The Warren Fiasco

If you've been reading the political news, you know that Elizabeth Warren is running for Senate in Massachusetts.  She's a Democrat, and a lawyer, and on the faculty of Harvard.  Lilly-white, she claims minority status from a Cherokee grandmother.   A Cherokee grandmother that can't be found.  No one can document this woman, although her family is easily found.  The Cherokee people are pissed-off about lying about her (and by default, their) heritage.

She keeps doubling down on her family history, and when researched, it turns out to be a fable, a fraud.  Her momma lied to her, and she believed it, hook, line, and sinker.  So, she blithely gets up before audiences, repeats her verbal history, and people start checking.  It's interesting, like watching a train wreck.  You know it's going to end badly, but you can't turn your eyes away.  Now she's claiming to be the first nursing mother to take the bar exam.  Really?  You going with that?

Harvard's first woman of color is lily-white, she has no Cherokee heritage, and now her claims about her grandmother are found to be.... simply untrue.  Damn! Elizabeth's problem is that no one ever checked on her tall tales, nor the tall tales of her family.  What she believes happened turns out to be a falsehood, a figment, a composite.  That seems to be a problem for people who are in academia, who tend to stand on ivory towers where they can repeat stories and have no one call bullshit.  Well, now she's in the public arena and lots of folks are calling bullshit. 

Elizabeth's problem is that she needs to feel special.  It's not enough to be rich, white, and on the faculty of Harvard.  It's not enough to be an expert in something, no, she has to be a minority, a nursing mother, and a pioneer woman.  As soon as she makes the claim, folks start calling bullshit, where no one ever claimed bullshit before.  It's got to be humbling, but I don't think Elizabeth knows how to be humble.