The Fatal Flaw

By: Annoyed With Things

When I was in high school, I can remember my English teacher talking about character development and how some characters had a fatal flaw - a kind of innate weakness that would always hold them back or in some way cause them to fail in the end.  Elizabeth Warren seems to have shown us her fatal flaw – lack of personal integrity.  To wit: claiming to be a Cherokee and not actually being one; checking the “minority” box to meet others like her and then not participating once in any cultural event; contribution of numerous recipes in the development of a “Native American” cookbook called Pow Wow Chow when Cherokees did not have powwows, way to support authentic Cherokee heritage; and now finally, it is strongly suspected that the ridiculously non-Cherokee recipes submitted by her were actually lifted from another chef (see article here).

OK, my best guess is that the self-fulfilling delusion goes something like this (only if you believe it wasn’t a put up job and a total lie from the very beginning):  Somewhere in Lizzy’s past, perhaps even in childhood, some trusted elder told the family story that there was Cherokee blood in the family and hey Grandpa looks like an Indian, check out those high cheekbones; along the way this belief took root, so much so that Lizzy considered herself part Cherokee (though there is no indication that she or the family actually embraced this heritage); on her way through life she self-identified as Native American on student and employment applications, why not it’s part of who she is; hey these recipes are good and we’ve been making them for years, so why not put them in a cookbook, though I don’t remember where in the family they came from or ever catching crabs in Oklahoma. 

So even if you believe this colossally improbable story, and I don’t for a minute, her fatal flaw is not what she did all her life (unless it was a lie all along), but what she does now that there is so much mounting proof that she was wrong all those years.  What now Lizzy?  Apologize or at least admit there are some inconsistencies.  Never!

So why should we care?  I’ll tell you why, because this is not some community college professor from Backwatersville, Oklahoma.  This person has put herself in the public eye, desiring to be a Senator from Massachusetts.  So what happens if she gets into office and wants a law to go a certain way, but the facts of the case suggest that it is a bad idea?  Well if it goes against the way she wants it to be in her head, you know the story she’s been telling herself, too bad for the facts.  What about a supreme court nomination? 

I has been said that integrity is what you do when people are not looking.  I say it is also, in large part, what you do under the spotlight when people will judge you harshly.  She does not have the courage to change her position and will therefor stay with this sinking ship until the end.  Regardless of her positions, would you want this person representing you in the Senate?  Do the words due diligence mean anything?  How about strong leadership, you know, the kind that can actually modify a stance when faced with new evidence.  While I can’t stand the President, I respect his courage in dealing with the Somali pirates, killing bin Laden and modifying his position on Gay marriage.  Which I haven’t spoken about but I at least understand his position and how it modified over time.  Lizzy, take a page from Obama and “modify” your position on this clearly mistaken (if not totally fabricated) farce of a story.  Or not, it gives me something to write about!