WILL JESSICA YOGAMAT ACCEPT NIKKI HALEY?

In the aftermath of Donald Trump's first presidential victory, Rod Dreher, still with The American Conservative, took stock of Democrat Deep Thinkers taking stock of how The Most Qualified Woman in History could have lost.  One of the Deep Thinkers was Mark Lilla, author of The Once and Future Liberal.

Lilla has a knack for pithy, stinging phrasing. Look around, he says to fellow liberals, and see that the Republican Party, at the state level, dominates. They keep winning elections. They do so in large part because “they have successfully persuaded much of the public that they are the party of Joe Sixpack and Democrats are the party of Jessica Yogamat.”

If liberals really want to improve the lots of minorities within their broad coalition, they have to first win elections. But the way they think of politics all but guarantees that they won’t. Lilla visits the Democratic Party’s website, with its pages and pages for various identity constituencies, and moans, “You might think that, by some mistake, you have landed on the website of the Lebanese government — not that of a party with a vision of America’s future.”

It hasn't gotten any better when a Historic Woman ran against the same Donald Trump.  The same sort of identitarian stuff was on the Harris campaign website, and their nod to Joe Sixpack was Bernie Sanders in Elmer Fudd rig.  And being tossed into the leading role with little preparation to placate the Pillage Party whilst keeping the Freakshow Party from staying home did her no good.

Not that the lesson registered on a real-life Jessica Yogamat, er, Mackler.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss was a deeply devastating one for so many of us—and certainly one of the hardest I’ve had to swallow throughout my career in Democratic politics—but skepticism about the viability of a woman becoming president in our lifetimes has added even further insult to injury.

As the president of EMILYs List, one thing I know with certainty is this: Underestimating the strength of women candidates based on the outcome of the presidential race is a grave mistake. The results of this election cycle proved that investing in women is not only central to creating a more representative government; it’s also a strong electoral strategy.

Across the ballot this year, women candidates were key to winning races under even the most difficult of circumstances and up against tremendous headwinds. Democratic women held onto highly competitive Senate seats in three battleground states that were won by Trump and won in four House districts that Trump carried. They flipped key Republican-held House seats from coast to coast—in Oregon’s 5th and New York’s 4th congressional districts. They broke Republican supermajorities in states across the country, and they protected and flipped vital state Supreme Court seats that are going to be essential to protecting our freedoms in years to come.

It’s clear: Women have what it takes to win. And Americans are ready and fired up to elect them.

Indeed they are, as Elise Stefanik and Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi are concerned.  But from her yogamat, Jess is quite capable of underestimating the strength of women candidates based on party affiliation.

Men lose campaigns all the time, particularly in the last 40 years as EMILYs List has grown, yet we never question whether another man can win in the future. We don’t debate their electability or the shortcomings of their gender—and we don’t let those limitations stand between them and the highest levels of our government.

To let gendered biases overshadow women’s extensive qualifications, their ability to best represent our communities, and their demonstrable strength as candidates, is a disservice to the American people and to our future. Misconceptions about women’s electability become a self-fulfilling prophecy only if we let them.

Kamala Harris herself said it best: It hurts to break glass ceilings. But just because we haven’t broken our nation’s highest and hardest glass ceiling yet doesn’t mean we won’t.

The women who won in 2024 reinforced a vital lesson: investing in women candidates is a winning strategy for the Democratic Party. So now is not the time to doubt, question, or give up on them. It’s time to double down on them—because women are our best pathway to taking back power. And with their leadership, we will undoubtedly shatter our nation’s last glass ceiling.

Should that first president bust through that glass ceiling on the back of an elephant, the reaction of the women of the fevered brow will be worthy of all the adjective-spinning skills of the greatest circus impresarios.