Why We Love Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren - The Best and Definitely the Brightest Candidate

Elizabeth Warren is running against Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown for the United States Senate in what pundits are predicting will be the costliest congressional election in history.  Warren, a veteran Harvard law professor, has a special knack for addressing voters' concerns without talking down to them.  Scott Brown's superior airs are obvious to all but the most credulous GOPers.  He cleverly used Tea Party activists in order to get himself elected, then he abandoned many of the movement's unhinged positions.  (This naturally enraged the teabaggers, whose patriotic zealotry is invariably linked to southern white privilege.  I suspect even now the Obama haters are busily constructing more racist signs and preparing to superglue fake Uncle Sam goatees to their chins.) 

Elizabeth Warren is honest, and she speaks from her heart.  Following the 2008 financial crisis, the author of nine books served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (aka TARP).  Her efforts to hold Wall Street tycoons accountable for the misery they caused middle-class families have been praised by both progressives and fiscal conservatives.

The Boston Globe named Elizabeth Bostonian of the Year in 2009 in response to her sharp dealings with corrupt lending institutions.  Also in 2009, Warren became the first professor at Harvard University to win the law school's prestigious Sacks-Freund Teaching Award - twice - for "teaching ability, openness to student concerns, and contributions to student life at Harvard."  Time and again, the National Law Journal has named Warren as one of the Fifty Most Influential Women Attorneys in America, and in 2010 she was honored as one of the 40 most influential attorneys of the decade. 

As full as Warren's schedule undoubtedly is, this amazing woman has stepped up to the plate and made an anti-bulling video for the "It Gets Better Project."  (Senator Brown refused to participate because he's miffed about some unkind but true things the campaign's founder, Dan Savage, once said about him.)

Below you'll see Warren's "It Gets Better" video, followed by a clip in which Warren talks about taxing the wealthy:

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Money Quote from the second video:  "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.  You built a factory out there, good for you.  But I want to be clear - You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for.  You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate.  You are safe in your factories because of police forces and firemen the rest of us pay for...  Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea - God bless.  Keep a big hunk of it.  But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay for the next kid who comes along."  (Warren isn't talking showering their offspring with limitless wealth.)

Interestingly, Elizabeth Warren, who supports the Occupy Wall Street Movement, was a Republican until the mid-1980s.  She says:  "I was a Republican because I thought that those were the people who best supported markets. I think that is not true anymore...  The people on Wall Street broke this country. And they did it one lousy mortgage at a time. It happened more than three years ago, and there has still been no basic accountability, and there has been no real effort to fix it. That's why I want to run for the United States Senate."

Elizabeth Warren on Social Issues

Karen Suffredini, executive director of MassEquality, reminds us of Warren's commitment to equality:   Elizabeth Warren shows that she understands the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.  Last month, Elizabeth Warren announced her support for marriage equality; repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act which discriminates against married same-sex couples (Brown supports DOMA); passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act with full protections for transgender residents; safe schools for LGBT youth; and full support for LGBT families. These positions are consistent with the legacy of the US Senate seat for which she is running, as well as the values of Massachusetts voters.

Warren would make a splendid future President of the United States.  (Political caricatures, top, courtesy Kerry Waghorn)