No more liberal apologies as Elizabeth Warren takes the offensive

[Playinghardball]

Elizabeth Warren is cast as many things: a populist, a left-winger, the paladin against the bankers and the rich, the Democrats’ alternative to Hillary Clinton, the policy wonk with a heart.

… Since the Reagan era, Democrats have been so determined to show how pro-market and pro-business they are that they’ve shied away from pointing out that markets could not exist without government, that the well-off depend on the state to keep their wealth secure and that participants in the economy rely on government to keep the marketplace on the level and to temper the business cycle’s gyrations.

Warren doesn’t back away from any of these facts. In her new book, “A Fighting Chance,” she recalls the answer she gave to a voter during a living-room gathering in Andover, Mass., that quickly went viral.

More here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-no-more-liberal-apologies-as-elizabeth-warren-takes-the-offensive/2014/05/18/2e98c8c8-dd08-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html

http://theobamadiary.com/

[Scuba]

1. But she's not running for you-know-what!

[Electric Monk]

2. k&r

[pacalo]

3. Republicans are too rigid in their thinking to lead this country.

Warren tells of meeting with Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), a former FBI agent, to talk about the consumer agency. “After a bit,” she reports, “he cut me off so he could make one thing clear: He didn’t believe in government.”

That seemed strange coming from the graduate of a public university and a veteran of both the military and a government agency, though Warren didn’t press him then. “But someday I hoped to get a chance to ask him: Would you rather fly an airplane without the Federal Aviation Administration checking air traffic control? Would you rather swallow a pill without the Food and Drug Administration testing drug safety? Would you rather defend our nation without a military and fight our fires without our firefighters?”

(...)

But doesn’t being pro-government mean you’re anti-business? Well, no, Warren says, quite the opposite. “There’s nothing pro-business about crumbling roads and bridges or a power grid that can’t keep up,” she writes. “There’s nothing pro-business about cutting back on scientific research at a time when our businesses need innovation more than ever. There’s nothing pro-business about chopping education opportunities when workers need better training.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-no-more-liberal-apologies-as-elizabeth-warren-takes-the-offensive/2014/05/18/2e98c8c8-dd08-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html