Elizabeth Warren Picked the Wrong Week to be Compared with Frederick Douglass

Just as Senator Elizabeth Warren was cruising to the top of the polls in lily-white Iowa, The Washington Post decided to make a tone-deaf comparison between abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Warren’s selfie-line strategy. Bad luck for Warren.

The Massachusetts senator and surging runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination has been making a name for herself on many a substantive plan for that, but has recently been riding a wave of fawning attention over her tireless taking of selfies (that aren’t really selfies, as I pointed out months and months ago).

The “selfies” are a good idea, no doubt. So good, in fact, that Hillary Clinton thought of it four years ago, and executed it by taking actual selfies. It’s a great way to engage your supporters, and everyone they know, in a way that money can’t buy.

Coverage of the phenomenon has been just a bit over the top lately, and was beginning to engender some backlash, some of which felt like sour grapes from supporters and staffers for Warren’s chief progressive rival, Bernie Sanders.

Then along came The Washington Post with an article that somehow managed to eclipse Donald Trump in the narrow category of Modern Political Misuses of Frederick Douglass with a piece of expert analysis entitled “Frederick Douglass photos smashed stereotypes. Could Elizabeth Warren selfies do the same?”

The article — not an opinion piece — did not improve one iota on the headline’s absurd premise

There were three waves of outrage, two of which shouldn’t matter all that much to Warren. Conservatives and Bernie Sanders fans pounced on the article as a means to bash The Washington Post, the former for liberal bias, the latter for being in the tank for Warren and against Bernie. Legitimate or not (and I do think the Sanders folks have a point), Warren was never getting these people.

But there were also people who were offended by the egregious equivalency being drawn between a man who used photography to combat racism and a woman taking selfies to get people used to an idea that Hillary Clinton spent two campaigns getting them used to — that a woman could be presidential — and earning 3 million more votes than Donald Trump in the process.

Oh this will do wonders for Warren’s black outreach. How many other culturally insulting misfires can we expect? Douglass was trying to be seen as a human being, which black people, free or enslaved, were not. This is beyond an offensive comparison. Y’all just use us as props.

— Portia McGonagal of Winterfell (@PortiaMcGonagal) September 20, 2019

How did we get to the point where we are comparing Frederick Douglass’s photographs with Elizabeth Warren’s selfies and how do we ensure we never get to this point again. I have questions https://t.co/b8StwH6YZK

— Imani Gandy ? (@AngryBlackLady) September 21, 2019

Now, it’s not Warren’s fault that The Washington Post decided to make this unfortunate comparison, but it’s an ill-timed reminder that Warren is already in a hole with black voters, and being dug deeper into it.

That same day, Warren edged former Vice President Joe Biden in a poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers, which is great for her national media narrative, but reminds black coalition voters how the early states are stacked in favor of white voters, and of how Biden’s overwhelming support from those voters has routinely been dismissed as non-substantive.

And while the media gushes over Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris gets completely ghosted by the media. Warren was done no favors by the LGBTQ forum moderator who exposed rank bias against Harris and for Warren with wildly divergent questions on the exact same issue.

Then, at the same time Warren was being compared to Frederick Douglass, she gave a stunningly bad answer on the issue of rent control at the Iowa People’s Presidential Forum. In explaining why she isn’t in favor of a national rent control policy, Warren said “Writing a rent-control plan in Washington may work for Chicago, but it’s not gonna work for Iowa City. Or it may not work for Dallas.”

Am I the only one who hears it? “Writing a rent-control plan in Washington may work for Chicago, but it’s not gonna work for Iowa City. Or it may not work for Dallas.” – @ewarren pic.twitter.com/I5U0an8f8b

— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) September 23, 2019

Bernie Sanders’ press secretary jumped on that answer by throwing Warren’s debate zinger back at her, writing “’I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk abt what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.’ – @ewarren,” and adding “Bernie says yes to natl rent control bc we can, we should, & we must.”

But beyond dismissing the policy idea, Warren did so first by pitting “Chicago” against “Iowa City,” and then by using a talking point that Republicans have used to oppose everything from the minimum wage to Obamacare. So far, the media doesn’t seem to care that Warren was a Republican until at least 1996, but things like this are a reminder of why they should.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.