#PoliCartoon: Angry and Antagonistic
Transcript of cartoon: https://t.co/Qc4WZHJ417 pic.twitter.com/O35uwoJlwb
— Barry makes comics (@barrydeutsch) November 7, 2019
A reminder: Annie Linskey was brought up from the minors (in this case, the Boston Globe) because she wants to do to Elizabeth Warren what Amy Chozick did to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 cycle.
Every word Linskey writes should be scrutinized from that angle, including ‘and’ and ‘the’. (The Matt Viser co-credit can be ignored, as can Viser himself.)
Is Elizabeth Warren “angry”? Or is she being called that – and antagonistic – as others dabble in gendered criticism? Via @mviser and me. https://t.co/8HuPyNJ9Lb
— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) November 7, 2019
Over the past few days, two of the leading male candidates in the Democratic presidential primary race — Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg — have escalated separate lines of attack as they attempt to counter the field’s most prominent woman: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is antagonistic and angry.
She also is an uncompromising elitist, they argue, suggesting that if she were the nominee, it would harm the party in the must-win states in the upper Midwest.
The new attacks, marking a more vigorous phase of the race, get at something far beyond her policy positions, and into one of the most fraught areas for a female candidate: Is she likable?
Pushing that argument is treacherous given that many Democrats remain upset over what they view as sexist treatment of Hillary Clinton, the party’s last nominee. Warren’s allies view the language being used against her as constructed to be particularly devastating for female candidate and beyond the policy divisions between her and her rivals.
Women’s activism — driven in part by Clinton’s loss — has fueled social and political movements, evident in the #MeToo campaign and in election results during the 2018 midterms and on Tuesday night. But it also comes as Democrats worry about turning off voters — many of them white, working class, and male — in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin….
It’s not me, but Some People Say… Thank heavens, Mike Bloomberg is about to parachute into Alabama and save us from the Mean Mommy!
Don’t just take my word — listen to Boston professional reporter, Mr. Charles P. Pierce:
… This kind of thing makes me crazy. An opponent launches a new “line of attack.” It is then described in detail, just so everybody gets the point. Then the reporters make no real value judgments as to whether the “line of attack” is a crock of beans or not—which, in this case, it plainly is.
I have known SPW for almost a decade. I don’t know one person who’s met her in person, with the possible exception of Timothy Geithner and/or Larry Summers, who ever found her angry or antagonistic. In purely human terms, her likability is obvious and authentic. Purely in terms of political utility, “likability” is, in this case, being weaponized in contravention of the observable experience of thousands of people. This is not merely a “more vigorous phase of the debate.” It’s complete nonsense and it should be evaluated as such…I hope I live long enough to see a campaign that is covered neither like a sporting event nor performance art. But I’m not holding my breath.
Coda: There is a ancient gendered ‘joke’ encoded in the meme of a blond young woman explaining that all one needs to succeed is to ‘say yes, say yes… work weekends, work nights’…
Fun fact: Earhardt's home growing up is in a tiny suburban enclave that averages over $2m per house right now, with many hitting above 5m. Her parents had loads of money and paid for all her college. https://t.co/cPxPfyLhsQ
— mugrimm ?? (@unabanned) November 7, 2019
NotMax
Well, they’ve abstained from saying she’s “on the warpath.”
//
joel hanes
Props for the cartoon.
The author has long blogged at Alas, A Blog
http://amptoons.com/blog/
She also does an occasional, ur-blog style link dump, which I usually find well-chosen and interesting.
Joe Bob says “check it out”.
stinger
Skimming the Earhardt quote, my eyes merged “Keep” at the end of the 3rd line with “your” at the end of the 4th line, and I thought for a moment that the quote was “Sleep your way to the top”. I guess only proving Anne Laurie’s coda.
dmsilev
As exemplified by Donald Trump, who started with nothing and is famed for his legendary work ethic.
ThresherK
“Mister we could use a girl like Dorothy Parker again.”
Kay
The NYTimes is just so bad. Read this thing. It’s so obviously planted by Trump people.
‘Suggests progress’. Good Lord. There will be a deal “if a deal is struck”. They are a daily gift to the Trump Administration.
Mary G
Good job by the cartoonist including the brainwashed women who think this. Those 53% of WW who voted for Trump are the ones I’m angriest at. Stockholm Syndrome and unconscious learned sexism.
ThresherK
@ThresherK: Further investigation renders this particular praise of Parker unearned. I’m not sure where it’s from–maybe Mary McCarthy.
Too annoyed at myself to Yahoogle it.
Kay
I’m supporting Warren but I don’t think she’ll win. I figure they join forces and knock her down before the primary is over. She’ll have a good run, though, and she forced them all to talk about healthcare and taxing the rich for 6 weeks, instead of breathless Donald Trump celebrity reporting, and for that I am grateful.
joel hanes
@ThresherK:
I so miss Helen Thomas
Anne Laurie
@ThresherK: Mary McCarthy, actually. (Talking about Lillian Hellman, who sued in response.)
BR
@Kay:
I hope you’re not right, especially if it’s Mayor Pete who takes the top prize. I think there’s a reason that he’s not pulling youth support, but seems to be winning over wealthier and older voters — he doesn’t have the authenticity that younger voters can sense. AOC has that authenticity (and I say this as someone who is ok with her, but not a superfan or anything), as do Warren and Bernie and even, in his own way, Biden. And of course Obama had it in spades.
Anne Laurie
@Kay:
Also, as I’ve been saying all along, Warren helps clear a space in the media’s goldfish attention span for Harris, Klobuchar, and other (future) female candidates. When other candidates talk about making things fairer, they’re no longer outliers proposing ‘obviously impossible / crazy’ ideas.
Betty Cracker
ETA: Well, bugger. I seem to have lost my ability to embed tweets.
JCJ
Someone at The Daily Show must read BJ or follow Betty on Twitter. They just had a bit about Trump’s posture. Too bad they did not use Betty’s drawing of him as a centaur
Kay
@BR:
I love AOC. There’s a lot of joy in her. I’m oddly disappointed in Mayor Pete. I didn’t see him as so conventional when this started and now I do. He has a 1990’s Democrat feel to me, like scolding the Lefties. Ugh. I’m too old and tired to be scolded :)
Jeffro
Why do the most well-off always think that the solution to all of America’s problems is if everyone else would just work harder?
Why does our national snooze media ignore the data that tells us a) the country does better under progressive tax rates and b) Democratic administrations?
Why don’t average Americans take a look at the things that other Western democracies take for granted – universal health care, decent amounts of paid vacation, paid parental leave, etc – and ask their representatives why the heck we can’t at least move towards those goals?
Verily, it ‘tis a mystery…
James E Powell
The press/media never do this to a Republican. The stooges they brought up to cover Trump were there to protect and promote him.
BR
@Kay:
I think my hesitation with AOC is that her policy stances have been sort of incomplete at times, giving up real opportunities. The Green New Deal was a great framing, but it’s just a plan to come up with a plan. But she’s one of the best of the new generation of leaders and she’ll get better over time no doubt — she has the potential to be a future Obama for sure. Mayor Pete on the other hand — I’m exactly with you. He reminds me of someone trying to sell me something — definitely a 1990s Democrat vibe to him.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Elitist Okies are ruinin’ the countrah. Like before.
jk
As a mid 50’s white male, I find the double standard being applied to Elizabeth Warren disgusting. If a female politician were as inarticulate and gaffe prone as Joe Biden and had withdrawn in disgrace from a previous campaign due to a plagiarism scandal her political career would be over. Biden is the poster child for white male privilege.
I prefer Warren over Biden on substance, but the gulf between them in style is huge. Warren projects competence and always manages to speak in clear complete sentences. Biden projects buffoonery, struggles to stay on message and easily gets lost in his own stupid word salads.
Aleta
Someone who represents us is angry. As angry as we all are. Yes Warren’s antagonistic, about protecting people who need health care and can’t afford housing. But they chose this attack because they believe triggering that older sexism is a good gamble. That it still resonates enough in us as a reflexive response to weaken her image. It seems too close to how Trump used sexism in 2016. It was shocking when he did it cause we assumed it would hurt him. Instead it worked for him. So Biden and Bu. decided to follow that lead? I hope this isn’t true.
Ruckus
@BR:
A used car perhaps? A good decent one for sure but still well used.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: The swerve to the center has been off-putting. I get why he’s doing it, and it seems to be working out for him politically, but it tells me he’s running for president to be somebody, not to do something.
Raoul Paste
Every Democrat with a microphone should be saying over and over” Every major country in the world has universal health care”, and then start naming those countries. Make the case that this is NORMAL around the world, not whacko socialism
NotMax
@BR – @Ruckus
Ron Popeil?
dogwood
At this point, I don’t take polling results to mean that any candidate who isn’t polling well with a particular demographic group is deemed unacceptable to that group.
opiejeanne
@Kay: I’m supporting Kamala Harris. I like Warren and will vote for her or Biden if either is chosen, but right now I’m liking what I hear from Harris.
Jay
Remember all those studies that said Europeans were healthier because they drank red wine, or used virgin olive oil,
Turns out it was Universal Healthcare after all.
patrick II
@Kay:
Pete’s from Indiana where he’s considered by many to be a communist.
NotMax
@ Raoul Paste
It’s one of the dark sides to so-called “American exceptionalism,” the compunction to spend years, even decades, arguing over reinventing the wheel.
Jay
Jay
Chetan Murthy
@jk:
Hell, it shows in the comedy shows! SNL plays Warren as the cool teacher whose class you just loved. Biden? As a doofus!
Jay
theturtlemoves
@BR: My opinion of the good Mayor is likely colored by his stint at McKinsey and my white-hot hatred for that firm, but he really exudes a “senior leadership at corporation X” vibe to me. Like he uses “ask” as a noun frequently and is very close to saying he doesn’t like Warren’s plans because she didn’t use the proper cover sheet on the reports.
Cacti
@BR:
If by authenticity, you mean “nose is a heat seeking missile for Bernie Sanders’ rectum”.
BQuimby
I DON’T HATE WOMEN CANDIDATES — I JUST HATED HILLARY AND COINCIDENTALLY I’M STARTING TO HATE ELIZABETH WARREN
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-dont-hate-women-candidates-i-just-hated-hillary-and-coincidentally-im-starting-to-hate-elizabeth-warren
Jay
guachi
Poll released yesterday by The Hill. 429 voters surveyed. 88 were AA. Buttigieg was selected by 0 of the 88 AA voters.
He’s on pace to do well in Iowa and NH but he’s probably going to do very poorly in any place that isn’t 90% white.
Mary G
@Kay: I agree that the Democrats will give in to the big money, unfortunately. But if Bernie dragged the party, and Hillary, to the left in 2016, Warren said “pretty good, but hold my beer,” and started spewing plans for all kinds of reforms. Maybe they don’t all add up financially, but hoocoodanode in January 2017 that keeping the ACA and adding a public option would be the boring, conservative position? Her candidacy has taught politicians a lot of lessons they needed to learn, and opened a lot of discussions the party needed to have.
I want a woman nominee so badly.
Jay
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Harris is my first choice, Warren has dropped to 3rd this week.
Cacti
The only candidate I hate is the decrepit socialist toad from Vermont.
Mary G
@Aleta: Exactly. Anger is a feature, not a bug.
Sebastian
NBC News: Referee says he told Rep. Jim Jordan that Ohio State doctor performed sex act in shower
Jay
Mary G
@Kay: I hope satby is in bed, because she’d be furious with me, but Mayor Pete seems like Jared Kushner’s much smarter cousin to me. And his being snotty to Julian Castro and attacking Warren is mystifying.
Jay
@Mary G:
As a Canadian Red Tory, Warren strikes me as quite the moderate centerist.
But then, in Canada we have Margret Atwood, not Ann Rand.
Jay
@Mary G:
He’s pivoiting to the center right in hopes of getting the PAC money.
JWR
Hmm, my perfect comment disappeared! I did nothing wrong, believe me! It was a perfect comment!
NotMax
@Mary G
He’s trying to carve out a lane, which is fast becoming a rut.
Jay
smike
@Kay:
I’ve got Warren at the top of my list, too. Don’t know that she can win, but she has definitely earned a position of authority and influence in the next administration.
Also (looks around), so this is the new site, huh? That was a hella smooth transition. I haven’t had an issue come up yet, and I’ve been on here like 15 minutes.
NotMax
@JWR
Perfect comments go directly to B-J Ukraine.
:)
Cacti
I don’t even hate Tulsi Gabbard, although I think she’s a mole, and likely on the Kremlin payroll.
Her fans are overwhelmingly Republican, so she’s not in much of a position to harm the Dems as a third party candidate.
JWR
@NotMax: Figures. (But it was sooo perfect!)
And what’s this about the new site appearing? Did the new site eat my words? ETA, nope, no new site.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Ron Popeil, isn’t that who trump has always wanted to be but never had the brains, work ethic, speaking skills, personality, humanity?
Ron’s still with us, 84 yrs young.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JWR: The new site is this year’s mustard.
joel hanes
@Jay:
He’s pivoted to the center right because the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary come first.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Slight edit. :)
joel hanes
From time to time I shill here for other blogs that only wish they were almost-top-10000 in readership.
One of them is Lance Mannion’s.
IMHO, he’s in top form today:
https://lancemannion.typepad.com/lance_mannion/2019/11/bill-barrs-job-application-letter.html
NotMax
@BillinGlendale
There were still test comments being tried out on the live testing version as of 4 p.m. Thursday.
Kent
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that a woman matches up best against Trump. Pretty much any of them, Warren, Harris, Klobuchar. Doesn’t really matter. Trump is all about the Alpha male dominance when they go head to head. He managed to make the entire GOP field look small during their endless series of debates in 2015 and 2016. But he just gets put out of sort when going against a strong woman which we see every time he is in the same room as Pelosi. He doesn’t know how to deal with her. The “my hands are bigger than yours” nonsense just doesn’t work. He’s spent his entire adult life (and probably youth) treating women as disposable and he just doesn’t know how to relate to an equal.
The debate with Hillary was a good example. He was wandering all over the stage trying to act dominant and it just came across as creepy as hell to pretty much everyone. I think someone like Warren or Harris will be ready as hell for his antics. If he tried that shit with Harris she would probably look at Trump and say something like: “Are you OK Donald? Do you need to take a moment?” then look to the moderators and say with concern in her voice “Can we get someone to help Donald back to his spot?”
I’m 100% comfortable with any of the leading women as candidates and would gladly vote for any of them.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
OK I’ll go along with that.
But which one of us gets to spit on him first as he’s hanging from that lamp post? Lore says it has to be someone’s grandma but that’s just a family story.
HumboldtBlue
I need a blender. And some ancho chiles.
joel hanes
@Kent:
He was wandering all over the stage trying to act dominant and it just came across as creepy as hell to pretty much everyone.
For values of “pretty much everyone” that exclude most male Trump voters, who are in it as much for dominance displays as anything else.
craigie
@Jeffro:
The related old saw: In order to motivate the rich, you have to pay them more. In order to motivate the poor, you have to pay them less.
NotMax
Obscure movie running in the background throughout which Laurence Olivier loses his battle to affect a Russian accent.
joel hanes
@HumboldtBlue:
That’s real cooking.
Thanks for posting these.
Anne Laurie
@joel hanes:
True story: Mannion’s blog lead me to this one (via a detour through TBogg’s, into Sadly, No!… speaking of the olden days… )
dogwood
@Betty Cracker:
I wish they’d all start talking about the things they can actually do as POTUS and stop running as legislators with all their detailed plans. Why aren’t they harping on the fact that the Federal Courts are being packed with unqualified people with lifetime appointments. Judges who have been deemed lazy and lacking basic knowledge of the law and courtroom procedure are going to be deciding the future of this country. A President has the power to reverse that trend because it’s actually his/her job to nominate judges. Foreign policy, national security. Those are the issues that take up the bulk of a president’s time because it’s part of the job description. I’d also like to se someone be clear that when he/she is president there won’t be any more “acting” officials. We’ll hire “real” professionals who can pass a security clearance and a senate confirmation hearing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
On Warren, I want my presidents ambitious, elitist and passionate. You know, like Barrack Obama. People who want to be led by the village idiot have Trump.
How totally Calvinistic of this dear, and even though Fox News is accused of systematic sexism, far be it from me to suggest that a barbie doll blonde who looks like a Hooters waitress like this dear “worked her way day and night to the top” in some Fox exec’s bed,
jk
@Kent:
I’ve felt this way all along and have never bought into the bullshit narrative that Trump fears Biden. I think Trump wants to run against Biden because he thinks he’s extremely beatable.
Sab
@Mary G: We have a Trump supporting wife in our neighborhood. I met her because she was walking her cute dog while I was walking my jerk dog. She is very sweet. Her husband is an a**hole and she adores him. Her cute dog is very much brighter than she is, and the dog isn’t exactly a rocket scientist.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
What with attrition, B-J by now must have worked up to being an almost top 9900 blog, no?
;)
TS (the original)
@Ruckus:
I’m a grandma if one is needed.
frosty
@Kay: I’m for Kamala and Warren both, and I think one of them will win. Just because all of my candidates win .. Shirley Chisholm, George McGovern … OK, there’s a bit of unicorn glitter in my history.
Anne Laurie
@NotMax: I can’t tell ya — they don’t trust me around numbers, for good reasons.
joel hanes
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Ms. Earnhardt grew up in an upper-upper middle-class enclave; houses there run about $2 million today. Her parents had plenty of money, and paid for her college.
So she knows fuck-all about bootstraps.
JWR
That does it. Another ated comment. I’m switching to LGM! (That’ll teach you, FYFWP!)
frosty
@Betty Cracker:
One of my Dad’s favorite words when we were working on cars: “Looks like we buggered the threads on the bolt.”
He passed away almost 15 years ago but that word always reminds me of him. I make sure to use it a lot around the millennial kids at work.
frosty
@Kay:
I agree, I don’t have much use for him.
Kay
@frosty:
lol. I feel like this is “Attack of the Billionaires”. She got them all riled up and now they’re going to punish us.
Sab
@frosty: I have a purchased a Mayor Pete Explorer’s Club t shirt. Having explored, I ain’t much interested.
Sab
@joel hanes: $2 million is NOT middleclass. Just saying.
Kay
Jordan is a liar and the law firm Ohio State hired to supposedly “investigate” this scandal should be ashamed of themselves for protecting him because he’s powerful. This whole thing is a joke. If Jordan is lying, and he is, then the entire investigation is not credible because if they’re protecting him then they can’t be trusted. They’re scared to cross such a powerful Republican.
Jay
@Kay:
They are protecting The Ohio State, not Gym Jordan.
The liability for The Ohio State goes way up if the “entire” Wrestling Atheletics Department knew and did nothing.
joel hanes
@Sab:
$2 million is NOT middleclass
People who live in $2 million houses think it is.
“upper-upper” was supposed to be a clue that I agree with you and not with them.
Jay
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
I’ve said for 20 years that if gay marriage was ever legalized and became commonplace, every upper-middle class white gay in the country would become a conserva-Dem if not a Republican. If ENDA ever passes, I predict that most white gays above the poverty line will go GOP.
barb 2
I donate to Harris & Warren. I like Klobuchar.
Both Warren and Harris ha written books – biographies. Both have the skill sets to be Presidveent.
I keep on asking how Trump got through high school and college?? He is not a good advertisment for private Eastern education??? I knew he had poor academic skills from the ghost writers of his books – but now the new book by mr no name. . . tells us that he can only keep one thing on his mind at a time and he has a zero attention span.
People would rather have a stupid, irrational, grifter, mafia don, person with a pen*s — than a woman who is damned smart and can read in the white house?
We could have had Clinton, we should have had Clinton. She WON after all. Trump can only win if he cheats, That’s what the Russian hackers discovered. Trump knows it – which is why he is being Impeached for blackmailing Ukraine.
Gabbard is a big NO. Mostly because she has aligned herself with Assad of Syria. That was really a creepy thing for her to do.
John S.
@Jay:
That does not compute. Folks keep telling me that black women will never vote for Warren because she has a plan for health insurance that says the quiet parts out loud.
Betty
@jk: And yet…! Go figure.
laura koerber
I think that Biden and Mayor Pete should STFU and I condemn the passive aggressive dishonesty of “some people say”. BUT. Sexism is real and a factor in our politics. It is difficult for women to be forceful without being perceived as Mean Mommy or the teacher you hated or your ex-wife. It’s a real problem, not a manufactured problem created by smear artist reporters. How to deal with the problem, I don’t know. But its real. NO matter with kind of person Liz Warren is, by virtue of being a woman who gets passionate when she speaks she sill be perceived by a percentage of the population as a bitch.or a hysteric. How much that affects her chances of winning in swing states I also don’t know. I think her foolish determination to push Medicare for All is a problem for sure, but the she’s a bitch perception is real even tho I’m sure she isn’t one
Ksmiami
@theturtlemoves: even worse he’s the new young gun the CEO brought in to tell the experienced employees how to be more “synergistic” and efficient and then proceeds to lay-off the older people and fuck up the company after which it’s sold in bits and pieces to a private equity firm