Quote Originally Posted by rory_20_uk View Post
In a perfect world, politicians would be perfect and would not say or do such stupid things. Of the imperfect world we live in, she seems to be on balance the best of the bunch on offer.

This comment is at best foolish - although she is no fool - and isn't really defensible. But if this is the worst thing she has recently done well, I'll accept that.

What infuriates me about PVC's framing is that it accuses Warren of something she hasn't done while completely ignoring what is in fact bad about what she has done. A real sandwich.

The problem with Warren's handling of this issue is that her pedantic sense of her heritage (and the claim of heritage from specific tribal groups rather than generically) is that its contestation serves no benefit for the electorate, and for it to enter national discourse as a subject of discussion probably only brings negative attention to Native interests. Most Natives don't get to enjoy the benefits of whiteness while also eating the cake of exotic aesthetic, and Warren becoming a de facto representative for them when the subject comes up doesn't contribute to repairing their sovereignty or addressing the many demands of Native groups. The publicity doesn't help with the long-running scams that white Americans have run while fraudulently touting Native membership to gain its benefits and access. Warren's family stories might have more substance than most, but the whole trend of excitement and pride over a marginal (non-cultural) connection to Amerindians is both very American and very White, the latter in its ability to treat the putative association to an oppressed minority as a cute factoid or empowering story without burden (though to be fair it has also been a trend among African Americans to identify distant Native ancestry, for slightly different reasons). It's basically a racist mindset in how it relates to Amerindians and how it conceives of what makes one. The technical accuracy of one of Warren's narrowest ancestral propositions or the accuracy of Republican criticisms of her is nothing at all to be resolved on her terms because it's of purely personal import. This is the political sphere. As a politician she has an especially prominent platform, which is best and most responsibly used when advancing the interests of constituents and the country rather than in validating her self-image. That's why it's been gratifying to see her demonstrate the ability to adapt and to learn from mistakes throughout her campaign this year, those being exactly some of the most important qualities a leader can have.

Whereas PVC comes in here with a propagandistic mindset that sees no dissonance in saying that Warren maintaining her self-image discussing Native ancestry only when prompted to do so by Republican attacks is somehow pandering (without explaining what that could possibly mean in context) and in turn that this testifies to a race to the bottom on Democrats' part is just - the stuff of committed bull artistry and I hold it in contempt.