...I took out an oversize IM A WARREN DEMOCRAT button that her campaign has been handing out at events and put it on the table. What does she think that phrase means? Oh, it means youre somebody who is willing to get in the fight for an America that doesnt just work for the rich and the powerful but works for everybody else. And its both halves of that. Its both what youre fighting for, and its about a fight, Warren told me, sounding about as off the cuff as she gets.
At least for now, no other campaign is trying this message. Theres no Kamala Harris Democrat. No Cory Booker Democrat. No Pete Buttigieg Democrat, Jay Inslee Democrat, Beto ORourke Democrat, Amy Klobuchar Democrat. From the moment he entered the race, former Vice President Joe Biden has stressed, and does so every time he finds the slightest opening to squeeze it in, that he is an Obama-Biden Democrat. When I brought that last one up to Warren, she rolled her eyes twice and slightly tilted her head to catch up with them, a sort of silent Uh-huh and What else ya got?
Warren said shes not here to criticize other Democrats, but she made a point that many have made about Biden: Its hard to move peoples hearts, or their feet to the polls, with lines like I think I have the most far-reaching plan thats in reach, as he described his climate-change plan in New Hampshire last week.
Some people think small change, incremental change, is how we will move America in a better direction; I think big change is easier, Warren told me, ticking through some of her biggest proposals, from universal child care to canceling student debt. If put into place, they would make for the biggest active restructuring of the American economy in history.
Its easier to get more people into the fight, and its easier to get more people to pay attention to how it would touch their lives. And thats our path to winning. So this is the Ask for big or ask for little. Ask for big!
...Elizabeth Lindquist, a 51-year-old oncology pharmacist, poured her heart out to Warren on the photo line about a friend who wishes Warren would stop using the term special needs. The senator didnt quite give the answer Lindquist wanted, but she was still swooning. I asked her about her im a warren democrat tank top.
It means Im not a conservative Democrat, Im not a corporate Democrat, she told me, deciding she was going to say the next part too. And it also means that Im a Democratas opposed to the candidate I organized for in four states in 2016
and
I wish hadnt run this time.
...Warren is tapping into something distinctly 2020 in the Democratic electorate: frustration with the system, deepened by Trump, yet also an exhaustion with big talk, and suspicion of more chaos that could follow from another revolution, like the one Sanders is demanding. People may want to burn down the building, but they want to see the blueprints for what comes next. Its the planning and the ability to explain it and get things across, Ben Silver, a 29-year-old, told me after Warrens town hall in Peterborough. Its about telling people exactly what I believe is broken and what we can do to fix it, Warren explained to reporters a few minutes later. The No. 1 thing I hear afterwards when people come through to do selfies is, This gives me hope. Hope because it really is a path forward. Its not pretend; its not hand-waving.
...Warren knows shes an odd fit for a movement leader. The difference now is, I see the path, she told me. I am an unexpected person to lead this movement. But I know that its right.
More at
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/warren-democrat-2020/594430/