Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has dropped out of the presidential race, and The New York Times (which bizarrely endorsed both Warren and Sen. Amy Klobuchar) is bitter. The headline to Friday’s front-page “news analysis” by Lisa Lerer blamed sexism: “A Two-Man Race? Women Aren’t Surprised.” It began (click “expand”):
In the end, the pink wave carried two white men ashore.
Since Donald J. Trump won the presidency, women’s rage has fueled the Democratic Party. Women created new political organizations, led protests, ran for office and voted for Democrats more than they ever had before. A record number of female lawmakers now serve in Congress. After years of being considered a political liability, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has emerged as a party icon and, in 2020, multiple women ran for president.
For the first time in history, Americans saw a diverse group of female leaders pursuing the country’s highest office, an elite sorority that included former prosecutors, senators, a combat veteran and even a self-help celebrity.
Then the painful punch line: “And, for the first time in history, a majority of Democratic voters rejected them all. As the party moves toward picking a nominee, the last man left standing will be, most certainly, a man.”
Reading between the lines, it sounds like Democratic women themselves were at fault for Warren’s underperformance:
At events for Democratic candidates over the past year, many women said that they were more aware than ever of sexism in their own lives and in the culture at large, because of the #MeToo movement and heightened focus on gender parity. All of that awareness, though, became an obstacle to electing a female president. They knew how sexist the world was, some said, and they couldn’t take the risk....Eighteen percent of Democratic women said that a woman could not win the White House, compared with 7 percent of men, according to a CNN poll in January.
Of course women aren’t an ideological feminist monolith and don’t vote that way, no matter what Times reporters want.
And it’s not technically a “Two-Man Race” either; a woman still running for president, although Lerer didn't even mention her Friday: Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI), an iconoclastic liberal Democrat with stands across the ideological spectrum.
Lerer’s October 2019 hit on Gabbard revealed the reporter’s hypocrisy regarding supporting women for high office: “Left Scratches Its Head And Far Right Swoons At Gabbard Campaign.”
The online headlines summed up Lerer's view that Gabbard had no business running: “What, Exactly, Is Tulsi Gabbard Up To? As she injects chaos into the 2020 Democratic primary by accusing her own party of “rigging” the election, an array of alt-right internet stars, white nationalists and Russians have praised her.”
Sororal treachery? Or just another case of liberal hypocrisy by the media, using feminism as a partisan cudgel only when it suits the Democrats?
Even before Warren dropped out, reporter Jennifer Medina was blaming sexism: “Electability and an Apology: Women See Warren’s Trials as Their Own.” The text box: “‘Hope almost feels quaint’ amid familiar double standards.”
