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It’s hard to explain voter rejection of Elizabeth Warren without considering gender

 
Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…

I’m going to try and not make this about gender, but it’s hard to explain the electorate’s rejection of Elizabeth Warren without at least conceding the part it played.

If running for president was like building a car, Warren, over months, patiently explained how to build a Porsche from scratch while everyone else was bickering about what color it should be.

She understands the law like very few people in this country do, including everyone else running. It wasn’t just that she had “plans,” it was that she had a detailed grasp of why the previous plans worked or didn’t work.

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I think she may have gotten chewed up by the daily grind that demanded she stay on message and repeat herself ad nauseum, striving to adhere to convention lest one mislaid word create a firestorm of stupid.

Presidenting involves more than a strong grasp of policy, but she was also genuinely empathetic to a degree few politicians can even pretend to be. I recall town hall meetings watching her lean in listening to voters, not because she was waiting to jam in a talking point, but because she was actually listening. Who does that anymore?

I can’t pretend to feel the same gut punch other overqualified and overlooked women feel today, because I’m not in their shoes, but I can at least lament it as a lost opportunity for the country.

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