Elizabeth Warren: Unlikely Radical Giving Hope To Those Disenchanted With Mainstream Democrats

[Purveyor]

By Dan Roberts, The Guardian
Saturday, November 16, 2013 10:10 EST

Senator’s tough stance against Wall Street is attracting voters on the left who are disenchanted with the party establishment

Not many political “rock stars” inspire audience members to knit, but, even by Washington’s sedate standards, the darling of America’s new left is a quiet revolutionary.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a former Harvard professor turned Wall Street scourge, is one of a clutch of unlikely radicals giving hope to those disenchanted with mainstream Democrats.

Hours before a rare public appearance last week, one of the largest rooms in Congress begins slowly filling up with an odd mix of groupies: policy wonks, finance geeks, Occupy activists, and, yes, the type of political conference attendee who brings their knitting in.

Warren proceeds to calmly recite numbers that could inspire even librarians to storm a few barricades. The Wall Street crash has cost the US economy $14tn, she says, but its top institutions are 30% larger than before, own half the country’s bank assets and are in receipt of an implicit taxpayer subsidy of $83bn a year because they are deemed too big to fail.

“We have got to get back to running this country for American families, not for its largest financial institutions,” concludes Warren, before noting how little President Barack Obama has done to achieve that.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/16/elizabeth-warren-unlikely-radical-giving-hope-to-those-disenchanted-with-mainstream-democrats/

[99Forever]

1. Warren/Grayson or Grayson/Warren 2016.

The Democratic ticket that would smoke any and every other, ESPECIALLY the corporate anointed one.

[daleanime]

2. How about Sanders/Warren?

Although Warren/Grayson is good too.

[99Forever]

4. Yes and yes.

Or even Sanders/Grayson or Grayson/Sanders.

[daleanime]

11. Hell yes.....

[Jackpine Radical]

20. Sanders will be 75 in 2016.

Grayson is still something of a loose cannon. Even though I agree with him most of the time.

[sabrina 1]

38. He is not a loose canon. He has GUTS, something sorely lacking in most of our

elected officials. He only looks like that to some because we have become so accustomed to politicians who are the real loose canons, but do it deceptively. Honesty and directness, spelling things out without fear, probably seems a bit odd, in a country that is unaccustomed to a politician who tells the truth.

We need to get used to people like Grayson in politics rather than the type who carefully choose their words so that they are saying one thing to the voters but signaling their real intentions to those who own them.

Which is better for this country? Someone who sees craziness and doesn't hesitate to point it out, doesn't mince words, sees zero reason to 'negotiate' with morons, and says so, or someone who, no matter how crazy it gets, tries to convince us that 'bi-partisanship is necessary in order to get things done' and in an effort to appear 'reasonable' has the gall to ask the truth teller to apologize to the lunatics for TELLING THE TRUTH.

It is refreshing, like a cool drink on a hot summer day, to finally hear someone just say what everyone should be saying. Maybe this truth telling might catch on if we supported it instead of acting like there is something wrong with it.

[KoKo]

3. What's inspirational about Warren is that "she hit the ground running"

when she was elected to the Senate. She didn't "hang back" and wait to see how to "fit in" or "work the ropes"....she took her election seriously. She's the only one who seems to have been responsible to those who elected her right out of the box.

Al Franken and Sheldon Whitehouse come to mind. Also Hillary and POB.

She is inspiring...but, we need her there in the Senate and that's why I hope she stays there. But, it's also good to Promote her as a Candidate because it gives us non DLC/Third Way Dems a person who models what we hope to find in our next candidate.

So...all is good with her....imho.

[GoneFishin]

21. When I read "she didn't hang back" I immediately thought of Al Franken - disappointed. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Right--it needn't be Warren.

A Warren clone will do nicely.

But I'm hard-pressed to come up with a name for that clone. For one thing, I think it should be a woman (a woman whose maiden name is not Rodham).

[KoKo]

29. Well..I'm not into Gender thingy because as a Female...I know Females

are no more Saints than our other sexes are. We Dems get into confusion of Branding...over and over.

It's the Person/Background...Life Experience and Track Record that we often don't do enough to VET thoroughly on Dem side because we have been so besieged by RW'ers for decades with their Powerful Think Tanks and Money that we accept less vetting and ignore holding their Feet to Fire than the Other Side does where they lock their candidates in a box and own the media and have the money to Message Drive whatever they want their candidate to be and do. We SILL on DEM SIDE don't manage to go "beyond the brand" and the message and our incredible BELIEF that our Dem Candidates are the "GOOD GUYS" and will always work "FOR US...and NOT AGAINST US." Not TRUE...

But...that's my opinion from these sad years of hope.

[Jackpine Radical]

35. I'm thinking mostly of the fact that the Republicans have really pissed off a lot of women,

plus the fact that a lot of women really do want to see one of their gender break through the ultimate glass ceiling. Since women are over half the voters in the country, I think it would be a leg up to run one at this point in history.

I have worked for men and women, blacks and whites at various times in my life, and have seen enough to know one shouldn't base expectations on either race or gender.

I'm also, for some reason, a guy who typically has more female than male friends. Also, my most bitter enemies have been women. I don't really know why that is, and don't even know exactly what point I'm trying to make, but I find it interesting now that I stop to think about it.

[winter is coming]

33. It doesn't have to be a female. Policy is vastly more important than gender. n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

5. I think the days of the corporate Democrats are numbered.

I don't think a corporate Dem can win it all in 2016. The only way a corporate Dem will even win the nomination will be lack of competition. They don't inspire confidence or loyalty in Democrats anymore, so even if one of them does win the nomination, Democrats aren't going to turn out to vote for them.

Remember, Obama had to make himself appear liberal to win, and I don't think Hillary can pull it off. Besides, it's going to be harder to fool everybody next time. If Democrats are serious about winning elections from here on out, they need to make a sharp left turn.

[KoKo]

8. Sharp "Left Turn" ...but, who will hold their "Feet to the Fire?"

We Dems are Compromisers since the DLC and Clinton that many of us thought would be the new JFK as those younger than we were thought Obama would be.

I'm a long time Dem. First Vote Cast was for JFK...so been watching this for a looooong time. Carter was our First JFK, BTW...before the DLC. I remember meeting his Mother... "Miss Lillian" who spoke to us on the Train Ride through Connecticut where she campaigned for her Son!

Talk about Dem Sorrow! It's a damned "Trail of Tears."

[mike_c]

28. god I hope you're right....

eom

[Scuba]

6. And it's not just her willingness to take on Wall Street ...

She's got more spine than most of the Dems in Washington combined ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024034933

[bvar22]

7. Here is the problem with that:

For those of us who joined the Democratic Party in the 60s and 70s,
Elizabeth Warren is [font size=3] NOT radical in the least![/font]
She is simply a DEMOCRAT doing the job that DEMOCRATS are supposed to do.

Only when standing next to today's "Business Friendly" Centrist NeoLiberal, Anti-LABOR,
Free Trading, deregulating, Wall Street Bailing, bi-partisan consensus seeking, "New Democrats"
does she appear to be out-of-the-Mainstream (Thank Gawd!)

To those of us who can remember DEMOCRATS who STOOD for Democratic Values, Warren is what we have been missing.



[font color=firebrick][center]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will STAND UP for Working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone [/font][/center] [center] [/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]

[Demeter]

9. Hear, hear!

[polichick]

13. Absolutely!

[flying rabbit]

14. So true.

[loudsue]

15. I recommend this post!!!! +++++++++

So true! In fact, she's sort of a conservative democrat. But a brilliant one.

[ReRe]

16. Hear, Hear,

and Hear!

[jtuck004]

17. Elizabeth Warren is NOT radical in the least! < < Deserves Repeating!! n/t

[L0oniX]

25. OMG + a kahbillion

[libdem4life]

26. "Clutch of unlikely radicals"...too cute..It's only the "disaffected Dems" who get a bit miffed when

we're lied to, cheated and stolen from while they rack in the profits from their financially convenient wars, busily repossessing our houses while simultaneously and most gleefully ratcheting up the interest rates.

Get out the fainting hankies, quick.

60's and 70's expert here from the Left Coast. Now we're fighting for our grandkids cause I guess we did protect our kids and give them a bit much as overcompensation for when we fought off the wars and the Draft and Nixon and survived his economic nightmares. That little misadventure at the Watergate Hotel was the least of his crimes, IMO.

Like a Women's Rights sign held by a woman close to my age that I saw...I can't believe we're having to fight this shit again.

[adirondacker]

37. I guess anything "left" of Reagan is RADICAL nowadays. Crazy. nt

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[LittleBlue]

12. Really hope she runs

She is the best chance among realistic candidates for change, slight as that chance may be.

With Hillary I can't see anything changing.

[winter is coming]

34. ^^ And this is Hillary's biggest problem: "With Hillary I can't see anything changing." n/t

[winter is coming]

18. The thing I find most disenchanting? That Warren is considered "radical". n/t

[L0oniX]

24. Heh ...yea ...being a real (non corporate prostitute) Democrat is radical.

[libdem4life]

27. Yes, just a Prim Little Leader of a Little Clutch...they are hoping to high heaven. Wrong. Ugh.

[loudsue]

19. I want to see Howard Dean and Elizabeth Warren on a ticket.

They would absolutely kick ass. You think Obama won by a landslide? There is so much pent-up anger about what we've seen these past 13 years.... I think they're the only ones anyone would trust anymore.

[L0oniX]

22. Call them "Disenchanted"? Oh ...it's much more than that.

Some of us have had enough of this corporate sell out bull shit. I to the best of my knowledge will never vote for a corporate tool no matter who the tool is running against. Call them Dem all you want. If they do not represent me because they are focused on whoring out to corporations then fuck them and damn them to hell for fucking up my country!

[liberal_at_heart]

30. +1

[WillyT]

31. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[Wilms]

32. ^

[tavalon]

36. Unlikely to who?

or would that be whom? We knew she was a firebrand. What we didn't know was that she wasn't going to follow Senate protocol and be quiet for a year. That was the surprise for me and a very pleasant one at that.