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Elizabeth Warren revindicated women's electoral power 9:41
Editor's Note: Jill Filipovic is a journalist living in New York. She is the author of the book "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
(CNN) - Can a woman win the presidency? According to an explosive story uncovered by CNN, Bernie Sanders doesn't believe it possible. He allegedly heard Warren explain his strengths as a candidate, including that he would appeal to a wide range of voters with his economic policies and that he would take the support of female voters, and assured him that a woman could not win.
Sanders denies having said any of that. The Warren spokeswoman declined to comment on CNN's story, which was referred to by two people aware of the meeting, and by two people with whom Warren spoke immediately afterwards.
This story also comes, according to Politico, when the Sanders campaign (which offered no comment on the note) is redoubling its attacks on Warren, criticizing her for being an elitist who is not in touch with reality (unlike, apparently, of Sanders, who has spent his entire career in politics).
As it did in 2016, the Sanders campaign and Sanders supporters received criticism for what often seem like disproportionate attacks against even the lightest criticism. These include, in particular, women and people of color on the left, perceived as encouraging "identity politics," who believe that sexism, racism and social classes intersect and impact our lives, but that Classes are neither the only nor the most important or influential category (and they do not believe that ending social classes or capitalism means by definition eliminating sexism and racism).
Sanders has complained in the past about what appears to be a strengthening of the identity policy in the Democratic electorate: the idea that it is important to have women, people of color and other marginalized groups in positions of power. “It is not enough for someone to say 'I am a woman! Vote for me! '”Sanders said in 2016.
Of course, nobody has ever said that “I am a woman! Vote for me! ”Be enough. That characterization in itself is humiliating and insulting and suggests that talking about identity in the least is like asking someone to lower the standards. In reality, women face very high barriers to entering traditionally masculine camps (such as politics). See but Elizabeth Warren: she almost had to end her teaching career because it was hard for her to find someone to take care of her daughter.
She knows, up to the marrow, how much potential is wasted because the US It does not cover the needs of women: their own potential was about to be the victim of a bad policy. If we want a government that represents the people, then it must be representative. And that means more female officials, who break a 100% male leadership streak for more than 200 years.
It will be difficult? Yes. Breaking the glass ceiling always is. But the unknown always seems impossible until it happens. Think of Barack Obama, the first (and still only) American black president. We are a nation born of the founding sin of slavery, where racial segregation laws were imposed; a nation still marked by racism and intolerances both subtle and aggressive. Who would have believed that a black man could be elected president by overwhelming majority nothing less?
Or a less inspiring example: who would have thought that a rich boy and a New York real estate agent notoriously corrupt and famously apricot turned host of malicious game shows and a happy tweeter, could be elected president of the United States. ? It seemed like a joke - an impossible one - until it happened.
In comparison, imagining a woman in the Oval Office does not seem so incredible.
If Sanders really told Warren that a woman could not win, he was being sexist and expressing what many Americans seem to believe: that Hillary Clinton's presidential fate proved women's electoral weaknesses. And there is no doubt that misogyny played a role in Clinton's defeat (although it is worth noting here that more millions of Americans voted for her than for Donald Trump).
But we do not analyze the losses of white men (and a white man lost every four years for more than 50 electoral cycles) and we conclude that men cannot win. We only conclude that this man did not win.
We know that there are particular barriers for women to get executive positions. But we also know that although they are less likely to run, when they do they do as well as men. And when they run for public office, they do it later in life than men, like Elizabeth Warren who won her first election and got a Senate bench at 63, compared to Bernie Sanders, who ran for office in 1972, at 30 (he ran and lost, an election to governor of Vermont with the Union for Freedom party).
Sanders should know better than anyone that even a significant public prejudice does not make one a lost electoral cause: almost half of Americans say they would not vote for a socialist as president, regardless of their qualifications as a candidate. Of course, what people say to pollsters and what they actually do doesn't always coincide, and when voters get to know a candidate and learn more about his personality and what he promises to do, his decisions change.
But almost half of the voting population has ruled out Sanders. In comparison, 94% of Americans say they would vote for a woman. Sanders, in other words, has an even steeper climb. I think you can do it. But if he (or someone else) is concerned that the candidates simply cannot overcome the deep American prejudices, well, Sanders' candidacy raises a much greater concern.
Sanders continues in the campaign, suggesting that he believes Americans can overcome their preconceptions and vote for someone who is markedly different from most people who came before the presidency. In that, he is absolutely right.
Translation of Mariana Campos
Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren
