Watching Elizabeth Warren Come Alive

[babylonsister]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/elizabeth-warren-and-the-women-who-love-her.html

Watching Elizabeth Warren Come Alive
After the heartbreak of 2016, she’s making some women believe that a woman could actually win the presidency.

By Dahlia Lithwick
June 06, 20191:48 PM

snip//

Do I worry that Elizabeth Warren isn’t fantastic on the stump? I do. But Warren doesn’t seem to care much about being loved. She cares a lot about explaining where things fell apart. So her campaign goes to tiny blue-collar towns in tiny red states she cannot hope to win, and she talks about opioid addiction with Trump supporters who have never met a presidential hopeful and may never meet one again. The labor here is about connecting the dots more than lighting crowds on fire.

Watching this play out on the trail, I couldn’t help but think of an idea Rebecca Solnit recently explored in a piece about our possible newfound resistance to “great men” theories of governance. Solnit suggests that we may be finally tiring of:

the hero as an attention-getter, a party-crasher, a fame-seeker, and at least implicitly a troublemaker in the guise of a problem-solver. And maybe we as a society are getting tired of heroes, and a lot of us are certainly getting tired of overconfident white men. Even the idea that the solution will be singular and dramatic and in the hands of one person erases that the solutions to problems are often complex and many faceted and arrived at via negotiations.

What Solnit is holding out as the new ideal of leadership is not, by any stretch, exclusively female. But it is an idea less tethered to goose bump–y speeches, or the kind of charisma that leaves an audience thrilled yet unable to recall any idea actually expressed. We’ve now elected two “charismatics” in a row to the presidency, and the model Warren is building, while not lacking in surface polish, surely doesn’t coast on it. Her campaign is less TED talk than graduate seminar. And her “students” become evangelists of her big ideas more than evangelists of her.

I don’t know whether Elizabeth Warren can win the Democratic primary. I’m not yet certain a woman can win at all. A country that is OK prosecuting women who miscarry isn’t really a country I recognize, much less one I can believe in. Worse, I shudder at the implication that Warren, the woman, will do all the grueling legwork of educating voters about corruption, and banking, and unions, and debt, so that some man in a glittering cape might swoop in and charm our socks off next summer.

Women are often told they react emotionally to candidates, while men are meant to admire and appreciate complex policy. Warren is disrupting that paradigm. She leans less on charisma or charm, or even emotion, than on that elaborate PowerPoint she keeps stowed in her head. It’s a different approach from the men out in front of her. A warm and effusive Joe Biden has been coronated the favorite without having to break a sweat. Bernie Sanders has long had some of the most loyal supporters around, in part because he is so unabashedly “himself.”

But the women who come to these early Warren rallies like being addressed by an adult as adults. At a time when America has devalued teachers, empathy, expertise, and planning for the future, Elizabeth Warren serves as one reminder of what we have lost. It doesn’t mean the voters will necessarily throng to her side. It just means that the women I spoke to, and more and more of the women I know, don’t mind being educated about how everything went so terribly wrong in their political lifetimes. Elizabeth Warren can explain it, and has a plan for it, and believes she can fix it. It’s not glittery, and it may not make your heart beat faster in a stadium. But in a world of noise and bluster, her clarity has its own sort of charm.

[BlueMTexpat]

1. I like her more

every day.

[stage left]

9. Me, too.

[dchill]

12. I just got on board.

Been leaning her way for weeks.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

26. Can certainly see why... I've been admiring Elizabeth's awesomeness for YEARS!!

Elizabeth & Bernie 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. Warren was fantastic in town hall format last night.

She was dialed in.

I think she’s great!

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

27. When is Elizabeth NOT fantastic?!

Elizabeth & Bernie 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[BeyondGeography]

3. Superb article

Lots of perspective on why Warren is resonating because of who she is and the moment we’re in.

Highly recommend.

[sheshe2]

4. That's my Senator!

[rampartc]

5. i like her

and it is not that she is not charismatic, but that she is a little wonky. but I like the policy, and we could use a little more consensus building. i'd be quite proud to live in ms warren's America.

[loyalsister]

31. She is accomplishing something many politicians only dream of

She's drawing boundary lines around what won't be compromised AND building consensus. She is also prepared with policy beyond all expectations and has a confident and accessible personal presentation.
Affable, easygoing wonkishness that doesn't intimidate listeners with technicalities and jargon is not easy to pull off when a person has been deeply focused on legislating.
But, she has risen out of her office into national politics with the strength of institutional knowledge and stronger capacity to translate it into a national platform than long-time congressional leaders (ie. Kerry, Gephardt, Gore, Dole, etc.) have had in the past.

[rampartc]

33. i agree with you

but remember, if she becomes president or vice president we lose her senate seat to a republican appointee.

no president will be able to function without a dem senate.

[loyalsister]

34. I don't buy the assumption that a republican would be appointed

or that the special election that would follow would not return the seat to Democrats. Anything is possible- good or bad. I'm looking at the candidates and I really like what I see in Warren.
I would actually prefer a younger candidate as a practical consideration and am hoping one will break out and adopt some of the same skills and generate as much enthusiasm. She would be a great mentor to a younger candidate. As it stands now, she is my favorite candidate.

[Progressive2020]

6. Warren Is Great

Smart, articulate, and prepared. I would vote for her in a heartbeat.

[honeylady]

11. I love her too.

She inspires me with her tremendous energy. She practically leaps onto the stage. I think she could rally a large crowd and get their enthusiasm way up. I really want to change from Mayor Pete to Elizabeth Warren but don't know how to do that here on DU. Can someone talk me through it?

thanks


BTW. I love Mayor Pete. I think he will make a great president 10 years from now. But right now I think we need Senator Warren.

[lunatica]

18. Go to the top of the page

in the blue field where it shows the percentages for each candidate look over to the far right and click on the icon. It takes you to a page where you can change your preference.

[B Stieg]

7. Not a "flocking," but she's just moved up on the DU board into second place!

The upcoming debates will be very interesting.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

29. she won a debate scholarship.

Wikipedia:

"...won a debate scholarship to George Washington University (GWU) at the age of 16."

Can hardly wait. We haven't seen her in a debate yet. And she has a natural inclination not to trash others, but to stick to the subject.

[B Stieg]

30. Exactly what folks are hungry for after tRump's "personality onslaught"!

I think she's also one of few who has moved up in the national polls, as well.

[crazytown]

8. 'Dream Big, Fight Hard' Oakland, May 31, 2019

[SunSeeker]

10. K & R

[Politicub]

13. She's amazing. She is on a strong trajectory.

And every one of her policy proposals are airtight.

I hope she continues to rise.

[Bradshaw3]

14. Lithwick is usually brilliant

And she is here again. Perhaps the best synopsis of Warren and her campaign I have seen. The last highlighted line expresses what I love best about Warren. She is a perfect antidote to tRump and the hateful maga worldview.

[zentrum]

15. Wish it could be her!

[BigOleDummy]

16. Been a

Warren fan ….. forever it seems. Smart, up on the issues and by god this woman is a FIGHTER. She's not afraid of the repuglicans OR the current squatter in the WH. Warren/Buttigieg is my own personal "dream ticket". Can you just imagine them on the campaign trail? Bliss

[wildflowergardener]

17. Warren speaking

Several years ago I bought the audiobook all your worth. Listening to the book and to her really made me feel that my problems could be solved, and helped to simplify a complicated topic - budgeting. There is something about her way of speaking that makes me trust her, and believe she can help, and cares about me, even though she doesn’t know me. I hear the same thing as she talks on different topics. Hopefully others will feel the same way as they hear her speak more. Just listening to that book would make me feel better when I was stressed about money. She had a plan to help me and it did.

[Ligyron]

19. Nobody in our party can explain economic matters better than Senator Warren.

What am I saying?

Probably nobody on Earth can explain economic matters and how and why we are being screwed by whom and what needs to be done about it better than she.

I'd be thrilled to have her as our President and failing that, if America just stillisn't up to having a woman in that role, why she'd make a great Vice President as well. The only issue with making her President or VP is what's going to happen with her Senatorial seat and I admit I know nothing about Mass politics or if that would even be a problem.

That aside, Mayor Pete/'Liz Warren or visa versa works great for me.

[uawchild]

28. Warren brings it on the economy! n/t

[NBachers]

20. Just imagine our nation after two terms of an Elizabeth Warren presidency!

[c-rational]

21. I like Elizabeth more and more and she may well be my favorite on policy and issues. I only wish

Americans could see past the surface issues. I hear others voice concerns about her voice quality and physical presentation and I am dismayed. I wish we could move beyond that.

[DemocracyMouse]

23. I am certain the Repussians are pushing the "style" nonsense. See my comment below.

[DemocracyMouse]

22. I agree she's brilliant. But I am also in love with her kind of charm

She has down home charm. Cinnamon charm. The charm of those who know the score and passionately want to show PRECISELY how the system is rigged against us. Biden doesn't really seem to get a lot of things and I've even had the opportunity to share info with his somewhat behind-the-times policy people. Warren has been doing her homework and is glad to share it. I TRUST her for all that.

And trust is the best personality trait of all. She totally has the personality thing nailed. She's trustworthy and best of all, she earns our trust. It's not a charade. She's got brains like Bill and Barack and Hillary – but the working person's special intuition. She gets the rigged system in her gut, not just her head.

[c-rational]

24. Completely agree.

[DemocracyMouse]

25. People, Warren has done her homework and is refreshingly trustworthy to my mind.

Trust is hard won, and she's got mine. That trustworthiness is the most critical component in a candidate's personality. All the style commentary is bunk. It's being pushed by Republicans, the least trustworthy can o' beans this side of the Rockies.

[bluewater]

32. She inspired me!

to actually join DU! I have been a long time reader, but decided that it was worth signing up just to say how much I respect Sen. Warren

I think she's exactly what we need in 2020