I *WANT* an Angry Woman as My President, Actually
Senator Elizabeth Warren has spent most of her presidential campaign playing nice as everyone’s favorite teacher who has SO. MANY. PLANS. But at last night’s Democratic debate in Nevada, she cracked her knuckles, threw some bows, and basically destroyed every single electability argument the media has tossed her way since she announced her run. Then she ate Michael Bloomberg’s ego for dessert.
While the senator went after everyone on that stage (her legit comedy set about the other candidates’ health care plans was just one extraordinary highlight), nothing made Warren’s blood visibly boil like Bloomberg, who made his debate debut. While everyone went after the billionaire, a man with a very recent past of using racist and sexist language and who is accused of trying to buy the Democratic nomination, no one seemed to enjoy crushing him into oblivion quite like Warren.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians.’ And, no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg,” she said, as the crowd lost their damn minds. “Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns...of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop-and-frisk. Look, I’ll support whoever the Democratic nominee is, but understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”
Ya. Burnt.
While many pundits celebrated the senator’s feisty performance, others played into the sexist trope of the mean, angry woman. (Original, thanks.) As it’s been argued by authors Brittney Cooper, Rebecca Traister, Soraya Chemaly, and several other feminist thinkers, people are still uncomfortable with female anger, despite it being one of the greatest catalysts for historical and lasting social change.
And even though our culture haaaaates angry women, they love to erase them when they’re not angry enough: After a third place performance in the Iowa Caucus, cable news cut away from Warren’s speech and she was basically left out of the coverage the next day. Despite being one of the clear front-runners in this race, she wasn’t even included in a poll about presidential matchups. How does that make sense?
Even after last night’s explosive performance, one headline from the New York Times appearing to recap the debate made no mention of Warren. It’s a classic double standard that’s almost impossible to escape. We ignore women by nature and then get confused and uncomfortable when they’re forced to elbow their way in.
Warren came out SWINGING at Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/3D8bnvvm4m
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) February 20, 2020
But here’s the mind-blowing truth: Warren’s anger is a great thing. She’s not using it to fight for herself. She’s fighting for the less privileged, a trait I actually really, really want in a leader. For instance, during the debate, she was furious as she stood up for the thousands of men of color who have been stopped and frisked, the millions of black and brown families who were preyed upon with redlining, and children with disabilities who faced budget cuts while billionaires got a tax break this year.
Warren’s rage is almost always in the service of others and that’s her secret weapon. Nothing made that more obvious than when Pete Buttigieg pressed Amy Klobuchar about forgetting the name of the president of Mexico. Warren jumped in, not to prove that she knew the answer, but to stand up for the only other woman onstage, even if she’s her competitor.
“Let’s be clear: Missing a name all by itself does not indicate that you do not understand what’s going on, and I just think that’s a mistake,” Warren said. Even when an injustice is lobbed at her opponent in a way that could totally benefit her, Warren doesn’t take the bait. Isn’t that precisely the quality we want in the person we elect to the highest office?
So before we collectively ask why Elizabeth Warren is so damn angry about sexism, racism, ableism, and corruption, maybe we should ask ourselves why we aren’t.
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