Is this a non-issue, being taken more seriously than it should, or was this a catastrophic misstep for Warren that doomed her 2020 chances?
Personally, I don’t think it was wise to play into Trump’s hands with a weak DNA return. She should have just taken a test quietly, and if it was unfavorable, which ended up being the case, simply moved on. And then there’s the problem of her “Elizabeth Warren, Cherokee” recipes in the tribal cookbook, seeming to lend credence to the idea that she was purporting to be Native American.
I dunno if it’s really that big of an issue, but what does everyone else think?
Trump purports to be a President and we let him get away with that.
The whole “Pocahontas” thing is Trump repeatedly using a racial slur against a political opponent. Yet somehow Elizabeth Warren is the villain for embracing something that may or may not be as big a part of her heritage as she thought.
It’s an asinine controversy built on the ravings of a racist madman. See also birtherism.
I have feelings of guilt here, since I encouraged Senator Warren to take a DNA test, right here on this message-board. But I didn’t realize that, due to a paucity of North American Indians having submitted DNA, the matching is very fuzzy. BTW, the claim was always that Neoma Ocie Smith, Warren’s 3-gt grandmother, was a Cherokee, giving Warren 1/32 Native genes. If instead Neoma Ocie was a half-breed (as might have seemed more likely a priori), Warren would be 1/64 Native, in conformance with the DNA result. This low expectation should have been publicized before taking the DNA test.
Was taking the test but then not releasing undesired results a realistic option? Such a ploy would have been disastrous for her if leaked.
To me it makes Trumps racial slur, calling her Pocahontas, even more racist. There is nothing wrong with having Native American blood, or not. Name calling is still childish and moronic. What an imbecile Trump is. Everybody in America has some mixture of DNA. It’s what makes you American, afterall.
Except that the article isn’t about the results (really, who cares if she’s 1/16 or 1/32 except racists?). I’m not sure it even actually MENTIONS the results. What has people upset is that she took the test at all – basically validating Trump’s racist position that it somehow matters.
It’s worse than that. She released the results as if it was some kind of victory, taunting Trump to make good on his “bet”. If she had quietly released the results with a “I guess great grandma had less Cherokee in her than we all thought” or something, she wouldn’t have looked so foolish.
Agree. Trump called her a name in a derogatory tone. Even tho she did not have to prove anything to anyone, she took the bait. What was she going to do with that info - did she think Trump was really going to pay her the $1M bet? Was she going to use that info in her political career somehow? The fact that she was baited so easily by the Deej is the issue.
Meh, I don’t think Trump gives a damn whether she’s NA or not. The issue is that she is widely assumed by the right to be using her alleged NA heritage as a type of streed cred with the identity politicos of the left.
Not to defend Trump’s name calling but it’s not exactly “racist” to scoff at someone making a claim to a race she doesn’t really belong to. If I went around proclaiming I was 1/32 Nigerian, people wouldn’t be racist to look at me and say “Bullshit”.
Warren was always going to take shit for something no matter what she said or didn’t say, though. This was just the best excuse a certain faction could find for belittling and dismissing her, and thereby the policy positions she stands for. She frightens them, and this is the inevitable response.
It is what happened. Yes, it’s an ugly line of attack and shouldn’t affect an intelligent voter’s decision but she did lay claim to a tribe that she really has no right to.
That, of course, didn’t stop Scott Brown from calling her a liar, or other Republicans from picking up that claim. Anything that blows the dog whistle, though …
Seconded. She thinks she can play Trump’s game because she’s smarter than him, but she can’t. He will tear her to shreds because it’s not about intelligence or facts. He’s playing a schoolyard game and she’s in the library.
I lost all respect for Warren when she pulled this stunt. I didn’t vote for her in the midterms because of it. If she is the Democratic nominee for president I will vote for her but I won’t like it. I hope she doesn’t run. I think she would be a worse candidate than Hillary and could lose to Trump.
I think Trump loses to any regular candidate. The candidate doesn’t even need to stand out in any special way, just the return to normalcy will drive voters into their arms. This is why Biden polls so high.
But introduce some flawed candidate who rolls around in the mud with Trump, and then loses in that dirty game, it’s asking for trouble.
If Democrats knew what was good for them they’d run a very boring, run-of-the-mill candidate. But they won’t, I believe. I believe voters will elevate a divisive progressive who doesn’t appeal to Independents, and they just might lose because of it.
I don’t think it matters at all. I don’t think she ever had a realistic chance of attaining the nomination, much less winning the presidency.
It was silly of her to respond to the goading. But shows a certain peevishness, not anything else. No one around her - except some real die-hards - should be worrying at all. Her senate seat is essentially hers until she dies or retires. That’s as far as she’s going to go.
100% agree. The next election is about winning, not making a point. They had better pick someone the Progressives can live with, but that the Independents love.