I have made mockery of Elizabeth Warren for her egregious hijacking of a mythical Native American ancestry in order to help her along in her career. I think she thoroughly deserves to be mocked for it and also for her trying to slither her way out of it. But I find there is a deeper and much darker side underneath all this.

That she publicly, in print characterized herself as Cherokee is beyond doubt.

It’s a small thing of course – but this is someone who later went on to Harvard where they were happy to claim her as a Native American Professor of Law

Harvard Crimson October 22nd 1996

“Although the conventional wisdom among students and faculty is that the Law School faculty includes no minority women, [spokesperson Mike] Chmura said Professor of Law Elizabeth Warren is Native American,”

Warren denied ever seeing that reference or the listing of her in a Harvard Faculty list as a woman of color. No way to prove that she did actually see it – but she would be the first politician in the history of mankind who did not avidly lap up every positive press mention of his or herself.

But, leaving that to one side. There is no doubt she has identified herself in public as being of Cherokee Ancestry and she says that she claimed that because of family folk lore about her heritage. And you know what? I can actually believe that – being told something interesting about your heritage when you are young and that appealed to your sense of identity would definitely cause you to seek additional affirmation of that. It even has a name – confirmation bias.

So I am not, in this article, going to claim that she was acting out of malice or any sort of nefarious motive like that. I could concede that she honestly thought she had Cherokee ancestry and didn’t mind encouraging the idea.

But – of course there is a but – if she held an honest belief of Cherokee ancestry what did she do to benefit the tribe that she felt she belonged to?

There is no doubt that the Native American community as a whole could have used a Harvard Law Professor publicly helping them out. Offering advice and legal opinion, willing to lead a team of lawyers and volunteers to tackle things like the BIA mismanagement of the trust set up for the tribes that has been a massive bone of contention for a very long time.

There were and are many opportunities that Professor Warren could have taken on to have provided service to a tribe and an organization that she had claimed to be a part of. She took none of them.

That she gained advantage from her claim – even if only in beneficial commentary in print – is beyond doubt.

That she did nothing to help the people she used is also beyond doubt.

My own opinion is that Elizabeth Warren has shown herself to be an exploiter and an abuser of an unearned “privilege”. Sorry, I find this a lot more disgusting than just the false claiming accusation.

Be warned Democrats – she will not feel obliged to help you. She did not bother to help people who really could have used it even while she was claiming to be one of them.