Friday, October 28, 2011
Any Democrat facing an election battle
Would do well to spend some time, like Dana Milbank did, with the Elizabeth Warren campaign.
By the time the candidate arrived for the meeting – a prosaic organizing session for volunteers -- there were nearly 300 people crammed into Local 7 to catch a glimpse of her. When she took the stage, a sea of cameras and smartphones rose, as if at a rock concert.Populism, loud and proud, is the way to win. Winning the hearts and minds of the people will beat out the other side every time, no matter how much money they spend. Don't believe me, just ask the US military.
The source of the ardor is no mystery: Warren’s unapologetic populism and her fervent belief that corporations should be held to account for the economic collapse. Part Pat Moynihan, part Erin Brockovich, she has revived the energy of the left in a way no other Democrat has, including President Obama.
“We live in an America that has hammered, chipped and squeezed the middle class,” she told a crowd in Newton, Mass., while the government “has said to large corporations that you don’t have to pay anything in taxes.”
“Elizabeth,” a woman in the crowd gushed during the question time, “I’m so excited.” But what, the woman asked, would Warren do about the dysfunctional Congress?
Warren recounted her work creating Obama’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in defiance of “the largest lobbying force ever assembled on the face of the earth.” Instead of heeding advice to settle for “something at the margins,” Warren said, “my view on this was [to] get out there and fight for it.”
The questioner could not contain herself. “Yes!” she cried out.
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