What would the leaders of China and Russia think of the email that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent out on Wednesday?
I ask that question because whoever wins in November 2020 will have to deal with Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin effectively in order to defend American interests. And Warren’s email, responding to her defeat in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, does not suggest she is ready for the top job. One Warren supporter posted a copy.
I can’t imagine another candidate sending an email like this. I love her. pic.twitter.com/Unz2EIhivW
— Courtney Enlow (@courtenlow) February 12, 2020
Rallying her base to the cause, the email’s beginning element is good. Like William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, Warren is reminding her supporters that she’s alive and fighting and that the battle for the throne isn’t yet over.
No problem either with Warren’s one-line recognition that “it’s okay to take a moment and feel that pain” of defeat. It’s okay for Warren and her followers to refresh for the next fight with a quick walk around the block. As William Shakespeare told us in Henry V, “the King is but a man.” And the would-be Queen is but a woman. Leaders possess the same human frailties as the rest of us. Short moments of solace, reflection, and regret are fine.
The rest of Warren’s email, however, is not fine. At least as a rationale for her candidacy to lead the nation.
Because it goes haywire with Warren’s suggestion to “eat an extra piece of chocolate” and “hug your pet.”
Things escalate quickly with “adopt a pet.”
I’m sorry, if you can’t handle a Democratic primary defeat, perhaps don’t respond by taking responsibility for a living animal. But then comes the catastrophe: “Watch videos of cats and dogs who are friends.”
Watch videos of cats and dogs who are friends. It’s hardly the rhetorical heir to the Gettysburg Address, or President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Freedom from fear,” or President John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not …,” or President George W. Bush’s “I can hear you …”
Even if said in jest, Warren’s “watch videos of cats and dogs” call to arms is concerning. Because it speaks to someone who is plainly not ready to deal with the world as it is. Yes, a world of unparalleled economic, social, and technological opportunities. But also a world fraught with risk.
After all, what would Xi or Putin think of Warren’s cats and dogs video message?
Putin is determined to fragment American power, suffocate Eastern and Central European democracy, and spread conflict in the Middle East. But now Putin has a new reason (although he didn’t need it) to hope that Warren somehow secures the nomination. If her response to a crisis is cat and dog videos, well, Warren is probably not going to be very good at restraining Russian nuclear weapons formations on NATO’s periphery.
Warren’s call to arms will find similar favor with Xi. The Chinese leader is embarked on a truly vast journey to transform the international order and economy from one built on freedom, to one defined by feudalism. He doesn’t have time for cats and dogs.
Perhaps Warren will find success in the primaries yet to come. But if so, she’ll need to forget the pet memes and instead take solace from another great Shakespearean line from Henry’s walk on the eve of great battle: “Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.”
Or, should Warren prefer a nonfictional female example of leadership, she should look to the example of the great warrior Queen Boudica. Though defeated, Boudica fought until the end and is remembered forever as a hero of her nation.
Whoever she takes leadership example from, Warren should be bold. Cats and dogs won’t save her campaign.
