Why I Voted for Elizabeth Warren
This past Tuesday in Los Angeles I found a parking spot on the street — a miracle on its own — a block away from my polling place. Well, the spot was mostly in the crosswalk, but I figured if I dropped off my ballot quickly enough, no one would notice. So I walk-ran down the block to do so.
I was floored to see the hundreds of people waiting in line to vote. Voting had never been complicated or overly crowded before California installed this newer, more efficient system. In fact, the only time I had to wait in a significant line to vote was in 2016, when my neighbors and I arrived before the polls opened to cast our ballots for the first female president Hillary Clinton.
At that time, I was as sure that Hillary Clinton would become president as I was this time that Elizabeth Warren would not. Still, I waded to the front of the chaos at Tuesday’s new polling place, found someone who could take my ballot from me, and cast my vote for Elizabeth Warren for president.
Why I Voted for Elizabeth Warren
To be honest, Elizabeth Warren was not my first choice. Unfortunately, my first-choice candidate Amy Klobuchar had already withdrawn from the race a few days earlier. By Super Tuesday it seemed as if Joe Biden had consolidated the South behind him and I wanted above all to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the nomination.
The vitriol behind the “Bernie or Bust” supporters was enough to turn me against their candidate. Coupled with the fact that he continually casts himself as a revolutionary lone wolf, I feel that Bernie does not have the ability to consolidate the Democratic party behind him, let alone a country nearly as divided as it was during the Civil War.
Further, his remarks the previous week about AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, being a racist organization disappointed me. The members of AIPAC have as divided and multi-faceted opinions of Israel’s policies and leadership as we do about our own American government. But, they all agree on one thing, that Israel has the right to exist.
I am exhausted by the far left’s continual attempt to singularly equate Israel with racism, apartheid and human rights violations, and not its neighbors. Israel is the only democracy and one of the few countries in the Middle East where women enjoy equal rights as do LGBT and other all-too-often marginalized groups. In fact, Israel elected its first female Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969, over 50 years ago. We can fault Israel’s leadership as much as we can fault our own — that is one of the freedoms of democracy — but its right to exist cannot be denied.
For these two reasons, my son and I spoke that morning that the most strategic thing to do was to vote for Joe Biden. And yet, when I did vote later that day, I cast my vote for Elizabeth Warren.
You may accuse me of being a one-issue voter. You’d probably be right. I am a one-issue voter. And that one issue is competence. By voting for Elizabeth Warren, I selected the one candidate who I believed was the most competent to become our next president.
Warren brought passion, empathy, kindness, experience and yes, competence, to the playing field. And for each of her positions, she “had a plan for that.”
And even while I filled in the bubble for Elizabeth Warren, I also knew it didn’t matter.
I wrote a piece in Forbes last year about the chances of a woman becoming president, concluding that not only was it possible, but probable, if we could only put aside our fears that a woman cannot win.
Clearly, as evidenced by Warren’s considerable losses, especially coming third in her own state of Massachusetts, we’re still too fearful. We’re so afraid of getting the nomination wrong that we cast aside the best candidates for the job. We’ve pruned the once most diverse field of candidates down to two familiar older white men.
And, four years after 2016, we’re teaching our daughters yet again that in this country they cannot be anything they want.
Spare me those who continue to rant about “just not THAT woman,” or the more insidious because of its careful disguise, “if only Michelle Obama would have run….” We will never run a woman who’s perfect because she doesn’t exist. If we can elect incompetent men, surely we can nominate imperfect women.
And spare me the consolation prize of a female vice-presidential nomination. Geraldine Ferraro already broke that barrier over 35 years ago, before many of my students’ parents were born. Yes, I want a woman for vice president but I will not be consoled. I am tired of women being second to men.
Senator Warren, in an interview with Rachel Maddow last night, explains how she still remains hopeful.
We can’t lose hope because the only way we make change is we get back up tomorrow and we get back in the fight. We persist. That is how we make change. And it feels like we’re never going to make change until we make change. We were never going to elect a Catholic until we elected a Catholic. We were never going to elect a black man until we elected a black man. And, we’re never going to elect a woman until we elect a woman. So we’re just going to stay in this.
Four years ago catalyzed by Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and subsequent defeat I launched Rocket Girls, a website celebrating our female heroes in math and science. I am now recommitting to make Rocket Girls and its celebration of female leadership a major life focus.
And, unlike Warren, I don’t have a plan for that.
Yes, I voted for a woman. And I’m not a one-issue voter. I vote on many issues. I vote on competence, compassion, support to help raise up the weakest in our society, and an ability to work across both sides of the aisle.
If I were a one-issue voter, however, my one issue would be to remove Donald Trump from the White House. Because of that, come November 3, I will vote for whomever the Democratic nominee turns out to be.
