For those of you living under a rock (or not from the USA), the president has nicknamed Senator Warren "Pocahontas", after an Indian woman who materially helped the early English colonists at Jamestown back in the 17th Century. Pocahontas is generally regarded as a heroic figure.
Trump, however, is using the name as a synonym for "hypocrite" because Ms. Warren claimed herself to be "Native American" (the PC phrase for Indian), identifying herself as such in a directory list of law professors, among other places. When pressed she could produce no evidence beyond family lore that she had any Indian ancestry at all. Further, she made it look like she'd gotten her job in part because of affirmative action programs for Native Americans.
The label must have stung. She has now responded with a nearly six minute long video supposedly establishing her Indian heritage. She reveals a DNA test suggesting she is somewhere between 0.1% and 2% Native American, assuming you take the results as definitive.
She can't escape the hypocrisy label, either. Her video presents testimony from several high-ranking academics, claiming they never, ever considered her ethnicity in hiring her--not even a little bit. In this age of affirmative action that's pretty hard to take seriously--unless said professors did not themselves believe Ms. Warren's claim to native ancestry.
So all in all, I think Trump will continue to call her "Pocahontas," or perhaps "the lady who doesn't like being called Pocahontas." Elizabeth Warren is still a hypocrite, and she isn't an Indian.
But she is Scots-Irish. I believe she intended to make precisely that point, and if so the video is a stroke of political genius. Its essential purpose is to win support from her kin.
Ms. Warren grew up in Oklahoma. The state was Indian Territory until 1889--the Cherokees and Choctaws had been exiled there from the southeastern United States. Warren's family was among those early white settlers, and it surely isn't shocking that there'd be some ethnic mixing. Likely most longstanding Oklahoma families can claim Indian blood.
The Scots-Irish (a misnomer since there's nothing Irish about them--they're Lowlander Scots) arrived in North America before the Revolution and settled in the "back country", today known as Appalachia. From there they expanded westward, populating Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and even Southern California. In demographic terms they have been very successful--they are today the largest single ethnic group in the United States, perhaps 60 million strong.
I'm informed on this by three books: J.D. Vance's well-known and excellent book, Hillbilly Elegy (my review here), Colin Woodard's American Nations (review here), and finally, the magisterial Albion's Seed, by David Hackett Fischer.
Senator Warren plays on numerous Scots-Irish themes during the video. For example (according to Mr. Vance), the surest route to a fistfight is to insult a hillbilly's mother. No surprise, then, when Ms. Warren proclaims "Now, the president likes to call my mom a liar," a phrase calculated to win sympathy.
Though sympathy is not exactly what Ms. Warren is after. Scots-Irish (reports Mr. Fischer) raise girls to become strong, self-reliant women, and boys to become warriors. Sarah Palin (another Scots-Irish politician) described herself as "Mama Bear." Ms. Warren shows herself in the same light--she's no victim; instead she's a cow-punchin', pistol-packin' mama. You don't mess with her!
She doesn't want your sympathy. Instead, you'll cheer her on!
Though when push comes to shove a Hillbilly gal can't be expected to go it alone--that's where the warriors come in. Ms. Warren has three older brothers, all of whom spent their youth in the military. You insult a girl's honor and you can expect a posse of brothers, sons, and uncles to start coming after you. To emphasize the point family photos depict them in uniform and flying fighter jets. And sure enough, the now elderly brothers, despite being Republicans, rise strongly to their sister's defense. Their genuine loyalty surely trumps the fake protestations of academics.
Finally, Scots-Irish--and not just those in Oklahoma--have long claimed Indian blood. They're very proud of it. So the Senator's family lore is hardly surprising or unusual--I doubt Liz is lying about that. For a Scots-Irish audience, impugning Ms. Warren's Native ancestry is indirectly an insult to the whole clan.
So I think the goal of this video was (at least in major part) to rouse support from the Scots-Irish for one of their own daughters. And in that sense it's a smashing success.
Ms. Warren wants to be President of the United States. Her current base--progressive liberals--might be large enough to get her into the Senate from Massachusetts, but it's nowhere near a big enough base to win a national election. She needs to expand her base.
Authors Woodard and Hackett describe the peoples that settled colonial America from Britain. In addition to the Scots-Irish, these include the Yankees (about 20 million strong), and the "Midlanders" (aka, "Middle America"), people loosely descended from the Quaker culture in the Delaware Valley.
Obama was a Yankee politician through and through (“the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”), but he put together a coalition including Midlanders and African-Americans. His people so despised the Scots-Irish that they took to calling them "deplorables."
Trump's coalition, conversely, has Scots-Irish at its core, but also includes Midlanders (they're the folks who voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016). The Yankees and African-Americans were not able to carry the day for the Dems.
Ms. Warren now has the very difficult task of forming a coalition including Yankees and Scots-Irish. If she can pull it off she becomes president in a landslide. But since those two groups royally hate each other, this is not gonna be an easy trick. She'll have to win Scots-Irish votes (by supporting gun rights and opposing immigration), while at the same time winning Progressive votes in the primaries.
That odd coalition is much harder now given the insults they've been throwing at each other. But it was Bill Clinton's coalition, and also that of both presidents Bush. The latter combined a New England, blue-blood family with Texas sensibilities.
If Elizabeth Warren wants to be president, she needs to carry Oklahoma and Texas. That's what her video was all about. It's got nothing to do with Native Americans.
Further Reading:
Senator Warren plays on numerous Scots-Irish themes during the video. For example (according to Mr. Vance), the surest route to a fistfight is to insult a hillbilly's mother. No surprise, then, when Ms. Warren proclaims "Now, the president likes to call my mom a liar," a phrase calculated to win sympathy.
Though sympathy is not exactly what Ms. Warren is after. Scots-Irish (reports Mr. Fischer) raise girls to become strong, self-reliant women, and boys to become warriors. Sarah Palin (another Scots-Irish politician) described herself as "Mama Bear." Ms. Warren shows herself in the same light--she's no victim; instead she's a cow-punchin', pistol-packin' mama. You don't mess with her!
She doesn't want your sympathy. Instead, you'll cheer her on!
Though when push comes to shove a Hillbilly gal can't be expected to go it alone--that's where the warriors come in. Ms. Warren has three older brothers, all of whom spent their youth in the military. You insult a girl's honor and you can expect a posse of brothers, sons, and uncles to start coming after you. To emphasize the point family photos depict them in uniform and flying fighter jets. And sure enough, the now elderly brothers, despite being Republicans, rise strongly to their sister's defense. Their genuine loyalty surely trumps the fake protestations of academics.
Finally, Scots-Irish--and not just those in Oklahoma--have long claimed Indian blood. They're very proud of it. So the Senator's family lore is hardly surprising or unusual--I doubt Liz is lying about that. For a Scots-Irish audience, impugning Ms. Warren's Native ancestry is indirectly an insult to the whole clan.
So I think the goal of this video was (at least in major part) to rouse support from the Scots-Irish for one of their own daughters. And in that sense it's a smashing success.
Ms. Warren wants to be President of the United States. Her current base--progressive liberals--might be large enough to get her into the Senate from Massachusetts, but it's nowhere near a big enough base to win a national election. She needs to expand her base.
Authors Woodard and Hackett describe the peoples that settled colonial America from Britain. In addition to the Scots-Irish, these include the Yankees (about 20 million strong), and the "Midlanders" (aka, "Middle America"), people loosely descended from the Quaker culture in the Delaware Valley.
Obama was a Yankee politician through and through (“the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”), but he put together a coalition including Midlanders and African-Americans. His people so despised the Scots-Irish that they took to calling them "deplorables."
Trump's coalition, conversely, has Scots-Irish at its core, but also includes Midlanders (they're the folks who voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016). The Yankees and African-Americans were not able to carry the day for the Dems.
Ms. Warren now has the very difficult task of forming a coalition including Yankees and Scots-Irish. If she can pull it off she becomes president in a landslide. But since those two groups royally hate each other, this is not gonna be an easy trick. She'll have to win Scots-Irish votes (by supporting gun rights and opposing immigration), while at the same time winning Progressive votes in the primaries.
That odd coalition is much harder now given the insults they've been throwing at each other. But it was Bill Clinton's coalition, and also that of both presidents Bush. The latter combined a New England, blue-blood family with Texas sensibilities.
If Elizabeth Warren wants to be president, she needs to carry Oklahoma and Texas. That's what her video was all about. It's got nothing to do with Native Americans.
Further Reading:
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