Since the primaries are starting soon, I'm going to make my case for Elizabeth Warren, the person I think would make the best next President of the United States.Warren grew up in a relatively poor Republican family in Oklahoma. Through hard work, she made her way up from a commuter school to teach at Harvard Law School, during a time of few such opportunities for women.
As a professor, Warren challenged her own conservative misconceptions about poverty and discovered they were wrong, and the evidence made her change her mind. A rare thing!
During the market crash of the 2000s, Warren was a major voice on the side of the Operation Wall Street protesters who made us aware of the 1%. She warned about the 2007-2008 housing market crash and Great Recession. As a private citizen, she successfully fought to keep a major Wall Street-friendly figure out of the Obama Administration, and wanted Obama to provide relief to foreclosed mortgage borrowers. Again as a private citizen, she single-handedly designed and pushed through a brand new consumer protection agency, the CFPB. She knows how to wield the levers of executive power and external persaussion.
Warren knows that the major obstacles to progress in the country are corruption in government and business, and inequality resulting from decades of policies catering to the wealthy. She also knows that inequality is intersectional, with marginalized communities held down through bigoted policies, people who need redress and protection. She understands when markets work well with regulation, and when markets do not and need to be replaced (e.g. healthcare). Warren is also pragmatic enough to work with Congress to achieve as much as she can, and she has proven that she surrounds herself with high quality advisers.
Elizabeth Warren is the best choice as the Democratic nominee because she can bring both wings of the Democratic party together, and has a strong claim to speak to the voters who gave Trump a chance in 2016.
Elizabeth Warren is the best choice for President because she has a solid vision of what the country can be, and she has the skills and people to move us in that direction.
Why not others?
Biden is a fine man, but his time has past. I don't think he'll be able to rally the party in the way we need, and he'll be vulnerable as a lifelong politician. And his vote on the 2003 Iraq war, the single biggest American failure of the last three decades, should not be forgotten.
Sanders deserves a lot of credit for waking up the progressive wing of the party. I worry that his combination of being a lifelong politician and a combative theory of change, as well as many of his biggest supporters being proud socialists and even Communists, could spell trouble. His age also means his VP pick, who we have no say over, will be extremely important, and some of his staff picks have had me concerned.
Buttigieg is young and smart, and could easily be president one day. I think he needs to spend some time gaining experience representing a larger population first, because I see him falling into normal political frames and relying on consultant-speak to get by.
Klobuchar has had a strong track record as senator and is clearly a skilled politician. However, her reputation for poor treatment of subordinates could get in the way of running the executive branch, and I can't say I know what her vision for America is.
Bloomberg is a billionaire who bought his way into the election and has trouble criticizing authoritarian regimes he does business with. Let's not do that again.
Steyer is a billionaire who has helped liberal causes and gets some credit for keeping the impeachment flame going, but who also bought his way onto the debate stages. He also has no experience and his ideas are not well developed.
Yang has some unique ideas that are worth thinking about, such as universal basic income. But he has no real experience in government, and it shows. I hope he tries to run for a lower office. He could also be an interesting president one day.
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