[C0LLETTE]

If we keep sinking candidates like Elizabeth Warren, we’ll never get the leaders we need.
JOHANNA SCHNELLER
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL/PUBLISHED MARCH 5, 2020

I’m not going to feign impartiality here: I am heartbroken that Elizabeth Warren has dropped out of the U.S. Democratic primary race. Once again, a highly intelligent, qualified, organized, thoughtful, empathetic candidate couldn’t get traction with American voters – in large part because she is a woman. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

Democrats – I am one, a U.S. citizen who votes in Pennsylvania – insist they want the opposite of Donald Trump. No one is more opposite to an ill-informed, lazy, petulant, divisive, underqualified liar than Ms. Warren. So what stopped voters from embracing her? They call it caution: “Yes,” goes the conversation I’ve had dozens of times with dozens of people in the last dozen months, “it would be great to vote for my ideal candidate, but Trump is so dangerous, we must elect the practical candidate, the person who can beat him, and I just don’t think Warren can.”...

Meanwhile, the two males who defeated her are the embodiment of shouty, and of risky. To impersonate Joe Biden, Stephen Colbert puts on a pair of aviator sunglasses, tips his head back and YELLS. To do Bernie Sanders, Larry David hunches over, waves his arms, and YELLS. To do Ms. Warren, Kate McKinnon bounds around energetically and whispers. But somehow Ms. Warren is the one who’s too strident.

As for risky – the people I’ve been talking to admit their fears: that Biden is too bland, too middle-of-the-road to appeal to young voters; that Sanders is too divisive, too polarizing to attract the former Trumpers suffering from buyers’ remorse. But they consider those acceptable risks. We must be honest about why that is.

Full confession: I considered not voting for Ms. Warren, too.

Then in the most recent debate, Ms. Warren assailed Mr. Bloomberg, and shook me out of my fugue state. She called him out on his specific practices, his specific ethos. She critiqued things he had done, and explained clearly why they were not acceptable. I actually blushed with chagrin. The ways I’ve been conditioned to put men’s needs first! The things I am willing to forgive powerful men for! And if I’ve internalized the patriarchy to that degree, everyone has.

The spaces of power, the boardrooms and government offices, were not designed for women, or queer people, or people of colour. They’re not set up for our needs. Some of us get in there by accommodating, by contorting ourselves, by lying low or going high, by pretending we don’t notice that we’re being looked through or talked over.

Ms. Warren didn’t pretend to be less than she is. She is smart. She is organized. She does know what she’s talking about. She believes we should listen to her. She knows she’s right about a lot of things, and she doesn’t apologize for it. That threatens, consciously or unconsciously, the public’s comfort level. People love Mr. Sanders’ authenticity, and Mr. Biden’s. Ms. Warren’s authenticity, however – it’s just a bit too much./...

If we keep cutting and running from women candidates at the last minute, we’ll never get the leaders we want. We’ll just keep getting the ones we deserve.