Hope From Massachusetts

It was short and sweet last Wednesday morning when Elizabeth Warren announced (video, which you probably already have seen, below; text from Chris Bowers at DailyKos)

I'm gonna do this. I'm going to run for the United State Senate, and the reason is straightforward. Middle class families have been chipped at, hacked at, squeezed and hammered for a generation now, and I don't think Washington gets it.

Washington is rigged for big corporations that hire armies of lobbyists. A big company like GE pays nothing in taxes and we're asking college students to take on even more debt to get an education? We're telling seniors they may have to learn to live on less? It isn't right, and it's the reason I'm running for the United State Senate.

You know, I grew up on the ragged edge of the middle class, and I know it's hard out there. I fought all my life for working families, and I've stood up to some pretty powerful interests. Those interests are going to line up against this campaign, and that's why I need you.

Go to elizabethwarren.com, sign up, get involved, be part of this.

We have a chance to help rebuild America's middle class. We have a chance to put Washington on the side of families. We can do this, together.

Two days later, while noting that he has contributed $50 to Warren's nascent campaign, a DailyKos blogger remarked

The only reason Warren can be the hot candidate right now is because the economy is such a major issue. In 2004, when the war in Iraq was the topic of the day, I don't know if a candidate like Warren would have made any sense to the voters. And if she gets elected, the political landscape will change. Foreign policy will eventually take over the headlines again, and we will have to see how she adjusts.

There is little need to worry. Iraq is not a big issue now is not likely to be so in thirteen months. The wars there and in Afghanistan matter so little politically that Republicans, as conservatives, generally support both ventures while Democrats, as liberals, are far less enthusiastic. Still, Republicans give President Obama little credit for his relatively muscular foreign policy while Democrats assign little blame. And the President remains, even with continuing economic woes, fairly popular among Democrats, rather unpopular among Republicans. There is little interest in that region, whether among politicians or voters.

We don't know the views of the Harvard law professor toward foreign policy nor on a wide range of cultural issues. But we do know what she thinks about the growing dominance in American society of powerful corporations and their relationship to the deterioration of the middle class. The figure behind creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Board, Ms. Warren hasconsistently demanded that the interests of the public be put ahead those of powerful special interests. If she is successful in unseating Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, it is unlikely she will be assigned to the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, or even Environment and Public Works committees, but rather to those in which she can bring her expertise and passion. Her influence will be far greater in the areas of banking, finance, and housing than elsewhere.

As we have found in Barack Obama, there is a limit to the impact any one individual can have on the federal government, "Washington," or the nation's affairs generally. But Elizabeth Warren would bring to the U.S. Senate deeper knowledge and greater commitment than did Senate or presidential candidate Barack Obama. Moreover, it's a safe bet there will be no candidate for the United States Senate in this election cycle who would be a more effective spokesperson, not for the "change we can believe in" (?) but for the change the American people need.

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