Eric Spillman: Did sexism have a roll in Elizabeth Warren's defeat? - Politics Central

Elizabeth Warren spoke for millions of women on Thursday when asked what role gender played in her presidential campaign.
"You know, that is the trap question for women," she replied, speaking to cameras outside her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as she bowed out of the race. "If you say, 'Yeah -- there was sexism in this race,' everyone says, 'Whiner.' And if you say, 'No, there was no sexism,' about a bazillion women think, 'What planet do you live on?'"
It was a succinct analysis of this unsettled moment for women in America. And it came on a day when many female voters felt a profound sense of sadness, in part because it will be another four years before a woman has a shot at the White House.
The reality sinking in Thursday was that -- after a record number of women declared their candidacies -- the Democratic Party's standard bearer will now be one of two white men in their 70s. The eventual Democratic nominee will take on Donald Trump, a President with a history of crude banter and demeaning statements about women who has been accused of a range of criminal sexual behavior, including multiple assaults, and rape. He has denied all of them.
The irony of that outcome of male dominance in 2020 carried a sharp sting in this dawning age of female empowerment -- when the #MeToo Movement has reshaped office politics and put Harvey Weinstein behind bars; when women voters sent record-breaking numbers of female lawmakers to Congress, leading to Democrats taking back the House; when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can embody girl power by towering over a table of White House suits pointing an accusatory finger at the President.
California Sen. Kamala Harris clearly felt it, telling reporters on Capitol Hill that this election cycle has "presented very legitimate questions about the challenges of women running for president of the United States."
"Look at what's happened -- there are no women currently in this race," the one-time 2020 contender said, omitting Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is still running, but has barely registered in the polls and almost certainly won't win the nomination. "We can have a longer discussion about it, but the reality is that there's still a lot of work to be done to make it very clear that women are exceptionally qualified and capable of being the commander-in-chief of the United States of America."
The fresh debate over the role sexism played in Warren's exit raged on social media, just as it did when Harris left the race in December, when New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand got out last summer and when Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar departed on Monday.
"This is so heartbreaking, and it feels so damn personal," writer Jill Filipovic, the author of "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness" said on Twitter. "How many times, in how many contexts, have we seen a smart, competent, dynamic woman who is so head & shoulders above everyone else in the room get ignored or pushed out? How many times have we wondered - was I that woman?"
On the trail, Warren cut a particularly steely and unflappable profile as she sought to inspire legions of little girls and young women to seek the highest office in the land.
The Massachusetts senator changed the trajectory of the race with her fierce and unsparing evisceration of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the debate stage, flattening his candidacy and paving the way for Joe Biden's resurgence. Her embrace of facts, organization and plans -- at once feminine and groundbreaking -- catapulted her to the top of the polls in the summer and early fall of 2019.
And the early hallmark of her presidential campaign was her insistence on dropping to one knee each time she met a little girl to make a pact.
"I'm running for president because that's what girls do," she would say before making a "pinky promise" with her young follower to remember.
But beneath that veneer of optimism about what the next...

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