@blatham,
blatham wrote:Re ancestry, I really do not get why anyone is bothered by this issue.
Then I'll explain to you why it bothers
me. To me, Warren's conduct from the 1980s to the early 2000-s shows dishonesty, and her handling of the affair today shows bad judgement. Neither is a deal-breaker, but both bother me in a potential president.
Let's start with dishonesty. Elizabeth Warren, more than most other politicians, is presenting herself as a plain-Jane, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is candidate. A candidate people can trust over the shifty liars on the other side. Warren directly contradicted this self-image with her choice to assume a Native-American identity, off and on, depending on professional convenience.
Warren has never participated meaningfully in any Native-American community or Native-American traditions. She has no more Native Americans among her ancestors than the average White American does. And yet she let Harvard present her as a diversity hire and use her as a reason not to hire more Native Americans.
And we're not talking about facile, identity-political vanity here. Warren's lies directly hurt real people --- whoever Harvard didn't hire because she was 'Cherokee'. And while this is not a deal-breaker --- all humans lie sometimes --- it does contradict the image she is choosing to present of herself, and this bothers me.
Moving on to poor judgement: In addition to Warren's lying in the first place, the genetic test, her "in your face, Trump!" presentation of its result, and the timing of her presentation all bother me. To start with, genetic tests do nothing to decide your membership in a Native-American community, so it was an idiotic approach to begin with. Moreover, the result of the test
confirmed rather than contradicted Trump's "Pocahontas" sneer Warren is no more Native American than the average White American. Trump could with equal justice have called her the Rachel Dolezal of the Cherokee. And finally, the Democratic Party needed this 'Cherokee' distraction like a hole in the head. What was Warren thinking, derailing her party's campaign three weeks before the elections like that? Couldn't this wait another month or two?
To be sure: Warren's poor judgement is no show-stopper for me, either. All humans trouble-shoot imperfectly sometimes But it bothers me. I'd rather check out Harris, Gillibrand and the other Democrats before making a commitment to Warren.