As we begin the new year and witness the first major volley in 2020 presidential politics with Elizabeth Warren beginning her run (spoiler alert: in the summer of 2020 she’ll be an asterisk), it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which the bankruptcy expert (if indeed he is still around) doesn’t get crushed. At first blush, this should bring relief, if not outright joy, to most Americans. But this relief could easily be short-lived if the Democrats are empty and partisan. In short, they might look good when compared to the total depravity, ineptitude and ignorance of the bankruptcy expert. But this setting of the bar to the lowest reaches of the universe has almost nothing to do with governing well.
The Democrats need to escape the allure of empty rhetoric to please the masses. Someone like Elizabeth Warren embodies this simplistic folly as well as anyone, though I guarantee there are other Democrats waiting in the wing to out-Warren Warren. To Warren, she never met a banker that wasn’t corrupt and those individuals who are embittered by their lot in life have no doubt, in Warren’s opinion, been screwed by the system. Sound familiar, doesn’t it? It’s not that I’m a big fan of bankers or that I don’t feel the richest of the rich and corporations received a huge windfall for absolutely no reason in the Republican cash giveaway they called tax reform. (How’d ya like how that turned out? Surprise, surprise. Corporations kept the cash largely for themselves and their shareholders, as did the 1%, the stock market tanked, there was no much needed infrastructure plan and then the GOP went after food stamps. Shameful. But typical.) Still, the economy is complex with most of us mere mortals just trying to make a buck; hardly grounds to demonize. Or canonize. So the right person for the White House will show a path to common cause , as opposed to dividing us.
Run, Amy, run.