Why Elizabeth Warren Won’t Get a DNA Test

A few weeks ago (here), I suggested that Elizabeth Warren was afraid to get a DNA test because of what it might show (namely, that she has no Indian genes). But now it seems like the real reason is that she feels no political need to do it since she has no idea why Trump is calling her Pocahontas (except as a racial slur). See here for an account from Powerline about a press briefing at the White House. She and all the other Democrats are in a bubble, though “bubble” is really the wrong word here. Bubbles are transparent so that you are able to look out if you like. They are in more of a cocoon so that they cannot see out.

In this case, all the Democrats can hear is that Trump used a racial slur against Warren. The fact that everyone on the right thinks she is despicable for claiming to be Indian while not actually being one is something they just can’t wrap their heads around. So long as everyone in her camp isn’t even worried about her lying and is only concerned about a racial slur, then why should she bother getting a DNA test? It probably hasn’t even occurred to her to get one, and somehow no one who thinks she should get one has ever managed to break through her cocoon and tell her to do so.

But this speaks of the ridiculous gulf between the two parties. Democrats should be able to express Trump’s viewpoint, even if they disagree with it. But it seems they are unable to do so. The same is true about other issues. I have yet to see anyone on the left who uses the word “Islamophobia” who can state my position and the evidence for it in even the most basic terms. Almost no leftist using that term seems familiar with the massacre of leftists by Muslims in Iran back in 1979. Nor do they see any threat to their own movement from bringing in people who are hostile to leftism (and most everything else about the West). If you can’t state your opponent's viewpoint, then you are sadly lacking in debating skills, and you really should demand your money back from your college (assuming you went to college, which is generally true of leftists).

So, is it a racial slur, as the Democrats think? Consider an analogy. Imagine some guy claiming to have served in the armed forces, except that they have no records of his service, no other soldier remembers him, and even his own family members doubt his claim. If people started calling him “soldier boy” in a sneering voice, would that be a slur against all soldiers? Of course not.

Comments

[Maya M]

I think that it is unimportant what Trump meant. The crux of the matter is, Warren claims that she is of Native American descent in an age when academia are pressed to promote minority members, and it seems that it helped her career; and she is still touted as ethically blameless and wants to boss around the Americans. I think that it is bad enough when affirmative action makes less competent minority members displace better candidates, but it becomes complete travesty when the system is abused by lily white cheaters.

[djf]

Actually, "Pocahontas" is not even a slur, it is just the name of a famous Native American. Trump's use of it is like calling the fake veteran in your example "General MacArthur," not a slightly disparaging term like "soldier boy."

[John]

I think it would have been more effective if the President had used the first term coined to call into question her heritage.

Fauxahontas clearly lays out the nature of her claim and while sounding similar to the historical person is clearly not related.

[Charles N.Steele]

Your point that leftists can't even identify their opponents' actual positions is one of the most telling charges against them. That's proof of intellectual and moral bankruptcy.

[Jim Pratt]

For nearly 60 years I believed I was about part Indian. Sorry about that term but being born in 1948 I did not grow up playing cowboys and Native Americans. My dad said a female ancestor was an Indian princess. His cousin claimed to have a picture of her in full regalia. I took the ancestry test 2 years ago, it turn out I do not have a drop of non European blood in me. Mostly Western European 83% and smaller amounts of Eastern European, Scandanavian, Irish and Brit. Never tried to get any advantage from my supposed ancestry just wanted to supply my curiosity.

[John Pepple]

I was born in 1951, and we played cowboys and Indians a lot. Oddly enough, I never remember anyone being shamed for ending up on the Indian side.

I, too, took a DNA test a couple years ago. I found out I was likely part Polish and a smidgeon East Asian, neither of which my parents ever knew about.