Elizabeth Warren has started her campaign for the Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, with scathing attacks on GOP tax cuts for the rich, and attacks on Republican talking points of Obama’s so-called “class warfare.” Challenging Tea Party, Republican, and conservative ideology, Warren, the former White House financial reform advisor whose candidacy for the head of the agency she created — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — was blocked by Republicans beholden to the financial industry too afraid to give her the power to regulate hand investigate them, invoked Rousseau’s “Social Contract” to communicate her policies.
Warren’s Senate candidacy has been seen by some as the only chance the Democrats have to hold the Senate next year, so if you have an opportunity to support her, I strongly recommend it. Also, she’s awesomely smart and her economic policies and theories are what America needs. If you’re not sure — watch.
Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly, offers this transcript and intelligent commentary at the end:
“I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever,’†she said. “No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.
“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.
“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.â€
I mention this for a few reasons. First, for those wondering why Warren has a strong base of supporters who adore her, this clip offers a big hint. Second, if there are lingering concerns about whether Warren could be an effective speaker on the stump, I think those questions are being answered.
And third, if more Democrats were able to make the case for the underlying social contract as effectively, our discourse would be vastly less mind-numbing.
For the record, I have a special place in my heart for Elizabeth Warren, and for anyone who invokes Rousseau.