Elizabeth Warren Sells Populism to Professionals

[BlueMTexpat]

Courtesy of the wonderful DSB!!!

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/elizabeth-warrens-populism-for-professionals

...
Warren’s campaign rests on the theory that the past decade has transformed the way class is felt in America, so that instead of the uneducated against the educated, or the heartland against the coasts, it is now also possible to run a widely inclusive, populist campaign against the ultra-rich. If you keep your eye on what the capitalists get away with, you can run on economic populism with the support of doctors and lawyers and the P.T.A. “Your first fifty million, you get to keep. Good for you,” Warren said on Wednesday, explaining her signature wealth-tax proposal. From the ultra-rich—only “a tenth of a tenth of a per cent” of Americans—the government would take two per cent of every dollar after the first fifty million. By the way, she went on, most Americans already pay a wealth tax. “How many people here own their own homes?” Warren asked, and virtually the whole crowd put its fingers to the sky. Looking affirmed, Warren told them that their property taxes were effectively wealth taxes, just for a lesser level of wealth. She wanted to go after the guys “with the Rembrandts and the yachts.”
...
But Warren is the only candidate in the race whose fortunes have materially improved over the past six months, which suggests that the vein she’s found has less to do with what is permanent within the Democratic electorate than with what is changing. When Rakich analyzed polling data from Emerson College last month, he found that Warren, alone among the major contenders, drew support from voters who were split almost evenly between Sanders and Clinton in 2016. The signal story of the past decade—of the financial crisis, of Donald Trump, of the #MeToo movement—is about how wealth, power, and depravity have been concentrated in the hands of a very few. The Warren campaign is a test of how broadly that story has resonated, and how much the country has been transformed. As the selfie line formed in Franconia, I saw a new national poll on my phone, from the Economist and YouGov—Biden had fallen to twenty-one per cent, in their accounting, and Warren was up to twenty per cent. Not the front-runner—at least not yet—but the race’s central figure.

[tblue37]

1. K&R and thanks. nt

[zentrum]

2. Kick

[dhill926]

3. liking her more and more...

[LudwigPastorius]

4. She is making a very salient point.

After you've socked enough money away so that you can buy just about anything you want, and never have to work a day in your life again, what's the point of so much wealth accumulation?

It's no coincidence that the greatest economic expansion in American history occurred while there was a marginal tax rate of 91% on the ultra-rich.

[ancianita]

5. She can sell, can't she. It's no wonder she appeals to both Bernie and Clinton camps.

[LAS14]

8. That's what distinguishes her from failed Dem candidates like...

... McGovern, Dukakis, Kerry, Clinton. She can sell! They depended on rallying the base.

[LAS14]

6. What's DSB? nt

[BlueMTexpat]

7. That is the lovely DUer

aka "DemocratSinceBirth."

[LAS14]

9. Thanks! nt