There's a lot we can do to end gun violence—and I've got a plan outlining how I'll do that. But we should also ask why nothing is being done right now. If we want to end gun violence, we must root out the corruption that is holding up progress. #WarrenTownHall pic.twitter.com/vM3bM4uAGF
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 6, 2020
This is brilliant! Don’t argue with those who insist ‘My gun is a tool, I need it’… go with the analogy “So is your car, but we’ve managed to reduce highway deaths by 80% without eliminating cars.” Of course, a good part of that improvement came from government mandates insisting on seatbelts and insurance and sobriety tests, but who’s in favor of uninsured drunks in exhaust-spewing clunkers?
THREAD: Today we're republishing almost 200 posts Elizabeth Warren wrote at TPM between 2005 and 2008. Some of these have been available online at the Wayback Machine, many – and the earliest – are back online for the first time in a decade. https://t.co/FPe2vFCqzW cc: @ewarren
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 6, 2020
and Traister's profile is brilliant (all of her election stuff is): https://t.co/gtCKR8fvWc
— Anne "I know how to please girls" Lister ? ? (@gjackstan) February 6, 2020
This was my introduction to Elizabeth Warren and a real understanding of how powerful the financial industry was in Congress that it could casually push through these wide ranging changes. Warren and her students explained the problems. Since these TPM posts I've seen https://t.co/AK7cetCH7u
— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) February 6, 2020
The power of private equity to strip jobs, income, and value from working people and lift it up. I've watched it with Puerto Rico, before Hurricane Maria where she was an advocate for the Island being able to get out of debt, after the hurricane where she has a bill that protects
— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) February 6, 2020
against the measure while Deval Patrick, and some other dems supported privatization. We won with 60%+ the vote with a strong multi-racial coalition against a well-funded charter industry.
The TPM posts were my initial introduction and I've learned tremendously from watching her
— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) February 6, 2020
Baud
Y’all should compile all my comments.
Elizabelle
Going out canvassing for Elizabeth today. Thank you for this, Anne. I have been promising her fans at the doors some good links. Will check this out on return.
Ohio Mom
She’s my favorite.
If Warren doesn’t get the nomination, l’ll be happy that she furthered the conversation and helped moved tne Overton window, and also that she will still be a Senator (I am practicing my ethic of optimism today. It’s a work-out, and I’m a couch potato).
pablo
Just sent her another 25 bucks, makes about 100. Fixed income be damned!
Hungry Joe
Will be phone banking for Warren tomorrow.
Beyond the electability issue — and I think Warren would obliterate Trump — I’m convinced she’d make the best President. By far. Easy to envision her running meetings, drilling down, asking incisive questions and demanding good answers. Responding to crises. Explaining complicated issues to the public. I really, really hope we don’t blow this chance to repair the … well, the world.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I’m working on that right now! I got an NEH grant for it.
zhena gogolia
@Hungry Joe:
I know she’d make a great president. I pray that if she gets the nomination she can beat Satan.
West of the Rockies
This may end up being a TL;DR comment, but here goes…
I like Warren. Adjectives galore: whip-shmat, kind, honorable, strong…
I don’t know that her ideas will work (not because they’re bad) because McTurdle will shit-can them.
I wanted Harris. She did not catch fire. Here’s to her future though!
Repeatedly we are told we must listen to black women. Collectively they prefer Biden. Biden would be a safe steward, but maybe not much more. He does not seem to be exciting the non party writ large. He’d fix some things, but at 77, not sure he’d be a dynamo. My hope is that he’d select and then make important a great VP–sort of a Democratic but excellent, honorable Dick Cheney. Will POC stay home if it’s not Biden? Isn’t anyone better than Clump? Will the bros stay home if they don’t get Shouty McWagglehands?
BS is the god damned turd that won’t flush. He may muck it all up.
Mart
Easiest first step in a sane nation would be to require gun owners to have insurance to cover the deaths and injuries their weapons cause like we do for automobiles. The fewer owned weapons, the lower the insurance bill. Brought this up with gun humpers and casual fall hunters and they all shriek of say you are one of those.
Geminid
I’ll probably be voting for Warren in Virginia March 3. I wish she would pound her Green New Deal plan more. It is much more practical and and possible than Sanders’. She does best when she is positive. Last March I read an interview with economist Robert Pollin in the Bulletin of Atom Scientists and came away with the understanding that a major investment in clean energy and conservation, if done judiciously, would stimulate economic development and create jobs. Her climate policy plan was excellent, and she could have made it a signature issue, because she is best when she is positive. Probably a missed opportunity at this point.
moonbat
Just donated to Warren again. She is the best of the field.
Mai naem mobile
I think Warren would make the best president of the bunch. Miles ahead of all the others except for Biden and that’s only because Biden has experience as a Veep. I thought Harris was the best candidate. I also think there needs to be a woman on the ticket(umm,not Tulsi!) Harris might help with AA GOTV as a Veep.
Felanius Kootea
I started out donating $25 a month to Warren, Harris and Castro. I’ve now switched all my monthly donations to Warren and Stacey Abrams’ organization fighting against voter suppression. Keep going Elizabeth Warren. Don’t let the stupid pundits get to you.
I still remember when my husband and I ran into her at Washington National Airport in 2018. I was tongue tied but he said “We need you, 2020!” She hadn’t declared yet. She just smiled. Amazing woman.
TaMara (HFG)
It took me a while to move on from Harris dropping out. And while I’d vote for any Dem who runs against Trump, Warren is the most capable, most informed and most compassionate of all the others.
She does not wow me in the way, say Harris or Castro did, but that’s my problem, not hers. She is genuinely herself and that’s more than most candidates.
I’d proudly GOTV and vote for her.
Felanius Kootea
@West of the Rockies: I’ll believe that when I see results of an actual vote, especially in the South. Believe what people tell you by their votes in the primary. Polls can be wrong.
rikyrah
Omnes Omnibus
Policy chops don’t necessarily bring out voters. Also, I think there are three priorities for the next president. 1. Climate Change. 2. Restoring the US as a good faith member of the international community. 3. Voters rights. If we can do those, then everything else will fall into place.
A lot of specific things can be included in those three categories, and no one can possibly complete them in four or eight years. But those are the challenges. The person we need to elect is the one who can best oversee and be the head cheerleader for those projects. If Warren is the person you think is best suited to do that, then she should be your candidate. If you think someone else would be better at doing it, then that person should be your choice.
Marcopolo
I’m all in for Warren this go around with the caveat that no candidate I have supported in the primary has ever wound up being the nominee–oh well.
Also the “She Persisted” moment happened 3 years ago yesterday. If anyone wants to take a look at the clip of Warren trying to read Corretta Scott Kings letter about Jeff Sessions it is here.
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
I still think his initials say it all, BS.
opiejeanne
@Marcopolo: She refers to that as a “whine”???
Ruckus
@TaMara (HFG):
Same page here.
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: A good list, but I would reverse the order. If citizens can’t vote for their leaders in free and fair elections, and be sure that their votes are counted, then pretty much nothing else good follows.
The best thing that the US can do about climate change is encouraging and rewarding efficiency. And spreading that knowledge and technology around the world as quickly as possible. We’re less than 5% of the population, and the rest of the world is growing quickly. There’s only so much we can do on our own even if internal combustion cars are outlawed here. We’ve got to work together, and we need places like the DoE and DoD leading the way (the DoD (USAF) uses planet-scale amounts of fossil fuel) to improve efficiency and drive demand for renewables.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott: I should have noted that I listed them in no particular order. A case can be made that anyone one of them should be first.
WaterGirl
@Baud: The Book of Baud.
John Revolta
@rikyrah: Well pardon me if I’m a leetle bit cynical about such ads. Yeah Mike worked with Obama, he was the Mayor of NYC and Obama was the President so not much surprise there. Maybe he should mention stop & frisk while he’s at it, where the people they stopped were 90% Black and Latino.
That said, I think he’d do an okay job as POTUS and would have a better than fair chance of beating Trump. But let’s not have too many illusions about the guy.
brantl
I find that she has the unique ability in the field to re-frame issues to where people listening to her say, “Why didn’t I think of it that way? That makes perfect sense!” She’s got an awful lot on the ball. And I think in a debate, if Stump tries that walking-around-her-shit, she’ll say, “What are you running away from Donald? Can’t you stand still?” Sometimes that schoolmarm vibe can work for you, too.
debbie
@rikyrah:
The local Fox/Sinclair station ran that ad twice last night during the 10pm news.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Yeah, but does Obama align himself with Bloomberg. I saw that ad here in Champaign last night, and I was not amused.
I guess Barack can’t really put out a statement that says “hey, guys, keep me out of this, please, unless you want me to announce the name of my preferred pick in the Democratic primary”. Or can he?
WaterGirl
@John Revolta: Ugh. If I wanted a Republican as president, I would not be a Democrat.
brantl
I would like every sane person to mention that guns can be, and are as destructive as dynamite. And, if people said the things about dynamite, that the gun-nuts say about guns, we would lock them all in the bingo bin.
Geminid
@rikyrah: I don’t watch TV these days so I had not seen any of the Bloomberg ads I had been hearing about, until I was visiting a friend’s mom who is in home hospice care. We were watching Judge Judy and there was a commercial break. And there was was Judge Judy! Telling us what a great guy Michael Bloomberg is!. Not a big Bloomberg fan, but I thought afterwards, well if I had to take advice from either Judge Judy or Michael Moore……
Kent
Yes, I get this point of view. And if he wins the nomination then I’m all in. But picking a candidate that I feel is less than equipped to take back the presidency because of some early polling in southern states? I find that difficult.
I have to make my own decision as to which candidate I feel is (1) most equipped to beat Trump, and (2) most equipped to run the country and repair the wreckage of Trumpism and that keeps bringing me back to Warren. And, while I’m pretty sure that like most all white people, I do have racial blind spots. I don’t think supporting Warren is any kind of racist thing to do in contrast to Biden.
The Democratic Party is a big tent of many many different constituencies and groups. Black women are, without a doubt, the most loyal of all. Is it going to test their loyalty if Warren is the nominee? Will they flip to Trump or simply sit out the election because they can’t abide Warren? I honestly don’t know but I rather doubt it. But that’s on Warren and her campaign to make sure that doesn’t happen should she win the nomination.
Ultimately I have to pick who I think is (1) most capable of beating Trump, and (2) most capable of putting the country back together. And for me that’s Warren or Klobuchar. Not even close. And honestly, ideology is a distant third.
Kent
What we are seeing with Bloomberg is what happens when you take real money and hire the best professionals to get a fucking job done, as opposed to the amateur hour of grifting ‘consultants’ that has invested the Democratic party for so long from Donna Brazile to James Carville to Mark Penn.
It is frankly a breath of fresh air to see things done right for once, rather than the defensive crouch that has infested so many previous Democratic campaigns.
EDIT: Not that I’m a big Bloomberg fan. I think he would be the worst risk of maintaining loyalty to the Democratic party and the biggest risk of throwing away important Cabinet positions to some sort of bipartisan “unity” government, making Republicans run the FBI, DOD, etc. He supported and funded Toomey in PA and Snyder in MI who was the worst example of racist voter suppression MI has ever seen, and also responsible for Flint water crisis and Detroit bankruptcy. He’s 100x better than Trump but I’m not sure he is really a partisan fighter like we need in the oval office.
Chyron HR
@John Revolta:
Well, as long as the
presumptuouspresumptive frontrunner is fixated on denouncing the Democratic party’s widely popular former president as a DEMOCRAT FAILYUH, you can’t blame Bloomberg for trying to pick up the votes of the other (checks calculator) 75% of us.kindness
I like Liz best. I also think she has the least downsides Republicans can go after. Compared to the rest of the field I mean.
Duane
The first time I became aware of Warren was on an episode of Frontline. The topic was credit cards, and I remember thinking, ” Who is this woman? She should be President.” And now, here we are. Go Warren!
Carol
I like Warren exactly where she is…in the Senate. With a D majority and a D in the WH, she can get more done, imo, than she can as president.
James E Powell
90% of Trump voters.
rollSound
MAGAts.
cokane
@Chyron HR: I fail to see why so many people here continuously say things that aren’t true. Where is Sanders calling Obama a failure? Being dishonest doesn’t help.
Moreover, we are once again seeing the separation between how extremely online, activist liberals view the world and how most of the rest of the party’s base operates. Something we saw in the early polling on Biden. The idea that primary voters are going to gravitate towards Bloomberg in overwhelming numbers in a Sanders-Bloomberg race is simply ignorant. Most Democratic voters see Sanders a long time Democrat. I don’t know why this needs to be said. But apparently it does.
cokane
@Kent: I think it would risk setting an awful precedent as well. Rewarding super wealthy people and ad blitzes. If it came down to Bloomberg in the general of course that’s who I’m voting for. But nearly every other Dem candidate would be preferable.
I do not want to see the presidency pass from one billionaire oligarch to another.
Arclite
But what about her period and the nukular football?
Chyron HR
@cokane:
Then I suppose some poorly informed voters are going to be very surprised in July when he pulls his standard “Thanks for the nomination, suckers, now I’m running in the general election as an independent” bait and switch.
Sab
@Marcopolo: I really liked Kerry, a lot, early on. Worked my butt off for him. Started my political life working my butt off for Mc Govern. I know how you feel.
The absolute one biggest regret of my activist life is that I did not write to McGovern to say how much I admired him and how much he inspired me. Which he did, probably for the rest of my life.
He thought he disappointed us. I thought we failed him.
I wish to this day I had written to him.
That campaign ended when I was 18. I had many many years to write to him. I never did. He didn’t disappoint me. He inspired me. But I never told him so.
Steeplejack (phone)
@opiejeanne:
Yes, because it was Mitch McConnell who actually
saidwhined, “Nevertheless, she persisted.”Sab
@Arclite: Who is “her”?
Barb 2
Warren is the real desl. I’ve read her biography. She has fought all the battles – from a poor family in Oklahoma then her patchwork road through college as a mom. Look it will take a woman to clean up after Trump.
we all I know that the Orange monster is going to get much much worse – in his mind he can do no wrong. Trump is already the most corrupt Prez ever and he will top himself. Other countries don’t trust him – they know he is a liar. It will take time to rebuild trust – and someone absolutely different than Trump or most males can ever be.
Psychologists and Shrinks have seen us about how dangerous Trump is. I agree that Trump will not debate any Dem candidate. Not going to happen.
I am really scared about what will happen. Our job is to make sure that Trump is defeated on election day. We need to get rid of Moscow Mitch and the cult of Trump also known as the GOP. There is no chance of bipartisanship anything the cult is purged. These traitors are Putin owned.
We all have a lot of work to do between now and November. You all are probably as scared as I am.
Another Scott
@Barb 2: +1
Except I’m not scared. I’m determined. We know we can defeat them – we’ve been doing it for 3 years. We have to do the work, keep our eyes on the prizes, and not get discouraged. We have the numbers – the way they win is by making us disillusioned. I don’t think it’s going to happen, and I’m doing what I can to make sure it doesn’t.
(I’ve given to Warren several times in the last few weeks.)
Cheers,
Scott.