Elizabeth Warren: A voice of reason amid the madness

[seafan]

A voice of reason amid the madness


By Heather Digby Parton
26 Sep 2011


(Yes, THAT digby!)

"I hear all this, 'well, this is class warfare, this is whatever'. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear:

You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did."

.....

"Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific? Or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

- Elizabeth Warren

Digby writes:

With those words, Elizabeth Warren cemented her reputation as a person who knows how to speak to Americans about progressive values in a way that seems to have eluded almost every other public figure in America. There's just something about the way she talks in plain prairie English that makes people listen - and scares even the most hardened businessman and compromised politician into paying attention.

.....

Her pitch is a modern day populism, aimed at the struggling middle class, the people who are dazed and confused by 30 years of conservative cant and free market policy that hasn't worked for them as its been put into practice. She's refined a story line about how this happened that's both erudite and approachable, using her own history and scholarly work to weave a narrative about America's economic crisis that speaks to people's yearning to understand what happened - and feel some optimism that it can be turned around.

.....

She points out that it was three specific laws that came out of the Great Depression that .... set the stage for the longest run of uninterrupted prosperity in the nation's history: FDIC Insurance, Glass-Steagel and the SEC.
And she points out that when those regulations began to erode, productivity and wages started their great divergence and the middle class began to fray around the edges. By 2011, that fraying has become a full blown unraveling.

.....

But Warren's message is a potent one, expressing progressive values in terms that are almost intoxicating to the base of the Democratic Party, hungry as they are for someone to take up the cause of the American middle class, workers and families who are being unbearably squeezed and yet asked to give even more - even as the wealthy fatuously declare themselves to be "job creators" and therefore absolved of any duty to pay their fair share.

.....

Ms. Warren's matter-of-fact rhetoric is what people hunger for now, as we struggle to understand what has happened to our country over the past thirty years of unchallenged conservative-driven devastation, and what it's going to take to turn it around. No one over the past several decades has yet used the bully pulpit to force these truths out into the light for people to understand.

The pulpit needs Ms. Warren.



We sorely need for her to bring her formidable communication skills to a Democratic presidential primary next year.

To give rabid conservatives 4 years to Koch-up a money-stuffed hatefest aimed at Ms. Warren's sterling character, in addition to the expected, incessant harping over a potentially unfinished Senate term if she is convinced to run for president in 2016, is not a direction we should go, imho.

Potentially in addition, Ms. Warren may, herself, be reluctant to abort a Senate 6-year term, as she may want to see it through to the end, which would leave us in an unfortunate position for hopes for her to run for president in 2016.


That scenario feels too remote at this time to envision working out.


In the meantime, people are suffering mightily.


Now. We need her to mount a presidential primary challenge now, imho. There is still time. Even if she is ultimately unsuccessful, she will zero in on the debates we should be having and language we should be hearing and discussing among ourselves as a nation.


She will help us break free from decades of repressive, extremist conservatism that has so diseased our once stable society over the past thirty years.



We yearn for this clear voice of reason in the highest position, in a time of great national need.

[Vincardog]

1. I believe that with MS. Warren we finally have the Democratic politician with the spine and balls

we have been hoping for.

[CTyankee]

3. It isn't "balls" that she has! If anything, "balls" have often been political "duds".

We need more women in office. Period.

[azul]

4. Amen. Brains and heart,

not balls and spleen.

[CTyankee]

5. Thanks!

I always get annoyed when folks say they want more "balls" in their politicians. Where do they think most of their problems come from?

More women in office!

[Vincardog]

6. I am sorry if you mistook my support for her as an comment about her anatomy. It was her CHARACTER

I was referring to.

[azul]

7. In a manly world slang.

Thanks for clarifying, but I too think we all would be better served with much less testosterone and dicks in DC and Wall St.

She does exude character and competency. And the populist words are enchanting.

[Matariki]

2. I disagree with you about her running in *next* year's presidential election.

It will tear our party apart and probably cause us to lose to the republicans.

But 2016? Oh yeah, because she is pure awesome.

[DarthDem]

8. 2016. Absolutely.

First off, we need her to win back Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat from a disgusting Teabag impostor.

Second, just by running, she's changing the discourse, and you can hear it in Obama's recent speeches and pronouncements - - just two examples from the past day or so include calling out those despicable pieces of garbage who booed the gay soldier and caling for the repeal of DOMA. We don't need a primary; we need to help the president we have now, in office, realize that IT'S OKAY TO BE A LIBERAL. (Please?)

Third, for 2016, Elizabeth Warren, why not? I'm on board! Let's get her in the Senate first.

[Quantess]

9. So true!

K & R

[seafan]

10. Wall Street Readies Assault on Elizabeth Warren

(Hat tip to Duer Donnachaidh)


Wall Street Readies Assault on Elizabeth Warren, Politico, 03 October 11

Wall Street is quietly watching Elizabeth Warren, getting ready to pounce.

The Democratic primary in Massachusetts is still almost a year away, but the expected race between the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Republican Sen. Scott Brown is already a hot topic in the financial services universe.

"The potential Brown-Warren matchup is on everyone's radar," said Scott Talbot, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable.

On the Washington cocktail circuit, banking lobbyists are chattering about how to take Warren on. They fear that a massive, public money assault might be more of a gift than a challenge for the Harvard Law School professor who built her reputation taking on big banks.

The powerful lobby is in wait-and-see mode, weighing its options as it plots a strategy designed to hit hard, but smart.

"You don't want to make her sympathetic by landing on her with both feet," said a financial services industry insider and former GOP Senate aide.

.....

Sorry, Boyz, but the cream always rises to the top.




Elizabeth Warren talks with supporters in Framingham, Massachusetts, during the first day of her Senate campaign, 09/14/11. (photo: Josh Reynolds/AP)

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. She needs to be Senator Warren, not "failed presidential candidate Warren."

As much as I am frustrated with Obama... 2016 and not before.