(This caricature of Senator Elizabeth Warren is by DonkeyHotey.)Let me preface my remarks by saying I am a proud left-winger (progressive, liberal, etc.) -- as regular readers of this blog will know. And there is no doubt in my mind that the two best senators in Washington are Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts).
When Senator Warren appeared at the Campaign for America's Future conference last week, she was greeted with a standing ovation (deservedly so) and chants of "Run, Elizabeth, Run". It has become obvious in recent weeks that many on the left in this country view Hillary Clinton as being too moderate, and they want Elizabeth Warren to challenge her for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. I must disagree with my liberal sisters and brothers. I think it would be a mistake for Warren to run in 2016.
Warren has already said repeatedly that she is not going to run -- and she repeated that to the conference last week. And she has already signed on to support Hillary Clinton in 2016. Warren is not the type of person to lie to her supporters (or anyone else), and I don't believe she is the type who would break a promise she has made to someone else. She is not going to run in 2016, and progressives need to realize that.
And she shouldn't run. She is a valuable voice of sanity in the U.S. Senate, and right now, that is where she can do the most good for this country. We need her there keeping a watchful eye on Wall Street and the giant banks, because too many other politicians (of both parties) have shown they are all too willing to sell out to those financial powers for campaign donations.
I also don't believe she is well-known enough to win the nomination or be elected president right now. All a Warren candidacy would do right now is split the Democratic Party -- maybe enough to give the Republicans a shot at the White House. And personally, I think the most important thing we could do right now is make sure the Republicans stay out of the White House. Their party is too extreme, and if they won the White House, it would be disastrous to our economy and our country.
Hillary Clinton is imminently electable, and while she is a moderate, she is progressive enough and smart enough to institute policies to get this economy moving again and creating jobs -- if she has a Democratic Congress to get her initiatives passed. That is where the Democratic Party (and those of us on the left) need to be focusing our attention right now -- winning control of Congress away from the extremist Republicans. There will be time to discuss moving further to the left once the economy has been fixed, but right now it is more important to save this country from the right-wing extremists (and Hillary can do that with some Democratic help).
Ben Cohen over at The Daily Banter has written a post giving ten "awesome" quotes from Elizabeth Warren, which he says makes her unelectable as president. I 'm not at all sure he is correct about them making her unelectable, but the quotes are indeed awesome. And personally, they convince me that she might make a great presidential candidate in the future (just not in 2016). These quotes show she understands the economic realities in this country, and how current policies have hurt most Americans while favoring the rich. Here are those "awesome" quotes from Warren:
1. “People feel like the system is rigged against them, and here is the painful part, they’re right. The system is rigged.”
2. “If there had been a Financial Product Safety Commission in place 10 years ago, the current financial crisis would have been averted.”
3. “You built a factory out there, good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads that the rest of us paid for. You hired workers that 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.”
4. “Look around. Oil companies guzzle down the billions in profits. Billionaires pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries, and Wall Street CEOs, the same ones the direct our economy and destroyed millions of jobs still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them. Does anyone here have a problem with that?”
5. “I do not understand how it is that financial institutions could think that they could take taxpayer money and then turn around and act like it’s business as usual. I don’t understand how they can’t see that the world has changed in a fundamental way, that it is not business as usual when you take taxpayer dollars.”
6. “Mitt Romney is the guy who said corporations are people. No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people.”
7. “You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything in your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did.”
8. “In a democracy, hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t win their fights through elections, can’t win their fights in Congress, can’t win their fights for the presidency, and can’t win their fights in the courts. For this right-wing minority, hostage taking is all they have left, a last gasp for those who cannot cope with the realities of our democracy.”
9. “If you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you’re going to jail….Evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night.”
10. “Nobody’s safe. Health insurance? That didn’t protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.”
