While it remains to be seen if Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will seek out the highest office in the land in 2016, a Warren presidential candidacy could be very interesting to watch. Some say she’s too liberal to win over independent voters with a more-conservative bent, but stranger things have happened in the three-ring circus that is American politics.
Here are five reasons why we just might want to elect Elizabeth Warren president — assuming she actually runs.
1. She Could Bust Up Political Dynasties
Yes, yes, Warren has already stated that she’s not going to run for president, but that could change. She wouldn’t be the first person in political history to say “Not me!” and then turn around and run at the last minute. Do you really want to see Hillary Clinton, and possibly Jeb Bush, duking it out come election time? A Warren run could break up the political dynasties — on the right and the left— that so many people adore (and others abhor), but probably aren’t all that healthy for a democracy that some would still like to describe as “vibrant.”
2. She’ll Infuriate the Right
A liberal woman with claims of Native American heritage (unsubstantiated or not) could very well cause the conservative right to blow a gasket. You already know how well they handled a mixed-race president who wasn’t half as liberal as they needed him to be in order to justify their weekly outrages. Warren really is that liberal. And did I mention that she’s a woman? Could be fun to see a staunch conservative’s worst nightmare elected chief executive. Bill O’Reilly just might yearn for the good old days, when someone more conservative, like Obama, was president. And the irony here is that Warren, the darling of the left, used to be a Republican.
3. She Has Big Brains
She’s really smart. Now that we’ve gotten used to a smart president again, it would be great if we could keep the tradition going. To be fair, Hilary, the heiress apparent, is uber intelligent as well. Warren’s advantages here are her fresh eyes, less political baggage and the fact that she doesn’t seem to mind going on the attack, using her pedigrees from attending Rutgers School of Law and teaching at Harvard Law School to inform her focused assaults. Brains and a courageous heart.
4. She Takes Wall Street to Task
Many people lament the power amassed by the one percent. While it might be cathartic for us lowly peons to point out the mind-blowing wealth gaps that are growing larger every day, Warren is a politician who has shown that she’s willing to take on the entrenched financial powers that be. (Public Enemy’s anthem “Fight the Power” should be blasting inside of your noggin right now.)
From her opposition to the CRomnibus bill, which lets banks once again take dicey bets with federally insured funds, to sounding the alarm over the appointment of Antonio Weiss (a man with deep Wall Street ties) to the Treasury Department, Warren is keeping watch over the moneyed elite. While she doesn’t win every argument, at least she’s informing the rest of us about what we’re possibly going to lose.
5. She’ll Fire Up the Progressive Base
How many times have you heard about how the conservative base comes out to vote, while progressive liberals … I don’t know, are too busy growing organic mushrooms or protesting the de facto two-party system to be bothered to head out (or mail in their ballots, how fricking easy is that?) to vote? Even if she ran, but didn’t win the nomination, Elizabeth Warren could change the nature of the conversations being had in the Democratic Party. Even MoveOn.org is getting behind her non-existent campaign, encouraging her to run.
Come on, Warren, fire up those liberals and give them some electoral mojo. You can do it. Just run. It’ll be hard work and heartbreaking at times, of course, but also a hell of a lot of fun.
Carl Pettit is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.