Melissa Harris-Perry hosted a panel on the question: “Are attacks against Wendy Davis sexist or standard political fare?”
Harris-Perry gave a pretty good intro, pointing out that narrative failures are political problems for women and for men. And she did highlight that Wendy Davis’ narrative is not quite as portrayed in her campaign.
But were the attacks “gendered” if not outright “sexist.”
Watch the video below. Does it strike you, as it did me, that the panelists could not generate any visible indignation over the supposedly sexist treatment of Davis? They mouthed the words, but seemed a bit shy about it after listening to Harris-Perry’s intro about the discrepancies in Davis’ narrative.
Davis’ parenting and maternal commitment were an express part of her narrative — when that narrative failed, it was not gendered or sexist, it just was what it was.
There was no dissent among the panelists. Jonathan Capehart particularly dropped the ball by suggesting that Newt Gingrich is an example of a man leaving his first wife and kids behind who did not pay a price. But in fact, Newt has been excoriated for it and it was a damaging blow to his presidential ambitions, as I explained to Kirsten Powers.
This should have been a panel that breathed “sexism” fire. That all they could muster were a few glowing embers of “sexism” tells you something right there.
There doesn’t appear to be any fire in the belly even at MSNBC to defend Wendy Davis’ failed personal narrative.
Here’s the video, in two parts:
Part I
Part II
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