Agreed. I think it was meant as an “October Suprise” to call Trump on his racist nonsense. Unfortunately, it seems to have backfired.
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She didn’t counter anything, she just revived a meaningless and stupid personal beef that does nothing but play directly into Trump’s strong points.
Trump is a liar who is utter impervious to shame. That’s a big part of what his base loves about him. Now he’s going to make this about how she played fast and loose with the facts in her stories, and how terrible it is when liberals take advantage of minorities for gain. Hell, he’s going to buy representatives from the Cherokee nation to stand on stage with him at a rally and tell the world how Warren is no Indian.
And to answer your other question, what should Warren have done? Sandbagged him with it. Have the test done, keep it in your back pocket, and let him revive the issue if he wants and then stick it in his fat orange face. But what possible purpose does it serve right before mid-terms except to feed red meat to his base?
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Revive? She was getting “Pocohontas” thrown at her less than a week ago.
Which would be another easily-provable lie.
His base isn’t the audience. They weren’t going to be convinced of anything, regardless. It’s the independents who need to be convinced, and they do respond to facts. It’s the Democrats who need to be inspired to get out and vote. That’s what’s going to determine the midterms.
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I’m sorry, but I just fundamentally disagree that there is any value in playing to “independents” or thinking that playing on Trump’s terms in this kind of thing sway any of those people in any event. If those people were capable of being swayed by Trump being a bigot or dishonest or a genuine shit-heel, he wouldn’t be sitting in the White House.
And I absolutely agree that Democrats need to be inspired to get out and vote, but I think that this kind of fight is a net loss because it’s more energizing for Trump’s base than for Democrats. Trump is a demagogue, first and foremost, and these personal fights are what demagogues thrive on. I recognize that you believe it is more energizing for Democrats, and while that may be difficult if not impossible for either of us to objectively quantify I genuinely hope you’re ultimately right. I’d much rather be happy than right in this instance.
But listen, I fully recognize that internecine fighting is silly and ultimately small compared to our shared interests. I hope you understand that you and I may disagree about things like this, but I’m willing to bet our shared views dwarf this issue.
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I agree. I just wish the people who are criticizing Warren for this were more aware that they are enabling Trump and the GOP. I mean, Trump gets a pass on throwing around “Pocohontas,” but Warren gets criticized for actually proving that she has Native American ancestry? Talk about double-standards!
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Pity.
Not (only) because of the 1M but also because of this:
Trump will get away with it. He always does. However Warren claiming to be of Native American descent will cost her in the long run. This ~2% is not enough to really claim you are part of anything. My guess would be that this percentage is true for the majority of U.S. citizens. Of course it’s completely relevant either way, but most U.S. citizens seem to care, and most seem to dislike a ‘phony’.
This is a pity, because Warren seems to be one of the saner politicians in the U.S. atm. But I predict her opposition will successfully milk this irrelevant detail for all it’s worth. And she made it less irrelevant herself, as noble as her intentions might have been.
I suspect the Hillary effect will return in full swing when she really gets to be a presidential candidate.
Yes, but that’s not all she did. From 1986 to 1995 she listed herself as a racial minority in the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Directory of Law Teachers. She has freely admitted to checking the minority box.
What? No, I don’t think that’s a position anyone’s taking.
Look, imagine if this article was about some random person and the (boingboingy) headline was “Law Professor who is 99% white lists himself as a ‘minority’ teacher, apparently is a fan of the one drop rule”.
I think the comment section would look rather different.
To be clear, I’m not saying I think EW was trying to use a minority status to advance her career or anything. I imagine she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong or appropriative. I’m saying it was a poor choice on her part to get test results saying she was .1-3% Native American and shout “See Donny?? I was right!!” even if she technically was.
As I understand it, and this could be wrong, but it appears that she checked the box for Native American ancestry on her employment profile, something that she had every right to do. Harvard chose to promote this as part of a “diversity” operation. She did not “claim” minority status, she acknowledged that she had Native American ancestry. Which she does. She has said it was generations removed. To blast her because she has said this in public is just craziness. Would you care to define how much ethnic percentage you need to have to claim that you have ethnic ancestry? The fact that my 3x great grandma was black does not mean I can claim to be black. It does not however mean that she did not exist, is not my ancestor or that it is shameful for me to acknowledge her. Look, I am white as white can be. No one would ever think otherwise. But my ancestry remains what it is. And to decide that I am not “permitted” to claim my ancestor is just craziness.
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According to Politifact
she did confirm, however, that she had told the law school association that she held a minority status. “I listed myself (in the) directory in the hopes that might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group something, with people who are like I am,” Warren told reporters May 3, 2012.
She even called herself a Native American in a 2012 interview - “Being Native American is part of who our family is and I’m glad to tell anyone about that. I am just very proud of it,” Warren said.
Look, when I was a kid my family told us that we had some Blackfeet blood in us. We thought it was really cool but I never would check a box for it!
Not quite the same as saying “I am a Native American.” It is in fact part of who her family is, and her taking pride in that is, in my opinion, not really a problem.
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But “being Native American” is not “part of who [her] family is”. This specifically is really tone deaf and I imagine would be offensive to just about anyone who has been brought up and lived as a Native American.
Regardless, she did claim that she held a minority status in a self-reporting list of Law teachers, which by her account she believed to be harmless and wasn’t using it for political or professional gain. But she certainly had some motivation for falsely claiming that she held a minority status.
But “being Native American” is not “part of who [her] family is”.
Well, I can see this from two perspectives. No, Native American culture was (apparently) not part of her family traditions. No evidence of any sort of participation or interest in what is means to actually BE Native American. Yes, I agree with that take completely. On the other hand, it is hard to take issue with the fact that she has family stories claiming Native heritage, including grandparents disapproval of said heritage, and the subsequent evidence for those stories being true. Culturally, she has no claim. She has never participated in the life of the Native Americans as far as has been reported. If she has made claims (and there appear to be some reports that she did, even if fairly tangentially) to cultural heritage, she needs to step back and apologize. She does have genetic heritage, no real way to argue that, but no, she has no cultural heritage. Thinking that through, I think I can understand Native Americans giving this a hard side eye.
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Meanwhile, in the GOP:
Now, THAT’s using tenuous heritage to gain an advantage. But no outrage directed at McCarthy, just at Warren.
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I have noticed we tend to hold our own to a pretty high standard. And that is not actually a bad thing.
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It proves her point, that she has NA ancestry.
It’s just 1 of her 64 ancestors. But its a fact.
This, in comparison to Trump’s 6 draft deferments, which were lies (as just 1 example).
Whatever Warren’s few lies/dissembling, they should be analyzed in proportion to Trump’s 2500-5000 lies he has told so far. That is, they should not be analyzed at all. But the mainstream media, the “enemy” of Trump, will analyze both sides equally.
The alternative was to be continuously called a liar and be forced to remain silent on the issue, from now until 2020.
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Eww, what?? To be sure, Warren could be a pretty goddamn terrible person (for the record I think she’s fuckin’ fierce in all the good ways) and I’d still vote for her in 2020, but I strongly disagree on that one. I subscribe to the comment above yours -
But hey, we’ll both be pulling the same lever in two weeks and two years, so peace fellow happy mutant!
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