Salon.com has a thoughtful article about the push to get Elizabeth Warren to run for President, which I believe is a good read for anyone who claims to be a progressive. For me, part of being a progressive, is being willing to try and change the system rather than simply do the same thing conservatives do, but rather from a so-called “left” perspective. And, I wonder, what the push for Warren illustrates about the health and well being of the progressive movement. This is an important question, because I believe if Progressives lose the next Presidential election, we will all be in for a really bad 8-12 years. It may eve be the end of Democracy as we know it.
On the surface, I personally get the push to get Warren to run. I agree with Walsh’s sentiment in the Salon piece:
I’m a huge admirer of Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She’s the best new leader to emerge in the Democratic Party in decades.
And truth be told, I’m (Thomas Waters) fairly lukewarm when it comes to Hillary Clinton. So, you might think I’d be on the “push for Warren” bandwagon. But I’m not. I question if the push for Warren is about Warren at all, or if it is merely politics as usual, and that being the type of politics, I believe progressives ought to be trying to change.
The Salon piece is authored by Joan Walsh, and I’ve been a Walsh fan for some time. She is one smart person, and more people ought to be listening to her in my opinion, so I hope you read her whole article.
I don’t think the push Warren effort is about Warren at all. Warren has been really clear that she doesn’t want to run. I both respect that decision, and believe she can do more good if she were a leader in the Senate. Let’s be real– the President is just one part of one branch of government, and the place where real change is needed is within the Senate and the House. Warren can benefit our country and our democracy as well as millions and millions of people more in the Senate. Imagine if Warren had been leader instead of Harry Reid? Where would we be today?
Walsh says nicer things about MoveOn.org and Democracy for America than I would say. Both were grass roots efforts who, in my opinion, didn’t know how to remain true to being grass-roots and “populace” based as they got so big. So, they began to play politics the way Washington already plays politics, and that benefits no one except those who are already in power. Politics of this sort isn’t about change, but rather getting and keeping power. To me, that’s a part of the problem and not a part of the solution.
But they must grab onto Warren because she is a woman and they expect she will poll well and get many progressives excited. They are using her, in my opinion– what Walsh calls “selling Elizabeth Warren”:
So I’m coming to find the “draft Warren” juggernaut a little bit perplexing. I know the participants have wonderful motives and genuinely would welcome a Warren candidacy. But with every email I receive, I get a tiny bit more cynical. It doesn’t feel so much like groups are using their organizational strength to help Warren, but enlisting Warren to help build their organizational strength.
Underneath it all may really simply be an effort to force Clinton more to the left than some fear she may be. Since Clinton hasn’t even thrown her hat into the ring, it is pretty hard to say. Thus, this is politics as usual: trying to control a game two or three moves ahead.
In my opinion, even if Clinton is not quite progressive enough, the real change over the next 8 years will come because of a push within the Congress, working in conjunction with the President to move the country forward.
I believe turnout was so light in the last election, partly because in non-presidential elections it is always lighter, but mostly because progressives– and especially young voters– are fed up with Washington in general. Congress is all screwed up and the Democrats in both the House and the Senate deserved a trouncing, even if the GOP’ers there are worse and also deserved to be thrown out. Politics-as-usual however is way too focused on the next big horse race that it can’t see the reality of the mess that it has itself created. People stayed away from the polls in 2014, because Congress doesn’t listen to them, and too many Democratic legislators throw progressives under the bus so easily, too afraid about being re-elected so that no change occurs.
Rather than set up an American Idol-like popularity contest for the Democratic Presidential candidate, why aren’t we seeing real efforts to articulate issues and positions? Why aren’t we seeing efforts to really engage voters and people out on the streets? Instead, we are seeing groups use Elizabeth Warren, and who will that benefit in the end?