The first time I heard my teenage sons call someone a “flake” they were talking about a professional athlete. It was a very successful professional athlete, someone who had combined a healthy serving of natural gifts with a blister-friendly work ethic and dedication to his sport.
But he had the audacity to be … well … different. Or at least different from the environmental benchmark by which he was measured: He made his coaches nervous, exasperated his agent and confounded his teammates with his flamboyant dress, on-court antics and unrehearsed comments to the press. Never mind the fact he was stunningly successful at his craft.
Though he had achieved at a level only about 1 in a million hopefuls ever reach, he simply did not fit into the one box acceptable in his environment. So he was labeled a “flake.”
I see something similar in the realm of politics – specifically, with conservative women politicians. To be sure, Michelle Bachmann is not the first politician to misspeak (57 states, anyone?). And just as surely, she is not the first woman politician to be labeled with such a pejorative term as a “flake” because of what amounts to a simple misstatement. A male politician having to endure such a question for a similar transgression is inconceivable.
Like the pro athlete my sons described, Bachmann is labeled as such because as a strong, conservative female politician there is little to no benchmark by which to judge her. The echo chamber of pundits and politicos don’t totally know what to make of her, because there have been so few women of any political stripe to position themselves the way Bachmann has.
And so with no tried and tested label that fits -- and with no desire or patience to try to present an accurate, nuanced portrait of the candidate -- the echo chamber latches onto a label that is attached to people whose behavior is considered aberrant for their environment. It is lazy and it is unfair.
As to the underlying question whether Bachmann can sustain her newfound upward momentum, the question is posed daily toward all the candidates and if we are intellectually honest, no one has the answer. Whether she can overcome the notable gaffes she’s made in the last year, is analogous to the athlete. It depends not on the number of shots taken but rather on the number of baskets made and games won.
