Topic Of The Day:-“On Elizabeth Warren’s U.S. Presidential Bid: Democratic Hope”
Elizabeth Warren Makes The First Move Towards A U.S. Presidential Bid
Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator of Massachusetts, has announced her likely candidacyfor the 2020 U.S. presidential race. In her statement she put racial and gender-based inequality front and centre in her campaign agenda, as much as income inequality faced by the middle class. For these ills of the American economy, she blamed the excesses of under-regulated Wall Street corporations and billionaires with the money muscle to bend political rules. Although Ms. Warren, who won a second six-year Senate term in November, had declined to enter the 2016 general election and challenge Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, she made a name for herself as a top-tier Democrat by taking on President Donald Trump, describing him as a “thin-skinned racist bully”. However, she attracted criticism for an unnecessary controversy over taking a DNA test to establish her Native American heritage, after Mr. Trump used racistepithets to provoke and smear her ethnic antecedents. Notwithstanding that blip, the formerHarvard law professor, who hails from a blue-collar background in Oklahoma, has repeatedly underscored her credentials as a champion of multiracial populism. Over the past year she has sharpened her attack on Mr. Trump’s politics, arguing that he deflects attention from the impact of his divisive policies on ordinary American families and instead blames “other working people, people who are black, or brown, people born somewhere else.”Despite the considerable achievements of Ms. Warren, who had not held public office before 2013, the obstacles ahead for her proposed presidential run are formidable. First, the general expectation is that the field for the Democratic nomination will widen considerably over through 2019, given that more than three dozen Democratic candidates-in-the-making are said to be considering joining the race, several of them for the first time. Some, such as Kamala Harris of California or Cory Booker of New Jersey, could hold stronger appeal with millennial voters and people of colour. Second, it is hard to predict how Ms. Warren will fare against self-professedDemocratic socialist candidate Bernie Sanders, or Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, both economic populists who could hypothetically cut into her share of voters of a similar ideologicalpersuasion. Finally, the risk of pursuing a populist theme from the centre-left of the political spectrum is that she would be an easy target for Mr. Trump and conservatives, who are likely toderide her as an out-of-touch liberal academic and a threat to free enterprise. Nevertheless, as a candidate for the nation’s highest office, Ms. Warren’s ideological moorings are set. It is notinconceivable that, given how bitterly polarised the electorate is today, Ms. Warren’s bold liberalism could offer hope to millions of voters dismayed at what Mr. Trump has done to their nation.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) halved
Meaning : divide into two parts of equal or roughly equal size(v).
Synonyms : bisect
Antonyms : combine
Example : “halve the aubergine lengthways”
2) candidacy
Meaning : the fact or condition of standing for a position or status, especially in an election(n).
Synonyms : nomination
Antonyms : voter
Example : “he’s going to announce his candidacy for the US Senate”
3) racial
Meaning : on the grounds of or connected with difference in race.(adj)
Synonyms : national
Antonyms : international
Example : “racial abuse”
4) blamed
Meaning : feel or declare that (someone or something) is responsible for a fault or wrong(v).
Synonyms : accursed
Antonyms : acquitted
Example : “the inquiry blamed the train driver for the accident”
5) bend
Meaning : a curve in a road, river, path, or racing circuit.(n)
Synonyms : bow
Antonyms : stagnation
Example : “the van screeched round a bend”
6) controversy
Meaning : prolonged public disagreement or heated discussion.
Synonyms : bickering
Antonyms : concurrence
Example : “the design of the building has caused controversy”
7) racist
Meaning : a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.
Synonyms : biased
Antonyms : fair
Example : “I had a fear of being called a racist”
8) epithets
Meaning : an adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.(n)
Synonyms : description
Example : “old men are often unfairly awarded the epithet ‘dirty’”
9) provoke
Meaning : stimulate or give rise to (a reaction or emotion, typically a strong or unwelcome one) in someone(v).
Synonyms : enrage
Antonyms : appease
Example : “the decision provoked a storm of protest from civil rights organizations”
10) smear
Meaning : coat or mark (something) messily or carelessly with a greasy or sticky substance.(v)
Synonyms : besmirch
Antonyms : collect
Example : “his face was smeared with dirt”
11) ethnic
Meaning : relating to a population subgroup (within a larger or dominant national or cultural group) with a common national or cultural tradition(adj).
Synonyms : indigenous
Antonyms : avoidant
Example : “ethnic and cultural rights and traditions”
12) hope
Meaning : a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.(n)
Synonyms : ambition
Antonyms : dislike
Example : “he looked through her belongings in the hope of coming across some information”
13) hails
Meaning : (of a large number of objects) fall or be hurled forcefully.(v)
Synonyms : barrage
Antonyms : avoidant
Example : “missiles and bombs hail down from the sky”
14) divisive
Meaning : tending to cause disagreement or hostility between people(adj).
Synonyms : disruptive
Example : “the highly divisive issue of abortion”
15) instead
Meaning : as an alternative or substitute.(adv)
Synonyms : rather
Antonyms : unmitigated
Example : “do not use lotions, but put on a clean dressing instead”
16) Despite
Meaning : contemptuous treatment or behaviour; outrage.(n)
Synonyms : against
Antonyms : exalt
Example : “the despite done by him to the holy relics”
17) proposed
Meaning : put forward (a plan or suggestion) for consideration by others(v).
Synonyms : expected
Antonyms : rejected
Example : “he proposed a new nine-point peace plan”
18) formidable
Meaning : inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable(adj).
Synonyms : daunting
Antonyms : trivial
Example : “a formidable opponent”
19) widen
Meaning : make or become wider.(v)
Synonyms : broaden
Antonyms : compress
Example : “we should widen the scope of our investigation”
20) appeal
Meaning : make a serious, urgent, or heartfelt request(v).
Synonyms : claim
Antonyms : answer
Example : “police are appealing for information about the incident”
21) predict
Meaning : say or estimate that (a specified thing) will happen in the future or will be a consequence of something(v).
Synonyms : anticipate
Antonyms : ignore
Example : “it is too early to predict a result”
22) professed
Meaning : (of a quality, feeling, or belief) claimed openly but often falsely.(adj)
Synonyms : stated
Example : “for all her professed populism, she was seen as remote from ordinary people”
23) persuasion
Meaning : the action or process of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something.(n)
Synonyms : seduction
Antonyms : disability
Example : “Monica needed plenty of persuasion before she actually left”
24) pursuing
Meaning : follow or chase (someone or something).(v)
Synonyms : ensuing
Antonyms : preceding
Example : “the officer pursued the van”
25) conservatives
Meaning : a person who is averse to change and holds traditional values(v).
Synonyms : timid
Antonyms : inconstant
Example : “he remains a conservative in constitutional matters”
26) deride
Meaning : express contempt for; ridicule(v).
Synonyms : disdain
Antonyms : admire
Example : “the decision was derided by environmentalists”
27) inconceivable
Meaning : not capable of being imagined or grasped mentally; unbelievable.(adj)
Synonyms : improbable
Antonyms : believable
Example : “it seemed inconceivable that the president had been unaware of what was going on”
28) dismayed
Meaning : cause (someone) to feel concern and distress(v).
Synonyms : agitate
Antonyms : appease
Example : “they were dismayed by the U-turn in policy”
