One week ago, we were on tenterhooks awaiting the results of the Iowa caucuses, believing them to provide our first real glimpse into the minds and hearts of voters as the 2020 primary season began. Before the night was over, most everyone’s expectations would be upended. Many of us spent the last week bemoaning the uncertainty of the caucus tabulations as well as the undemocratic design of the whole process. And the mainstream media, eager as always for the next “new” narrative to push, somehow forgot their earlier pronouncement that there would be “three tickets out of Iowa” once that third-place position was filled by Elizabeth Warren.
As a strong supporter of Senator Warren myself, I share the disappointment of all who had hoped for her to come in first or second in Iowa—even though that solid third-place result exceeded expectations heading into the caucuses. Point of fact: we have had a total of 40 delegates allocated so far. Buttigieg has 13, Sanders 12, and Warren 8 of them. And yet, since last Monday, I’ve read many articles, here and elsewhere, that (if they mention her showing in Iowa at all) are ready to declare her candidacy at an end.
My response to that is simply: Not so fast.
Last Saturday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, ten Democratic candidates had an opportunity to speak to the crowd gathered for the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club fundraiser. Elizabeth Warren, boasting the largest portion of the crowd, opened her speech with a reminder of what she was doing three years ago: turning McConnell’s rebuke of her, for attempting to read a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King documenting Jeff Sessions’ racism into the Senate record, into a central rallying cry of the Resistance.
“Nevertheless, she persisted” was originally McConnell’s phrase. But she, and we, have reclaimed it with a vengeance. It crystallizes the frustration and the determination so familiar to women who keep on keepin’ on regardless of the obstacles in our way. It characterizes Warren’s own life path, which has been a zig-zag of peaks and valleys, another common trait among women who have bucked convention and pursued ambitious goals. Now, on the eve of the New Hampshire primary — where another 24 delegates will be apportioned, or just over 1% of the number needed to secure the nomination — Warren has yet another chance to demonstrate this same core virtue, among many others, that has brought her this far.
We who are drawn to her intelligence, her analysis, her integrity, her humor, and yes, her fighting spirit, need to manifest it as well. It’s not time to give up and to back down; it’s not time to defeat ourselves before the game has advanced more than a step or two.
I don’t know how things will turn out for Warren in New Hampshire, nor in Nevada, nor in South Carolina. And despite all the polls, betting markets, and prognosticators, no one else does either.
But I do know that we’ve seen startling developments in previous primary seasons much later in the year. I do know that we have a stellar candidate with a track record of successful campaigns against long odds. I do know that we have an opponent who must be defeated trounced in November. I do know that Warren would be a superb candidate in the general election, one who can unify the party, and that she would be prepared from the day of her inauguration as our 46th president to repair the destruction that the 45th has wrought.
In the middle of a campaign round-up covering the candidates’ last night before New Hampshire votes, a Washington Post reporter quotes Warren as saying her campaign is ready to go the distance:
What I do know is that I just have to keep fighting. That’s, that’s what it’s all about. I cannot say to all those little girls: ‘This got hard and I quit.’ My job is to persist.
Persistence is our job now too.
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2020 · 4:46:24 AM +00:00
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peregrine kate
Thanks for all the lovely commentary in my post! I wish I were up to replying to every one of them. (I just might over the next few days.)
I wanted to update the post for two other reasons besides saying thank you.
First, I wish to include this link to Charlie Pierce’s recent reminder in Esquire of the events of February 7, 2017 (during which Sen. Warren dared to speak the truth about her colleague, Jeff Sessions)—in part because he relates that incident so well. But also because he makes a very important point:
But I believe that the disappearing of SPW [Senator Professor Warren] has more to it than sexism. I think the money power, including those elements of it that own media conglomerates, see her as a genuine threat. Unlike Bernie Sanders, whom they feel they can pink-bait out of contention, Warren knows their tricks and traps better than they know them. How do you think Mike Bloomberg or the powers at Comcast feel about her detailed plan to crack monopolies in our current economy? They don’t think Sanders can win — and they may in fact be wrong about that — but they know what SPW can do if she ends up with the power to do it.
Indeed, they do know, and they don’t shrink from protecting their interests. Neither should we.
The last reason for my update is to report that I took two calls from the Warren campaign tonight. One caller asked if I’d canvass in Michigan this weekend, and I said yes, gladly. The other caller wanted to thank me for volunteering in Iowa, to which I replied that it was my pleasure AND that I am thinking about hosting volunteers at the end of February when things heat up before the Michigan primary on March 10th. (Plus, I replied to an invitation to a local fundraiser.)
So. Let’s keep on dreaming big and fighting hard, each in our own ways. This moment will not come again, and we must do our best to rise up to meet it. #KeepCalmVoteWarren