is a hard thing, especially prior to modern technologies as they were all based on stories being passed down to descendants ad nauseam, not on anything substantial like we have today. 

Just have to add:

Elizabeth Warren DID NOT claim to be Native American.  She reported that she had some Native American ancestry.  Those are 2 very different things.  She didn’t make a big deal out of it.  Trump, otoh, did by calling her POCAHONTAS.  Which one do you really think was behaving poorly?

It’s not like apologize was all she did:

She appeared at the National Indian Women Honor luncheon a few months ago to support a Native Leader from Massachusetts, who was winning an award, and she got a standing ovation.

She has also been working on legislation with Rep. Deb Haaland (New Mexico), the first Native American woman to serve in Congress that seeks to address funding shortfalls in tribal lands.

Even her critics admit she’s addressed the issue, to an extent, well:

Julian Brave Noisecat, a Native American journalist and activist who has criticized Warren previously, has said: “Based on my conversations with tribal leaders and advocates, the consensus position is that she’s one of the strongest allies of Indian country in Congress. She has good relationships with tribes across the board. And I think that’s relevant.”

Mr. Noisecat also said the ancestry matter had become double-edged: “More than any other Democratic presidential candidate, Ms. Warren has caused the most upset among Native American communities, but has also probably done the most outreach and is more vocal on issues that effect tribal citizens than other presidential candidates.”

María Urbina, the national political director of the progressive group Indivisible, said she and other liberal leaders were encouraged by Ms. Warren’s decision to apologize. Going forward, Ms. Urbina said she expected liberal activists to take their cues from Native leaders on whether Ms. Warren had adequately addressed their concerns.

“Native leaders and native people should be the ones to affirm — or not affirm — whether her record shows if she’s been an ally,” Ms. Urbina said. “That’s absolutely important.”

iwanthermidnightz:

I’ll leave this here.

I was encouraged to hate. I chose love.
I was taught to fear. I chose knowledge.
I was surrounded by pettiness. I chose peace.

Nevertheless, I persisted.
Nevertheless, I persist.

Trump isn’t the Problem; ergo Impeachment is no solution

Got an email from Common Cause this morning. It was one of those fund-raising emails disguised as a “poll”. This one started off like this:

“Tara, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done to get us this far.

Back in July, when Common Cause first called for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, the conventional wisdom was against us. House leadership didn’t want to conduct an impeachment inquiry, because they feared it would impact their 2020 election prospects.

But you didn’t give up – and your consistent, powerful advocacy paid off this week as public hearings into Trump’s impeachment began. This couldn’t have happened without you.

Now, millions of Americans are watching as multiple distinguished public servants bravely come forward to describe a dangerous pattern of wrongdoing – bribery, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice – by President Trump.

Tara, how the American people respond to this will determine what kind of democracy we leave for our children’s future.

All week, I’ve been hearing from Common Cause members like you who want to know what Common Cause plans to do next. And as one of our most active members, I wanted to get your input – because we’ll be counting on your engagement and dedication to see it through.

Based on what you know, do you think President Trump should be removed from office? Click here to instantly record your vote, and if you’d like, tell us why once you’ve voted:

YES

NO

Needless to say, I voted “No”, and replied with the following:

“First of all, I am NOT one of your most active members, let’s get that lie out of the way. I’ve done NOTHING towards getting Trump impeached, because I think it’s a fool’s errand.

I wouldn’t waste time and taxpayer money impeaching Trump in the House when we all know it will go nowhere in the Senate. It is a futile act, which will be nothing more than a distraction.

Lawmakers are paid to create and improve laws, not to throw hissy-fit sore loser tantrums because you put up such an unlikable and arrogant candidate in 2016 that she couldn’t even beat a colossal clown of an idiot like Trump.

It’s not Trump’s fault that HRC didn’t visit certain states. Nor is it Trump’ fault that 46% of registered voters were not inspired to vote.

Get over your whining. We all know Hillary is STILL trying to save face, and your organization is controlled by her and her minions.

I’m not saying Trump is blameless - I despise the man. What I’m saying is that trying to impeach Trump is a fruitless effort that will not bring the desired results. He will not be removed from office. All that will be accomplished is that a lot of time and money will be wasted, the public will be led away from being concerned about political developments that should be concerning them during that time period, and the effort won’t even help defeat Trump in 2020.

Then there’s the other elephant in the room. If Trump gets removed from office (which is completely unlikely), why in hell would you want to replace him with a bigger warmonger?

Pence is a homophobic, racist Bible stomper who wants to replace the Constitution with the Bible! Not only that, but he is more bellicose than Trump, and would never make any peaceful overtures to foreign leaders, like Trump has done from time to time.

I’m an ex-Democrat, a “peacenik” if you will. I find the new breed of Democratic policies of approving and orchestrating bloodthirsty attacks on sovereign nations that pose no threat to the safety of our people to be abhorrent and completely goes against my beliefs about what policies should matter to all politicians, be they “Democrats” OR “Republicans”.

I didn’t leave the Democratic Party - the party left me. Impeaching Trump is a massive waste of time and money, and it’s only purpose should be to protect and serve the American people, but we all know that that’s not what’s happening here.

There’s a great sticker I saw once. It shows two different identical piles of dog poo. The caption is,

‘Democrats? Republicans? Same shit, different piles.’

That’s how I see the duopoly. No matter who is in power, the United States will continue to illegally invade other countries. It will not stop if Trump is impeached.

We are a rogue nation, supplying the world with arms in order to help them kill innocents. Our terroristic foreign policy will not stop if Trump is impeached. The world will not suddenly right itself if Trump is removed from office. Laws will still be created that benefit only the 1% and screw the 99%.

Things didn’t go wrong starting with Trump. Obama dropped a bomb every 26 minutes of his entire Presidency. Trump now drops one every 12 minutes. Both are heinous acts that make me ashamed to be an American.

It was Obama, not Trump who took away our right of Habeas Corpus.

It was Obama who deported more immigrants than all previous Presidents combined.

It was Obama who tortured Chelsea Manning, and made a fool of himself downing a plane with a foreign President on board, in an effort to capture Edward Snowden, a whistleblower hero who revealed twisted truths about our government.

It was Obama who sat silent during Standing Rock while American citizens were tortured by American “officers of the peace” paid by our taxes to do the bidding of a foreign oil company, to oversee the completion of a project that does not serve or benefit the American people one iota.

It was Obama who opened up the Arctic for drilling TWICE.

It was Obama who signed over 1000 new leases for underwater drilling in the Gulf.

It was Obama who signed contracts to build 30 new nuclear plants.

It was Obama who said not a word while HRC sold 20% of our Uranium stores to Russia.

It was Obama who didn’t say peep as the Opioid crisis rose to massive proportions.

It was Obama who never admonished cops for killing unarmed black Americans.

It was Obama who signed the Monsanto act.

It was Obama who took Hillary’s advice and destroyed Libya.

It was Obama who bailed out the banks and let millions of Americans lose their homes.

It was Obama who never filed charges against the banksters who destroyed our economy.

It was Obama who orchestrated taking down all Occupy camps simultaneously.

It was Obama who refused to bring charges against the previous administration for war crimes they committed.

And it was Obama who tried to start a war in the Ukraine on his FUCKING FINAL DAY IN OFFICE!!

Trump is an extension of the problem, not the cause. Our politicians are ALL bought by big money, and that will not change if Trump is impeached.

So what’s the damn point?

Your side already tried to make Warren look foolish by presenting her like this, Nathan. It didn’t work.