Progressive wing waves Elizabeth Warren banner

[n2doc]

Pushes her views despite promise of noncandidacy

By Noah Bierman

WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren has pledged she will not seek the White House in 2016, but that has not stopped diehard Warren boosters from promoting her political profile in presidential primary states, saying she is best positioned to push the Democratic Party to the left.

A group called Progressive Change Campaign Committee is waging the most visible of these pro-Warren crusades, training volunteers, meeting with labor leaders in New Hampshire, and handing out stickers with Warren’s name.

But there are costs to party unity, as the Massachusetts senator becomes a central figure in an intensifying battle for the Democratic Party’s soul.

...

“We’re going to make sure that every Democrat who runs for president is forced to say whether they agree with Elizabeth Warren on key issues, like expanding Social Security benefits and more Wall Street reform,” said Adam Green, the 37-year-old cofounder of the group.

more

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/12/16/group-boosting-elizabeth-warren-widening-rifts-democratic-party/ErrRkP3T62Oij4QeFLEAQJ/story.html

[democrank]

8. K & R

Please reread reply #3.

~PEACE~

[djean111]

2. "Pushes her views despite promise of noncandidacy"

I don't think the Third-Wayers and Hillary cheerleaders grasp this as yet - maybe dimly, though, because of that WSJ third way arrogance. The curtain slipped a little on that op-ed - the Third Way wants to deep-six any deviation from its (actually, deeply economically Conservative) intentions.

It is Warren's ideas on key issues that are important, not Warren herself at this point. It is like the TWers assume if they keep saying Warren is not running, we all will settle for Hillary's corporatism. Nope.
In a political culture where smearing a prospective, unwanted by TPTB, candidate is the go-to tactic of choice, they are missing the boat.

Sooner or later, I think sooner, this will bite the Third Way in the ass - "Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time" Harry S Truman.
The enemy here is not Liberals and Progressives, it is the Third Way types. People who vote GOP are not going to vote Dem no matter what Hillary campaigns on, either. So this seems, really, an attempt to wrench what tatters of the liberal wing of the Dem party are remaining to the 1%-pandering right.

Also want to mention, as a woman, that the thought of anyone expecting my vote just because they are a woman makes me nauseous, and makes me wonder if others see the irony and hypocrisy when they read that smug assumption. I want the best PERSON for the job.

[Kermitt Gribble]

3. Excellent post!

This movement is all about the issues. All the Third Wayers care about is "winning". Winning doesn't mean anything if you have to abandon traditional Party values to get there.

[djean111]

4. Thanks! And doesn't it seem very weird that we are expected to abandon her views just

because she is not a candidate? Tells me how much liberal views are valued, plus tells me how the Third Way expects us all to roll over and accept the corporatism - which is voting against our best interests, by the way! - just because they have their recognizable "name" who is perhaps even more corporate than Obama.

They care about winning because when they win, they get to advance their Conservative corporate agenda under the false flag of Democrat.

(edited for spelling)

[NorthCarolina]

9. The TW'ers care about winning so they can continue to push their Wall Street agenda.

There's still the Social Security trust fund to rob, Medicare/Medicaid to be done away with, and many, many more trade deals to pen. The likes of Warren, Sanders and Grayson pose a threat that will be dealt with lest they blow decades of "work" in moving America towards a capitalist utopia. I believe the Hillary campaign is already at work in addressing at the Warren threat ( Who Is Financing the Smears Against Elizabeth Warren? )

[dreamnightwind]

16. Great article

Thanks for the link, trying to add it to my sig line, let's see if it works, if not I'll edit this

[tomg]

5. Great post, and it is encapsulated in

one line: "It is Warren's ideas on key issues that are important, not Warren herself". This is what makes Elizabeth Warren such a threat to the Third Way - her ideas and her commitment to them.

[pangaia]

6. Right. And I think those advocating her views need to really make clear

that it is her VIEWS they are 'pushing,' and not her. or something could backfire..on her. because what the TWers and the right wing will do, as always, is attack the messenger.

[winter is coming]

19. I think that's why the phrase "Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party" has come into vogue.

I'd be happy to vote for Elizabeth Warren, but that's because of the positions she's taken. Some other candidate who can credibly advocate for the same things would also get my vote. I think we'll see continued attempts to try to dismiss EW's positions by saying, ever more shrilly, that EW isn't running, as if EW's positions will "die" with her. Eventually, we'll see Third Way candidates start mouthing ambiguous platitudes meant to be taken as support of EW's views without actually denouncing their corporatist underwriters. We're going to see candidates talking the talk who have no intention of walking the walk, and we'd be well-advised to pay attention to their words/actions before EW's views became trendy.

[JimDandy]

13. Please make this it's own thread. Very good! n/t

[Whisp]

17. ...expecting my vote just because they are a woman makes me nauseous...

yes, yes and yes.

I think there are a fair number of feminists that back Hillary up just because they want to see First Woman President, no matter what she stands for. I'm already feeling a certain kind of chill over that.

Huge, big mistake to pick gender over character and policies and poor past performance.

[winter is coming]

20. "First Woman President" is the absolute last thing on my list.

Two candidates would have to be absolutely equal for me to even consider that as a factor.

[rgbecker]

7. Good Morning, Here's my banner.

Call me a Progressive.

[spooky3]

10. I support BOTH H. Clinton and Warren for

Different reasons. I hope they both run.

[NBachers]

11. Soon the media will be howling about "republican unity vs. the Democratic civil war."

"All-out war has broken out between the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and their stable political base. As liberals copy Tea Party activists in trying to force their ideas on the Party establishment, the Democratic prospects for gains in the 2014 mid-term elections become even more dismal."

[djean111]

14. The party establishment has been forcing their ideas onto liberal democrats.

Nice to see liberals compared to teabaggers...................very interesting, though, seeing how progressives are intended to be demonized and marginalized.

None of this is the progressive wing's fault - I have been watching the Democratic party slide to the right for a long time, and I refuse to accept it meekly, for the sake of what? More Corporatism with a different letter on the game jersey.
Let the media howl, who cares.

"trying to force their ideas on the Third Way party establishment? Bullshit. The Third Way has been slithering onto the Democratic Party, and now they are "the establishment"?

Neither party has a stable base, really, unless that means people who will vote party line no matter what is being done to them. We laugh at the GOP voters for doing that, if I recall correctly.
That particular "center" cannot hold. Even with name-calling and attempted shaming or whatever.

[bvar22]

15. The problem with that comparison is that the "Tea Party" is a small minority,

while the Progressive Caucus is the largest Caucus in the Democratic Party,
and yet has no voice in the White House or Party Leadership.

*Not a single member of the Progressive Caucus was given a position of power in the Obama Administration in 2008.

*The MAJORITY of Democrats voted AGAINST the Iraq War Resolution,
yet not a single Democrat who voted AGAINST the IWR was appointed to a position of power, or given a position in the Obama White House.

The Progressive Caucus, the LARGEST Caucus in the Democratic Party, has been completely marginalized by the Money/Wall Street conservative minority Caucus of the Democratic Party.


THAT is the difference.

The DLC New Team
Progressives Need NOT Apply
[/font]
(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

[ReRe]

12. K&R

[whathehell]

18. My heart leaps with hope every time I see or hear her...

I think she's going to have a major impact on the party and, hopefully, the whole country.