Released the other day Massachusetts senator and possible 1/1024 Cherokee Elizabeth Warren's New Year's Eve announcement that she's formed an exploratory committee to run for president has not been met with much praise or fanfare across the Democratic base. Sure, the announcement trended on Twitter, but her bland announcement video felt remnant of a different political era, and her ill-advised Instagram live video, complete with a beer and a reluctant cameo by her husband, earned more mockery than compliments.
Naturally, the Atlantic's Peter Beinart blames sexism. But Beinart's lamentations ring more of relitigating the 2016 election than an actual argument that Warren has faced any appreciable amount of discrimination due to her gender. Warren doesn't have a misogyny problem; she has a Hillary Clinton one.
On paper, Warren should be a compelling candidate. She was once a nationally esteemed professor specializing in bankruptcy and commercial law; Wall Street's irresponsibility and the Great Recession spurred her ideological evolution and eventual embrace of progressivism. It's a politically expedient narrative, and one backed by consistency that starkly contrasts with that of Clinton. No one could convincingly accuse Warren of selling out, and she bridges the gap between Roosevelt-style regulatory activism and an appreciation for the necessity of capitalism. She describes herself as "capitalist to the bone," swearing that she wants to save capitalism from itself rather than overhaul it, which arguably represents a contrast to some of her prospective competitors.
