Elizabeth Warren and The Myth of Electability

Elizabeth Warren is finally getting noticed in the press - for dropping out of the race. Suddenly, everyone is willing to sing her accolades. The press is even willing to join women in our mourning. Because mourning is what it is. We haven't just lost our preferred candidate, a smart, articulate, courageous, caring woman. We've lost our hope, too. 

When I was nine, my father died. I lost Albert Berggren. At the age of seventeen, standing in my high school reception line after graduation, as the valedictorian of my class, I lost him all over again. I stood there, watching my classmates' father come through the line beaming at their children, hugging them with pride, and I realized I'd never know that feeling. I lost the experience of seeing my father in the proud father role that day. That's what Elizabeth Warren's ending her campaign is - we've lost Elizabeth as our candidate, but for many of us we've lost the dream of seeing a woman in the White House in our lifetime, too. 

Elizabeth's campaign ended because of sexism, but it also ended because of sexism's tool, the fallacy of electability. Pundits, reporters, pollsters speak of electability as if it were a measurable quantity. Like we could place a measuring stick next to a candidate and measure their electability in inches. Or take a DNA swab and see how closely their DNA comes to the electability profile. Or have them pee in a cup to see if they have a component for electability in their urine.

The reality is that electability is a concept that says more about the person stating who is electable than it does about the person we are talking about. Because we believe that people who look like us are the most electable. So, men will always think that men are the most electable. Older people will always think that older candidates are the most electable. The rich will always think the rich are the most the electable. White people will always think white people are the most electable. And those of us that are neither male, wealthy, white, or old - will find that the candidates that look like us will fall by the wayside, leaving no one to speak for us.

Yes, it's true that there are women who didn't support Elizabeth Warren because they thought she wasn't electable. But please don't use that as an excuse to say electability isn't a sexist fallacy. We all know that women as well as men absorb the attitudes of patriarchy, just like people of color may absorb attitudes of racism. The fact of the matter is that we all have been raised to see the white male as the norm, whether we are talking about creating treatment protocols for cardiac disease or what a politician looks like. Please stop talking about who's electable and who isn't, because the more you say it, the more ingrained the belief becomes, until you've made it reality. 

Here's another thing I don't need to hear from will meaning Democrats - "Vote Blue, No Matter Who." Please, I'm not an idiot. As a woman and a feminist, I know better than most how critical getting Democrats in the Senate and White House is. But that's just the thing, I'm a progressive, feminist woman, so no matter who the Democratic candidate is, I have to keep fighting for the things I believe in, which include compassion, the common good, smashing the patriarchy, dismantling racism, and saving the planet. So, I get to mourn Elizabeth Warren ending her race to be the Democratic nominee. I get to fight for what I believe is right. And I get to expect whoever the Democratic nominee is that they will to reach out to all Democrats and acknowledge the issues we care about. Because that’s what a truly unifying candidate does.