In her new book What Happened, Hillary Clinton has an entire chapter devoted to what it’s like being a woman in politics. In it, she addresses the rampant sexism and misogyny that women endure as political candidates and public officials. She is candid in her assessment of how men in politics are far less scrutinized, tested, and painted as hypocritical in the ways that women are. It is a harsh truth and a sad demonstration of how far we have to go toward gender equality in this country.
Hillary Clinton isn’t likely to run for office again. However, what she describes is a phenomenon not unique to her but instead one experienced by a number of women in politics. One notable example is Elizabeth Warren. Warren is the darling of the progressive left and a number of Democrats are hopeful that she will run for president in 2020. She has announced that she has no plans to do so. But that has not stopped the right wing from investing the same level of vitriol and mudslinging in her that it did with Hillary.
Yet now, as many hope and speculate that she might run in 2020, the right is investing in a story line about Warren that is practically indistinguishable from the one they peddled for years about Clinton. And even in these early days, some of that narrative is finding its way into mainstream coverage of Warren, and in lefty reactions to it.
It’s a literal investment, one that may mean that conservatives see Warren as among the most dangerous of their future presidential opposition. [...]
But most notable was the $150,000 sunk by conservative hedge-fund billionaire and Breitbart benefactor Robert Mercer into a super-PAC called Massachusetts First, built specifically to target Warren.
It looks like the money given by Mercer is going to radio ads that target Warren as an elite, liberal professor who collected loads of money in the form of her Harvard Law School salary while her students went into debt for their education. And true to their playbook, just like with Hillary, Republicans are painting Warren as untrustworthy.
As Politico notes, these moves against Warren in the context of a race she’s not likely to be vulnerable in demonstrate that Republicans “are aiming to replicate the pounce-early-and-often model they used against Clinton in 2014 and 2015.”
But in Warren’s case, it’s not just the pace and timing of attacks that recall right-wing anti-Clinton strategy. It’s also the portrayal of her as hypocritical and untrustworthy. The Massachusetts First website describes its mission as providing “the full and real story” of Warren’s failings, a construction that suggests that her self-presentation is inauthentic, as Clinton’s was often presumed to be.
How sad. These men can’t even be bothered to come up with something more original. Is this how they plan to attack all women? “She’s too educated, too rich and too stuffy and inauthentic for her own good?” Gee, that actually sounds familiar. Perhaps they should take a good, hard look in the mirror—because that pretty much describes everyone in their party.
But that’s not at all. Aside from painting this outrageous caricature of a person, they are also resorting to attacking her credibility with her core audience: liberals.
After [confronting her at an appearance and videotaping it, right-wing radio host Jeff Kuhner] repeatedly tweeted the clip at Donald Trump and conservative news outlets, alongside descriptions of Warren as a “phony Indian, a phony progressive & a phony senator,” who “made millions shilling for big banks, corporations & insurance giants” and “got rich by flipping homes, taking advantage of old ladies. She embodies crony capitalism.”
Luckily, Elizabeth Warren isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Her Senate seat is likely safe and if she keeps her word and doesn’t run, she’ll stay in the Senate in the next presidential election where she is also desperately needed. But whether or not she runs for president, this shows us what hideous sexist trolls folks on the right are. This is a party that “regards ambitious women as threatening and ugly.” Of course there are many reasons to elect more women to office (especially women of color)—beginning with the fact that we are smart, hardworking and capable. But it would also be great to elect more women just to see these terrible human beings deeply uncomfortable with smart, talented women in charge.