I Am DB

The video clip below may be familiar to you already, having been making the rounds online over the last few days. It features Elizabeth Warren, currently running for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, talking to a group of supporters about one of the Republicans’ favorite bullshit buzzwords (or in this case, buzz-phrase): class warfare. Whenever President Obama or anyone else talks about higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, the Republicans start throwing a hissyfit and claim that such a policy is harmful to (and here’s an even more popular Republican bullshit buzz-phrase) job creators. Yes, the wealthiest Americans are job creators. And what success they’ve had over the last few years, creating all those jobs that have kept America’s unemployment rate so high. Let’s just watch the video, before I stray too far…

Until this clip appeared on the web, I had no idea Warren was running for Congress. She is seeking Ted Kennedy’s former seat, currently held by Republican Scott Brown, who was elected after Kennedy’s death in 2009.

I’m familiar with Warren from her TV appearances on The Daily Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Charlie Rose and from Michael Moore’s film, Capitalism: A Love Story. I’ve always enjoyed seeing her interviewed, not just because she’s a champion for common sense and consumer rights, but because she often comes off as just a bit daffy. Actually, I think it’s bemusement; she comes off as bemused that the steps to reforming our broken financial system are met with such stubborn resistance. She’s been in the thick of those reform efforts since 2008, when she was appointed to chair the Congressional Oversight Committee to monitor the distribution of the bank bailout money through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). In September 2010, she was appointed by Obama to help implement the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created a few months earlier when he signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. (For what it’s worth, Republicans in Congress were trying to strip the new bureau of its power before it was even up and running. Because apparently protecting consumers is a bad thing.)

I’m both pleased and distressed that she’s running for office. On one hand, we need more people like Warren in politics to help enact thoughtful legislation that will benefit all Americans, not just the ones in the highest income brackets. But of course, this sentiment assumes  that our government actually works and that politicians can accomplish anything meaningful. I don’t have a lot of faith in that possibility anymore, and I wonder if Warren couldn’t do more good outside of public office. I don’t come across too many members of Congress that aren’t, at best, posturing fools. And it seems that even when there is someone to put our faith in – someone who seems to have integrity and who vocally stands up for what’s right – they end up letting us down. I’m looking at you, Anthony Weiner.

I don’t see Elizabeth Warren getting caught up in any sex scandals, but I worry that her decency and pragmatism will be swallowed up by our ineffectual political system. Still, I suppose it’s a good thing to try to get more people like Warren into Congress if there’s ever going to be a chance of improving things.

Let’s hope the people of my original home state will do the right thing come November. And if they don’t, at least we know that Warren will continue to be a voice of reason and a champion of the middle class, wherever she is.

This is an April 2009 appearance Warren made on The Daily Show that has stuck out in my mind, partly for the clear explanation she offers (in the second clip) on how deregulation of the banking industry led to our national financial meltdown.

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Vodpod videos no longer available.