Off the Reservation With Elizabeth Warren

Wanted : An example of why knee jerk liberals have trouble keeping Middle America in their corner. The fact is often times even when people agree with a majority of the opinions some liberals have they often cannot bring themselves to vote for them because they are so personally unlikable.

In Massachusetts we now have another example of this. Elizabeth Warren is a very smart woman. Handpicked to be the Director of the new Consumer Protection Agency, Warren never got confirmed by the divided Senate. Soon it became suggested that Warren might be a strong candidate for the Massachusetts Senate seat currently being held by Republican Scott Brown.

With the election still almost six months away a great deal of attention and money has been spent in Massachussets. Warren and Brown are both popular figures. Brown struggles a bit convincing the far right that he is Conservative enough. Of course if one tries to win the hard right Conservatives in Massachusetts exclusively then they will not win any elections.

Warren on the other hand had energized the left in Massachusetts but the fact is that the state is not the liberal bastion that it used to be. Democrats still get elected but it is not foreign territory for Republicans anymore. Warren is nothing like a shoo in. She will have to win Independents to have a chance in a statewide election and this past few weeks she has made that much harder for herself.

It has come to light that, and I confess I do not know all the details, that on some application at some point in her professional career Elizabeth Warren checked the box that listed her as holding minority status. Minority Status as a partial Cherokee Indian. The proof of that is now being researched and has been hard to confirm. Even were her status as a partial Native American easily confirmed the fact that she claimed such a status for preferential treatment could and should trouble many people.

This was not a woman of disadvantage. This was not an African American person pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

It rankles, it is an example of why even moderate Democrats and certainly Independents become uncomfortable with preference programs. Many people who do for some reason or another qualify but who do not need the assistance use it just because they can. This is a problem.

Elizabeth Warren may or may not be one eighth American Indian. One thing that is safe to say I believe is that come November she will be a one eighth American Indian who is not a Senator Elect.