Whatever Happened to Elizabeth Warren?
Looking back on the 2020 presidential race, Joe Biden was probably the only Democrat who could’ve beaten Trump (a depressing assessment of America’s political psyche), but Elizabeth Warren was clearly the best candidate to lead the country out of its economic morass. I understand why President Biden can’t pluck her out of the 50-50 Senate for his Cabinet or some other high post. (Massachusetts weirdly has a Republican governor who would tip the Senate back to Mitch McConnell’s control if Warren vacated her Senate seat.) But why did Senator Amy Klobuchar get picked as the host of the Inaugural ceremony instead of Warren? I’d much rather have seen the solid voice of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in that high-profile ceremonial role than the bland voice of Midwestern centrism — a woman who not only drew fewer Democratic primary votes than Warren, but had to drop out of the running for VP because of her racist record as a Minneapolis DA. (A woman of color who eagerly locked up black people when SHE was a prosecutor proved more politically acceptable.)
Elizabeth Warren came to mind again because a recent article in the January 18 issue of The New Yorker reminds us that Senator Warren has been fighting for working people for a long time. Back in 2015, she introduced the Schedules That Work Act, which would’ve prevented service employers from firing their workers for asking for regular hours and compelled them to give two-weeks notice of any changes to their schedules. “The bill never had a chance of passing,” Jill Lepore notes in the magazine. It never even came up for a vote in the Senate millionaires club, even after it was reintroduced in 2017 and 2019.
Warren has tilted at windmills on behalf of working people for many years. Even before she was in the Senate, she clashed with then Senator Biden over the crushing power that the credit card industry — which Biden championed — wielded over struggling Americans. Biden graciously gave her props for putting up a good (if losing) populist fight. Old Joe is nothing if not gracious, even when serving the financial elite. But now, as he tries to be the new FDR to revive America’s blasted economy, he needs to surround himself with true-blue progressives like Warren.
So, yes, keep Elizabeth Warren in the Senate, because we need every Democratic senator (especially progressive ones). But let’s also bring her into the White House limelight where she belongs as an influential economic advisor. Warren was a Biden loyalist when it counted, after she dropped out of the race, much to the fury of Bernie supporters. She was effusively loyal again after Biden’s inauguration, declaring, “Here we sit tonight, and we have a decent man as president of the United States, one who believes in the competency of government.”
It’s time for Biden to repay the compliments. Colorizing the Cabinet was a good move on Joe’s part. But he must also bring smart, aggressive progressives into his brain trust. It’s the only way he can deliver on his bold economic promises and undercut the phony populism of MAGA Republicanism.
