Elizabeth Warren and the Down-to-Earth Trap
Even when she taps into the colloquial vernacular that’s characteristic of her Oklahoma roots, the Democratic presidential candidate risks appearing inauthentic.
“Hold on a sec, I’m gonna get me a beer.” With those simple words, Elizabeth Warren unleashed a wave of social-media mockery for what her critics see as a ham-handed attempt to convey down-home authenticity. Warren’s comment was made during an Instagram livestream broadcast from her family kitchen on New Year’s Eve, soon after announcing her candidacy to run for president in the 2020 Democratic primary—the first major candidate to do so.
The image of “the multi-million-dollar Cambridge law professor poppin’ a brewski” (in the words of one
