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The Woman Democrats Need
On the day after Tuesday's electoral loss, the Obama administration brought an unfamiliar face to the White House -- Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law professor noted for her staunch advocacy on behalf the middle class and fierce criticism of the bank bailouts. Perhaps the administration will take a more aggressive approach to Wall Street, along the lines of what Warren wants. But for Democrats to truly take ownership of the economic crisis, Warren will need to play a more prominent role. Not just her ideas, but the force of her personality is needed.
Warren and the Democratic Party need to think seriously about her prospects for higher office. Going into 2012, Massachusetts Democrats will have no shortage of candidates to choose from, eager, party-trained politicians ready to take a run. Republican Scott Brown's victory to the US Senate last week made clear that voters crave something besides the norm: someone from outside the traditional political structure who can speak to their everyday, bread-and-butter concerns in a credible way. Warren fits the bill.
Warren has spent her career laying the groundwork for what might be called progressive populism. From her perch in Cambridge, she's excoriated the unfair credit and lending practices that, in part, gave rise to the current crisis. She was the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which, if created, would regulate credit cards and mortgages in the same way home appliances are regulated now. (Full disclosure: Warren once wrote about the agency in the publication I help edit.) And well before the bubble broke in the summer of 2007, when America was still riding high on George W. Bush's economy, Warren was speaking out against the incredible pressure the 21st century economy was putting on the middle class. She was derided as a Cassandra, but she was right.
If all this made Warren a household name among progressives, it was the economic crisis that catapulted her onto the national stage. As chairwoman of the TARP Oversight Committee, she's been responsible for examining the bank bailouts and the regulatory response. Warren has vocalized the concerns of many Americans -- but not many politicians -- who are outraged by the rampant greed that led to the crisis, and the refusal of Wall Street to take responsibility. "I think the problem has been all the way throughout this crisis, that the banks have been treated gently and everyone else has been treated really pretty tough,'' said an exasperated Warren last fall, echoing what so many others -- in both parties -- have come to believe.
These people need someone of Warren's stature. The timing is perfect: her term at TARP Oversight will come to an end in the spring of 2011, just as a Senate candidate would have to be ramping up. She'd have a base of support on the Internet as soon as she announces. Sure, a Warren campaign would provoke guffaws from the right: What does a Harvard professor really know about an economic crisis? Yet underneath the polished pedigree is a teenage bride from Oklahoma. She's as much an everyday person as Scott Brown; she just happens to be a brilliant scholar as well. When she's championing the middle class, she's not doing so because it's politically expedient, but because she feels connected to it in a way few politicians are. And she has the intellectual chops to convert that connection into dramatic policy change. Sadly, few politicians can say that, either.
The wisdom of a Warren candidacy is about more than just one race or one candidate. As Scott Brown demonstrated -- and, yes, as Barack Obama demonstrated only last year -- we're living in an age that rewards candidates who can generate real enthusiasm on the Internet; who can credibly distance themselves from the party apparatus; and who offer populist but "post-ideological'' politics. Warren meets all three criteria.
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46 Comments so far
Show AllGee, and I thought Obama was going to save the Democrats. If testicles can't do it, a uterus can? Give me a break!
Warren will only be as effective as Snowbama and his seven insiders allow her to be.
When he hires Nomi Prins we will know that Snowbama is serious about going to bat for somebody other than the corporations.
The Democrats are dead in the water with the American people, The Republicans are on a half-sunk ship. Both are tools of the large corporations and the ultra-rich. Both don't seem to give a damn about the real wishes and worries of the people that elect them to office.
Ms Warren seems a good lady. She certainly seems a smart woman. So why is she still fooling with the Democratic Party?
Gary
PS BTW I am suggesting the name "The People" for a new unity party to bring together the dozen or so "third-parties" that better represent the actual positions of the American people than the present duopoly. Imagine campaigning for "The People."
I like the sound of a People Party, Gary. A party: For the people; by the people; and of the people. Yeah, it has a nice ring to it.
I like it, too, as long as people don't call it the "Pee-Pee."
Most likely, Gary, the "opposition" will connect "The People" or "The Peoples' Party" with "The Peoples' Republic of China" and call them "communists" or "socialists" or some other bogeyman term. Just as Newt Gingrich convoluted "liberals" to be a term all "good" Americans should spit after saying. So too, the corporatists of this day will take the term "The People" and trash it further than it already is. But I agree it is all that like minded people who want to overturn the present political monopoly can do. We need a coherent and substantial third party. Self determination with incremental change-unless you want revolution, which is not a very pleasant alternative.
ps I like the "P-P"! It's a catchy term and the absurd is remembered.
Some sample slogans:
"I'm P-P and I'm proud"; "Get on board with the P-P"; "Get up with the P-P"
Can't be any worse than the "Tea Baggers" for heaven sakes.
A key front in the class war regards the value that the people place in the idea of "we the people". In this battle of ideas, elites have conditioned the people to salivate at the ring of the profit bell, to smirk at the ring of the people bell, and to ignore all else. It's a sick scenario known affectionately as "the merkan way". The task at hand is to destroy that profit bell, before it destroys us.
"So why is she still fooling with the Democratic Party?"
Because she is amazing at her job (counting beans) she focuses on her JOB, not on outside interests like politics. So many people put their nose to the grindstone and only see what MSM wants them to see. I'm sure Ms. Warren is no different in this regard. As such, she is no politician and should not be counted on as such. Another poster mentioned putting her in charge of the FED, which would be a logical step.
When I read this headline, I thought it was about Cynthia McKinney! Forget the democratic party and Elizabeth Warren, because even if she is a woman of integrity, her party is corrupt.
Warren would be better as a replacement to either Bernanke as head of the Fed or Geithner as Treasury Secretary-- either position could be filled right now.
the world would be a lot better off if the women ran the show instead of the men by and large!
and in regards to MS Warren - it's well past time the corporate vampires bought her out isn't it?
I concur - forget the senate - put her in charge of the Fed!
and then nationalize the sucker!
Gee whiz. she is from Harvard? OBMA's alma mater? How do we know she not all talk.?
odoco
Maybe you should take time to study her remarks and actions during the past year . . .
odoco
What has she said about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? What is her position there?
Another excellent woman to add to the likes of Warren would be Nomi Prins. As an former banker with Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns and the author of the book "It Takes a Pillage", she both understands the financial corruption as a former insider and is capable of cutting through all the jive talk and euphemisms of the Congressional, Wall Street, and FED banking crowd.
Both of these public figures who happen to be women have shown that they both understand what the problems are and how things got this way.
Poet
How the hell do we know that this is not another one of those window dressing tricks again? Like Chief Justice John Roberts, he's from Harvard and is most likely to be pro-corporatist in a bad sense and she would know better than to be another closet Van Jones lest Obama find out sooner or later and axe her the way he did Van Jones.
But it in order to appeal to the uninformed independent voters---you know, the bulk of the voting population---wouldn't she need to have some kind of sex appeal like Sarah Palin?
I mean, we can't expect voters, who've been raised corporate for the last two generations, to actually pay attention to actual intellectual arguments and appeals to reason, can we?
And the third generation is currently in schools memorizing their facts---and consequently being dumbed down and bored---for Obama and Duncan's next generation fill in the bubble exams, so you can forget about a more thoughtful future.
I couldn't think of a worse idea for Elizabeth Warren; if she were to become a Senator that would be a sure fire way to bury her voice. Bad idea.
Better: Run for President.
I do hope Warren becomes more of a household name. If she can identify five expandable 'talking points' to bring to the Palin fans, no doubt as history unfolds Warren could help turn the tide.
Yes - I like her, but ....
I'm through once and for all in hoping that a good person in a bad system can make a difference - not in light of last week's Supreme Court decision - for the first time in my life I did not vote in the 2008 general election and I'll never vote again - our government is no longer run by democrats and republicans, but rather, cynical businessmen - they're not worth a minute of my time.
I still read the blogs and news sites, and until my 97 year-old father passes, I'll be planning ways to insulate myself from the rest of idiot nation. This is the country in which disgraced politicians rehabilate themselves on "Dancing with Stars."
Americans are nuts and should not be allowed to drive cars and vote.
I just can't believe this is really happening.
Neither can I, but I've been voting since 1960 and I can't give up now. If everybody reacted the way you have, we might as well set fire to the White House and the Capital Building. We have to keep voting our conscience for the good of the country and spreading the word of common sense to everyone we know. Maybe we may not see it in our lifetime, but maybe for our kids and grandkids.........I can't believe it's really happening, either. But, I can't give up and let the crazies take over this great country without a fight. And BTW, I'm reading a book called "Idiot America". Maybe it will shed some light on why Americans are so nutty. Check it out.
Thanks my friend, will do.
Sioux Rose
DCARLSON: Good luck with your father and his eventual transition.
Nice map: Hollywood = celebrity = politics = illusions.
Amazing how it all comes full circle to something as inane as "Dancing with the Stars." This is what happens at the end of empire. The Romans had their arena, as we have ours.
I agree with Hamster. Warren would be a great replacement for Bernanke or Geithner. Warren is articulate, intelligent, bold, and she understands what's going on in the financial world. But unless Obama has some sort of epiphany, it ain't gonna happen. Obama seems to be too beholden to Wall Street and corporate money. I wish Obama would surprise me and make me eat these words. But that's like hoping for a miracle.
Stop Bacarat Obama and his Bernanksters, NOW!
camus13
If you have listened to Elizabeth Warren for one minute you can see that this woman has passion, skills, and smarts.
She cares, really cares about the American citizens and is doing everything in her power to help us all.
Now that the Speaker in Chief is in trouble he is calling her to the White House. Good, but he needs a prime time bitch out of the banks and their lobbies. He needs to tell the American people and Congress (Dodd) to pass that Consumer Protection bill post haste and start naming names.
Tell Dodd that we all know he's looking for a lobby job with the banks after his forced retirement. And tell the banks a shit storm of epic proportions is coming and it's coming at them.
Then appoint Warren to a top high profile job so that the American people can see what a person in government who cares look like talks right and would be one we could all honor and care about.
But can she be bought?
A household name among progessives? I had no idea. Thanks, Ethan Porter and The Boston Globe, for telling me! Whew!
Ms Warren would be far more effective as a top regulator than as one of 100 outsized Senate egos. She doesn't fit the profile.
I think "Treasury Secretary Elizabeth Warren" has a nice ring to it.
I loudly agree! This woman is brilliant and filled with common sense. But I just don't think she will fit in the government.....she seems to have no giant ego!
Dear Elizabeth Warren: Do NOT fly any single engine aircraft and if you do, DON'T take your family with you. Apart from that all my very best.
That said, unless my fellow Americans drag their sorry asses into the streets expressing clearly defined DEMANDS designed to include Everyone, all our "Heroes" and "Heroines" on their shining white steeds will continue to be chimeras disappearing into the distance.
Does anyone, reading these pages actually believe that any single 'politician' or 'activist' cannot be neutralized by the 'apparatus' of the State? I mean, in '68 with the Civil Rights Movement merging with the Economic Justice Movement merging with the Anti-War Movement, they were becoming a juggernaut. That's why the animals were willing to execute MLK knowing that the cities would burn, and they did it anyway. That's who we're up against. It was the perfidy of those movements that 3 others didn't rise up in his place with the same values and the same agenda. Like the coach said, they had a shallow bench.
And the real "Movers & Shakers", the men and women setting the agenda, who refused to "go away" and would not be "bought off", these people were NOT politicians. Politicians FEARED them. That's why COINTELPRO. That's why we need to build a deep bench of men and women who know their lives are on the line because that is the price for making real change in this country, no different than Columbia.
nicely stated
Sioux Rose
Good evening, LUCKY: I agree with you on this post; and for the record, I answered you on the Bob Herbert one.
Sioux Rose
If you please, for you only.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/21-8#comment-1403596
The Democrats need.....?
My short answer is that they need to be lined up against the wall alongside their good buddies, the Republicans, and.... SHOOT... chuckle, chuckle.
And we should do the same to anybody else writing one of these Democrats should do or Obama should do advisory council pieces.
"Not just her ideas, but the force of her personality is needed."
- What are her ideas the improve the economy? Ethan Porter fails to state this.
- Personality? Another attempt at form over substance by the Democrats.
- What happened to ideas from Obama's town hall meetings last year? Oh, that was just a side show to the circus.
Gee, maybe this is the meat for another article, but does the woman have stated positions? If so, are these not relevant to her usefulness, even for the Democrats?
Short of that, I will continue to suspect that the woman the Dems need is Cynthia McKinney, just like the rest of us.
Everything is alright now,
they found a women.
Dear Ms Warren: Don't let the Democrats destroy you which they will clearly do, first chance they get. Don't eat anything offered to you by Rahm Emanuel unless he eats it first.
Thats good advise for quite a few people in 2010.
This is a good article, but I'd say that what we need is to see more of an institutional analyis. One person isn't going to solve the problem. We need to get rid of that silly idea. We need to concentrate on developing a less hierarchal society. It's so top down that it hurts. We have to move to a more egalitarian society. Elizabeth Warren is a bright and decent person, but we need so many more of them.
We may need to let the GOP win the presidency next time, and almost surely based on the big shots in the GOP knowing that a moderate such as Colin Powell or Chuck Hagel is a sure bet will help with getting somebody such as that to be the next GOP presidential candidate and likely the next president. Another Dwight D Eisenhower is probably what we need. Ike did a pretty good job, and we're not likely to get a progressive Democrat until this one term 'wonder" we now have in the White House goes down to defeat taking the Clintonoids with him.
AD
Yes, Ike was okay.But where would such a person come from today? Ike was okay because he represented a kind of moderate Republicanism which hasn't existed for decades. In his day, the kind of Republican nut balls that seem to define the party now, would have been firmly anchored to their barstools.Or they would have joined the John Birch Society.Either way, mainstream Republicans in the fifties wouldn't have taken them seriously.No matter-Colin Powell is no Eisenhower anyway.
let? is the the spin already?
I thought it was Hillary aka Mrs. "Bill" Clinton