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| Vigorous gestures, including this one. |
"Now you've got a chance to do a lot of things you need to do. So let me start with my first big proposal on structural change."
Elizabeth Warren, New Hampshire, April 20, 2019 Click: 91 seconds
"Americans are attracted to candidates who project upbeat, positive images. What they don’t like are finger-wagging school principals who tell them to eat their broccoli. That’s why Elizabeth Warren does not wear well."
Charles Lipson, Political Science Professor, U. of Chicago
Elizabeth Warren says America can be better and she presents clear proposals for change.
It doesn't sound like scolding to me. It sounds passionate, earnest, and well-informed. To me it sounds like someone doing what a politician is supposed to do. Tell us what is going on, then tell us what they would do about it.
But that is just me.
Apparently Elizabeth Warren grates on some people. I hear talk of her being "shrill," which I interpret to mean her voice is in the feminine register, and she seems insistent, and that the person doesn't like it.
I hear talk of there being "something about her."
On paper--theoretically--she could be a Democratic consensus candidate. She is progressive enough to excite the Bernie activist left, but she is credentialed in a way to please the "center left": a sitting US Senator, Harvard Law professor, acknowledged expert on a complicated subject (financial regulation/bankruptcy), and a lower-middle class heartland background. She is a woman in the party of women, but is no man-hater; she has a husband and a Golden. She is younger than Trump. She doesn't have the baggage of Biden or Bernie.
But if people don't find her appealing, then she is out.
Maybe it is simply misogyny. Maybe men don't like being told things by women.
Oh, there are lots of roles that American men like women to play: ingenue; beautiful adoring daughter; housekeeper; concubine; faithful wife who endures abandonment. Donald Trump revels in each of these roles, where the woman serves the man. A big majority of men supported Donald Trump in 2016, and still do.
Women-as-leaders is new and uncomfortable for many men. Judeo-Christian tradition and scripture makes it a command. Paul said in First Corinthians (14:34) "Women are to be silent in churches, but must be in submission, as the Law of Moses instructs." Women bosses are still rare.
Maybe the "something-about-her" issue is as simple as that.
Elizabeth Warren stands before crowds as a leader. Her voice is high pitched. She is trying to persuade. She says what we need to do. She is urging change. Her hands, indeed, often move to finger-pointing as she makes her points.
Is this shrill, unpleasant scolding, that will wear poorly? Or is this an electable alternative to Trump?
3 comments:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be able to bring in persuadable voters, including "moderates" ("Demlicans" "Republicrats").
I predict Joe Biden will not win Iowa. By the time we get there his lack of substance will be exposed and she will fill the ensuing policy vacuum. By then voters will have seen her enough that she will be familiar and just as electable as Hillary, perhaps even more so. Her supporters, including me, will be uber enthusiastic and her rallies will grow.
Timing is everything. Biden will peak early and then fade and she must be careful not to move too fast. Her biggest problem will be her VP pick (another woman?). The other headwind is the economy, but an insistent message about the "Obama recovery" will help. If Progressives can win in a good economy it will help the further the movement, just like the 2018 midterms.
She's will have to find a strategy to counter Trump's inevitable slanders and slurs. Calling him "Little Donny" could be a start, characterizing him as a juvenile. Maybe even scolding; "Do you need a timeout, Donny?"
First impressions are not good. She looks like that 4th grade teacher you were deathly afraid of.
My 4th grade teacher looked and sounded somewhat like Senator Professor Warren, and was one of the three most effective teachers I was ever blessed with. If that is your parameter for selecting a Candidate who will scare the BS right out of Drumpf on the Debate Stage, you may wish to examine those parameters. The goal is to grind the ReThuglican Fascists into Dust, not necessarily elect someone to have over for dinner.
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