Biden-Warren looks like a winning ticket to me!
45
Every single comment on this piece is just nothing but love and support and admiration for Warren... I can’t seem to find a single person who tells the truth about her here... She is a pandering phony. She can and will be challenged in primary. To loathe her is not to hate women... it is to hate a faker.
21
Biden/Warren. That's it.
27
Liz Warren is a republican, no not a Trump republican.
5
No matter who Biden picks for VP, it will outrage some segment of society due to identity politics run amok. While they once were a tool for social justice, identity politics have become myopic and narcissistic, unable to transcend over self-identification for the good of the community or planet If Biden picks Warren, then the African American community will feel betrayed. If he picks a while male, no matter how liberal, the ticket will be perceived as two old white chauvinists. If he picks an African American or a Hispanic running mate, it will make the racist segment who voted for Trump double down their loyalty. Identity politics have become tribal warfare which divides us all, making it impossible to unite.
20
This piece brings back painful memories. I grew up in Chicago, and watched in horror as the entrenched Democratic party machine waged a white nationalist campaign against the first black mayor, Harold Washington [Rahm Emmanuel got his start in this campaign]. I lived long enough in the inbred little state of Delaware to see the complacency, nepotism, and corruption of the Biden machine, and their supine relations to the big banks. And I went to enough California Dem Party conventions to see the pinnacle of a corrupt political machine. [google Eric Bauman] That's why Biden's rise is so depressing. We need someone to burn down the party, and rebuild it from the ground up. We need 100 Elizabeth Warrens.
35
Mr. Wilkinson's central argument is spot on. Biden and his team better take off the rose-colored glasses, adopt some Elizabeth Warren fighting spirit, and prep for the blitzkrieg of propaganda, misinformation and lies that is coming. Republicans play dirty and they cheat. We know that. It's baked into their DNA (think Nixon, Roger Stone, Karl Rove, William Barr, and many more). It's already clear that Trump and his right-wing conspiracy chorus is ready to start eviscerating Mr. Biden on corruption allegations regarding Hunter Biden in Ukraine, and on Biden's own mental acuity at age 77. And that's not including what they'll make up out of whole cloth. It's going to get really ugly. No low is too low for the Trump and the Republicans to go. I would hate to see Biden get "swiftboated" now that the Democrats are coalescing and a path to the presidency appears achievable. This is of real concern starting now through the general election. So please, Joe, take off the glasses and throw down the gloves. The Republicans want to crush you and the Democratic Party, not make deals with you.
28
I love Elizabeth Warren!
28
How ridiculous. Sanders wasn’t the answer and Warren wasn’t the answer. The voters have decided, and demonizing Biden isn’t the answer. Warrenbro.
7
Amy K will royally annoyed after what was promised
3
Amy for Veep.
...and...
Elizabeth for Secretary of the Treasury.
12
Well said! Thank you.
4
Warren told us Bloomberg is the enemy. I rest my case.
3
200% right!
5
Joe Biden and vice President Oprah: This is the ticket. Goodby Trump.
3
Ah yes, the woman who calls the health plan of Amy Klobuchar a Post-it . No thanks, I dont want another ego like that of Donald Trump.
10
A capital idea; well done.
5
Wilkinson has a distaste habits common to the Punditocracy. He truly believes he is smarter than the rest of us.
First of all, Elizabeth Warren is brilliant and self-confident, and not likable.
Secondly, Wilkinson pretends the ills of governance and economics can't be fixed by liberals because too many of us are sleepwalking. And that the President wields the clout to make Big Structural Change. Neither is valid.
Lastly, Joe Biden has and will continue to surround himself with great people, unlike Trump. To say Joe Biden can't grasp the core issues that warren prescribes is false. Moderation is key. And taking both chambers of Congress is paramount.
11
Couldn't agree more with this excellent editorial. The veritable house of our democracy is being undermined daily by a putrid torrential flood of indecencies that are clearly engineered to benefit the self-dealing power grabs of Trump, McConnell and their sycophants. Rebuilding the house will require immense structural foundation work by the new administration, least it fall apart. Something that Bernie- God bless him!- doesn't have the experience or proclivity to oversee.
12
That Warren has refused to endorse Sanders reminded me what I don't like about her.
I've always been suspicious how someone could be a libertarian Republican for much of her adult life and then suddenly become a progressive Democrat. Yes, I know people can change how they view things but I have difficulty accepting anybody who was a Republican during both the Nixon and Reagan administrations and didn't see the damage they were doing to the country.
And as far as her not endorsing him because she believes he called her a liar, let us recall that Kamela Harris endorsed Biden after essentially calling him tone death on racial issues.
8
I'm with P - Warren = great VP choice (she was my Pres. choice); Biden will be good for America and at 72 and still working I'm really getting angry at people who diss the older and experienced. Ageism is disgraceful and making fun of Biden in the light of the obscene damage Trump is doing to our country is not funny.
20
Warren wants too much power in the hands of big government. Having centralized power telling you what to do in every aspect of business and private life doesn’t work. This is what causing the problems is Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba. East Germany became prosperous after they became a capitalist country.
Sanders is too radical, but so is Warren. Biden is weak and will do what the strongest faction in the party will tell him to do. Lets hope he won’t get elected.
America just missed a great opportunity by not voting for my Senator. She was tainted by the accusation of being "Bernie light". Nothing could be further from reality. And she is hardly "anti-business" either. Democrats have to some degree, bought into the Tea Party rationale that big government is bad government, and allowed prudent regulations to be pruned by corporate lobbyists. Senator Warren is very smart, and knows where the bodies are buried. This former Mid-west Republican has the heart of FDR and the brains of no President we've elected so far. I hope that she is soon the President...of the Senate. That would be a fitting consolation prize.
23
So, Elizabeth Warren is going to be the candidate, right?
I mean, your column implies there's nobody better and, more importantly, she's America's choice, right?
Pay no attention to those voters in South Carolina, Texas, Michigan, Missouri and a bunch of other states. They don't count.
Nothing against Liz, but she didn't get the votes. There's a reason that transcends any theory regarding her having pushed Biden toward the proper agenda.
At this point, most people could probably care less about actual issues. All we want is the skunk out of the White House, and the consensus is Biden can get that done and re-sanitize the place.
9
Maybe Sanders will do better and deny Biden a majority before the convention. Then maybe all the common sense people will pick Warren. Sad that the best qualified with the best plans is finishing a distant third.
McConnell is already licking his chops on continuing the "rampant corruption " of regulatory capture he and his Party have been sponsoring in the Senate.
6
She was the best candidate. I lost faith in the judgement of Americans- again- seeing her slip. I bet every person who harassed her and her supporters didn’t even research her.
The internet is a dangerous place. I watched her torn down by rabid Bernie cult members. In real time. As soon as that handshake was denied to their messiah they went for the jugular. It was awful.
Bernie is a terrible leader to allowed so much abuse. It tells me he would have been a terrible president.
14
What is missing? Will, before you can do anything you have to win. Only the VP has shown the capacity to put together the coalition to beat Trump. After that you can fight over what should be and how to get It done. Folks have to participate and vote! This time like their life dependent on it. Time and time again the VP has been counted out. The voters like him. His dignity, decency and honesty. The VP knows how to get things done and the voters know that. With him at the helm America will truly be great and so will the world.
,
2
Elizabeth Warren should be Joe Biden's VP candidate. That would unite the party more than anything else. And unity is what is needed for the country as well.
13
Indeed ! Without her, he would not seek to redeem himself with his Native American origins, come up with plans that he would not be able to explain how to finance and when cornered would not be able to pull his weapons of gender fight.
2
Warren cant peep a word before Sanders have quit the race. Dont push her, she will get there in time.
5
I believe Elizabeth Warren is our generation’s FDR.
16
I'd be extremely surprised if Joe doesn't find a worthy spot in his administration for Elizabeth when he starts to staff up. He knows he's no progressive and there's a significant younger electorate who are and would love to love the Democratic Party for being a party that embraces new ideas as opposed to stagnating in the old.
5
It's way too soon to write off Bernie Sanders.
Joe Biden still needs to get the 1991 delegates to gain the nomination on the first ballot. This seems highly unlikely, if Bernie stays in the race.
The media go on and on about how many STATES Biden is winning, but that's not what counts. It's DELEGATES that the candidates are trying to accumulate.
A lot can happen between now and the Democratic convention in July. Biden could self-destruct. Bernie could win a brokered convention.
If the Democrats nominate Joe Biden, a lot of Bernie's supporters will vote for Trump, just as they did in 2016.
They will feel betrayed, again, by party leadership.
Many young voters will, simply, not vote at all.
I think the Democrats are poised to make the same mistake they made in 2016.
4
This is what those of us who campaigned and supported Warren understood. She had the answer, a real plan to address, our real imbalances. She spoke the truth to power. She was unafraid.
People like Mayor Buttigieg could skate by on being young, white, male and a clean slate upon which people wrote. Yet, he polled better than Warren at times. This is what those of us who campaigned and supported Warren understood. She had the answer, a real plan to address, our real imbalances. She spoke the truth to power. She was unafraid.
People like Mayor Buttigieg could skate by on being young, white, male and a clean slate upon which people wrote. Yet, he polled better than Warren at times.
5
Senator Warren for Majority Leader of the Senate; we need her there as the power of that position is right for her.
8
Ms Warren is the poster girl for the unintended consequence. She wants free tuition. Does anybody think that colleges and universities will lower their tuition costs once the government starts picking up the tab? What problem is she trying to solve? Not enough Russian literature majors?
She says that she’s a capitalist but doesn’t understand that markets must have transparent pricing to function properly. Every program she comes up with hides pricing from the consumer.
In short she would be a disaster.
2
She should stay in the Senate, if she can get the vote; I bet the Republicans are looking to upset her Senate seat.
3
Yes! I fully agree with this article. I like how you speak about Warren targeting big concentrated power that is wreaking havoc in our country. Biden needs a strong woman. Let it be Elizabeth.
10
"Socialists may be in the grip of unworkable, harebrained dogma.."
First of all, Mr Will Wilkinson no doubt fancies himself an intellectual, but he cannot even get the definition of what Sanders is correctly. Sanders may call himself a democratic socialist, but he is simply an FDR style social democrat, similar to what is found in Western Europe. Yet Mr Wilkinson, rather than shedding light, goes for bait, sees instead an opportunity to provide cover for neo-centrists and neo-liberals by using the word to obfuscate.
This use of the word socialist is so, so disrespectful of the people whose support of Sanders and his policies is both far more specifically complex and basic, and why progressives feel that they cannot ever trust neo-liberals to have a fair and honest conversation about what ails this country and the best way to fix it, and why progressives feel that neo-liberals are just interested in "going back to normal", "not changing anything" and ultimately protecting the perks and privileges of the institutional order, the lords of capital and the PMCs.
12
Agreed - I’ve yet to read anything on this topic that’s been so out of touch it’s not even in the right ballpark.
4
Unless we get money out of politics, nothing will change. The system requires Congresspeople and Senators to accept bribes from big money in order to get re-elected. Public financing and a reduction in election time (media would balk at this) are a must to level the playing field.
15
I hope Biden will select Amy Klobachar. In California Kamela Harris is unfortunately not a popular choice with Republicans or Independents. I find it hard to forgive Elizabeth Warren for her vicious, unfounded attacks on Bloomberg who was an excellent major and is a major philanthropist. Sanders and Warren need to wake up to the fact that not all billionaires are created equal. Nor are they the enemy!
5
"Democrats are hungry for reform, not revolution. To oust Mr. Trump and especially to govern effectively, Democrats need a fighting creed that avoids both Mr. Biden’s blinkered complacency and Mr. Sanders’s quixotic hand-waving"
There might be truth to this statement only because Americans have become afraid of big changes even when the country desperately needs it.
Then this thought process is reinforced by conservative writers like Mr. Wilkinson who are quick to tell Democrats what is good for them.
They come out of the woodwork seemingly every day. We have him, Douthat, Friedman, Brooks, Stephens in this paper and Rubin and the other conservatives over at the Washpost doing overtime tag duty on bringing down progressives.
Who needs those loudmouths at Fox entertainment when we have these "responsible" people to represent people in power who don't want policies that might affect their comfortable lifestyles. Bernie and Warren might push for it, Biden will not. So they are lining up behind Biden.
4
In principle, I don't disagree, but Biden is Biden and Warren is Warren. We're getting one and not the other (Warren is not going to demean herself by taking second place and Biden would never insult her by offering it).
That's how it is, for better or worse.
2
Why doesn't Will Wilkinson say what many of us who love Elizabeth Warren want to hear? Elizabeth Warren would be a great VP pick. It would help unite the party and she has the plans and ability to help Biden change what's wrong in this country.
I wrote Biden and told him this, yet what did he do? He tweeted they needed Elizabeth's work in the senate and then immediately said Obamacare would be continued, though in every Democratic poll, the people wanted Medicare for All over not having it.
Biden is like every other politician of the past--no new ideas that will actually make the country better for the people. Real healthcare reform and climate change cannot be put off for another four years. Look at the coronavirus--this is the result of treating mother nature with contempt and a lack of well-funded universal healthcare. We can't return to the past and if Biden doesn't get this, he may not win.
6
Warren would be great as Treasury Secretary. Her knowledge of the banking system and how it went wrong is critical to getting this country back on the right path.
4
When I read and hear arguments about the massive changes in government that are necessary to reform it and make it responsive to the people, I can only scoff.
It's like a comedy in which some bumbling jailbirds hatch an elaborate scheme to escape, not knowing that the door was unlocked the whole time.
The solution to the corruption in the US government isn't complicated.
Billion-dollar campaigns are an obscenity that screams corruption.
Limit campaigns by law to a few months at the most.
In France, which has a much healthier democracy than ours according to the EIU Democracy Index, the presidential election lasts two weeks.
In Australia, which ranks higher on the Index, federal elections last six weeks and voting is compulsory.
In Norway, which tops the Democracy Index, political ads on radio and TV are banned, and most campaign money comes from public funds proportionally allocated based on each party's representation in parliament.
Corruption thrives on lengthy campaigns requiring massive war chests because of our uncapped election spending and the disgrace of Citizens United. Short campaigns without TV and radio ads won't require a lot of money and can be funded with public money. Political ads on social media should be banned too.
The rest of the corruption comes from lobbying. Ban it.
Wasn't that easy?
15
I have to admit, it heartens me to read an op-ed like this in the New York Times. There was a time not so long ago that mainstream politicians and the press struggled to admit that we had a serious problem with entrenched, economically-based corruption in this country.
I'm not clear on where exactly Mr. Wilkinson parts from Sanders, who he says "was never the answer," aside from disapproval of Sander's adoption of the label "socialist" and his refusal to consider ending the filibuster. The "Warrenist" platform Wilkinson describes is very similar to Sander's as well.
But I'll give Warren this: Sanders talked about corruption at least as much, but Warren made at the central focus of her campaign, as it must be, because it is preventing us from dealing with everything else. Biden would be foolish indeed to leave Warren untapped. If he's smart, he'll offer Sanders and olive branch and a position as well, bringing more progressive voters into the fold.
(Now's a really bad time to rub progressive's noses in Sanders' loss. Not a good strategy to unify the party and get Sanders supporters voting for Biden, and isn't that the goal?)
4
Wow. I never realized that we small and medium sized companies were "rigging the system". I naively believed we were providing good jobs and trying to earn an honest living. Silly me.
We risk our hard-earned money (after paying income taxes) to try to grow our businesses, provide more good paying jobs here in America, and yes, earn a profit too. Yet, apparently, we are the bad guys according to Mr. Wilkinson.
Perhaps Mr. Wilkinson should found a business, put his money at risk, work long hours for many years, and then tell us how he "rigged the system"?
3
How many times did this author use the word "fight" before his horrible last sentence about"blood and teeth" on the Senate floor? Many Americans are weary of all the fighting. Can't we find the voice of reason and come together as educated people to solve the myriad problems that face this nation...as part of the world? The candidates we had to choose from are appalling. Where are the statesmen (or women)? Folks who will think of solutions and offer them up as a platform to earn our respect as well as our vote?
2
Believe me, I have checked and researched all candidates. On the Republican side the critical need to Dump Trump, Ditch Mitch and drown the Tea Party types is irrefutable. On the Democratic side - I like Joe - the unifying and calming factor we need. On the policy side - Elizabeth Warren clearly would be a great help to Joe to reverse the damage done by trump. For months now I have wished for a Biden/Warren ticket. Am also pleased by the strong bench demonstrated by the Democratic Party. Can't find any evidence of a Republican bench of any kind. Bernie - nope - Socialism the 3rd rail of American politics. Always has been, always will be. Free Enterprise is our national strength, unfettered free enterprise is our issue. Not for the first time in our history.
5
Yes Sir, at this point in history it looks that a combination of centrists and progressives under Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren would win. In addition millions of women are furious. They want to show their ability to change the status quo.
7
Warren has unfortunately backtracked on major policy plans and decisions — including Medicare for All, SuperPACs and more. Now she has switched to praising Biden like the rest. Surprise! Now it’s about what is expedient or what’s in it for her, hoping for VP even if it means averting her eyes from the working class she supposedly champions.
This is why this Capitalist-to-her-bones is abandoning the progressive base, including the youth (see her already compromised student debt plan). She has petulantly attacked Sanders. What has she or anyone done in speaking to his huge base, including Latinos and their concerns, lately? Has Biden stepped up in that regard?
5
"There can be no meaningful change in policy — no universal health care, no clawback of systemic corruption, no large-scale climate action — without distributing democratic power back to the sovereign American people." And how do you think that can happen when "power" is in the hands of .01% and crooked corporations? That is, the people and institutions who are paying for Sleepy Joe's candidacy. There can be no meaningful change in policy until the current Democratic Party establishment is dead and buried.
5
I didn’t read this article as saying anything one way or another about Warren as VP, though many others seem to have read it that way.
To my mind, what the article is advocating is for Biden to adopt Warren’s PLANS regardless of who he picks as his running mate.
And I’d wager that Elizabeth Warren would be fine with that, because she truly seems to be a leader who is about ideas instead of ego.
18
I still believe we need Warren in the Senate along with as many other Democrats as possible! As a Stacey Abrams supporter, I see her as one of those Democrats in the Senate.
Although she might not be interested, Michelle Nunn, daughter of a highly respected former Senator from Georgia, would be, for me, a fine VP. I do hope Biden will consider well his choice.
2
One fundamental error—the belief that gently urging the center to move left will work—has defined Warren’s career. Her latest position —the one represented by this op-Ed—has been to pose as a ‘compromise’ candidate between the power bloc that is centrism and the new power bloc that is social democratic politics, speaking a language of expertise that centrist party members respect but promoting reforms that the most highly-educated members of the Sanders coalition can read as generally consonant w their values. But centrist democrats and members of the emerging social democratic faction each know exactly how to defend their interests; namely, by promoting Biden or conversely by supporting Bernie Sanders. Neither will agree to a compromise unless forced to by an organization that Warren has not built over decades of gentle nudges left and does not have—one that does not exist. Meanwhile, then Left won’t forget her role in staying in the race to undermine Sanders on Super Tuesday and resent her for holding out on a Sanders endorsement which clearly she has done to ingratiate herself to the center of the Party; and the center resents her reformism. Basically hers is an internal triangulation between two increasingly polarized groups that has failed miserably and will soon be forgotten.
6
@John if you need her endorsement to revive your candidacy, your strategy isn’t working.
Additionally: according to a HuffPo article yesterday or this morning, the Warren campaign reached out to the Sanders team early on to start communications; Sanders folks weren’t interested and only sought her endorsement and blamed her when they badly needed her.
3
@Chris
I’m only reporting how the Left views the situation but most of them wanted Sen Warren to drop out and to endorse Sen. Sanders prior to Super Tuesday, when the center had already coalesced around Biden. At that point, the primary was absolutely still up in the air. Anyway, what Warren intended is a bit irrelevant, but it was all but expressly said that one reason was to build rapport w/ the center; see the March 11 NYT article. I wouldn’t trust her campaign surrogates on that anyhow, it’s a motivated effort at misdirection in order to preserve her value as a mediator to the Left.
Anyhow, my point is that she is resented increasingly by the Left for what are perceived as her triangulations and that it devalues her as a compromise figure; and that the center/Biden don’t want even a modicum of the reforms she is pushing, rendering her politics increasingly nonviable. You can say either group is wrong but it’s sort of irrelevant.
4
@John. My problem with the Left, as you refer to them, or the Bernie Bros as many pundits call them, is just how conspiratorial they are. And how they love to play the victim every bit as much as Trump’s lunatic base. As a social democrat myself, I found Warren to be a far better candidate than Sanders. And I agree with the author of this article that she can help the Biden center understand where the Democratic party is going—and help him take it there. Of course she retooled some of her proposals. That’s what politicians do. It’s also why Bernie could never succeed, because he is too rigid (albeit for things in which I deeply believe) and unwilling to compromise on anything. That’s fine at the pulpit, but not in the thick of political negotiation.
7
"Democrats are hungry for reform, not revolution."
That may be true, but the problem is there are people who are not Democrats. And some of them would fight any reform tooth and nail. Perhaps, we have been so complacent about the environment, inequality, corporate predation and right-wing ideology that gradual reform does not stand a chance any more.
3
Biden must ask Warren to be his running mate.
She will strengthen his candidacy as she will answer a lot to America's problems today.
We need Warren more than ever. Her vice presidency will brighten up USA again. This is the time to railroad her in to her future white house residency (later as the boss.)
I hope Biden is smart enough to show his sincerity and patriotism.
7
You mean Bernie Sanders. Otherwise, the only changes will be cosmetic. Biden is a soft Republican who in appealing to the “center” stands for nothing. The centrist status quo do-nothing dream ticket for 2020 is Biden Warren, which this paper has been pushing overtly and covertly for over a year now.
8
No. Please stop the incessant pushing of Warren. She lost soundly - people did not buy into her vision. She brings no regional clout. She. Lost. EVERY. state. She needs to go back to the Senate and keep in her seat - as the MA Governor certainly will not replace her with a Democrat.
7
I like Warren, but the claim the claim that Sanders was "never going to win" is ridiculous. He WAS winning a couple of weeks ago.
Polls also show that he's just as likely to beat Trump as Biden and much more likely to beat Trump than Warren.
Warren was popular with a certain class of pundits, but she lacked the broad base of support that Bernie has, and didn't win any states.
Again, I don't mean to attack Warren, but I can't take seriously an article that says "Bernie was never going to win."
Also, if you want Biden to win, maybe take fewer cheap shots at Sanders supporters. Frankly, I'm unlikely to support the Democratic party in the general election after being constantly dismissed and insulted by the party establishment. You should have learned something from the backlash to Hillary's comments about "deplorables."
8
Biden will pick an African American (woman?) as a running mate, and it will settle a debt he happily owes to those who saved his campaign -- and it will be a ticket this (white) evangelical and lifelong Republican will lustily vote for.
166
@James, Thank you for considering to vote for Joe Biden. But there aren't enough qualified African American women to choose from. The ones, Kamala Harris & Stacey Abrams have their weaknesses, not impressive enough.
Since Joe Biden is old, he should choose a running mate who can readily step into the role of president immediately, if necessary. I would like him pick Pete Buttigieg as him running mate. Mayor Pete is amazingly gifted. Since it's a VP choice his age or sexual orientation may matter much less. GHW Bush won with Dan Quayle. Eisenhower won with Richard Nixon twice.
Judge Napolitano floated another argument that Biden may pick someone quite unexpected, like former Ohio governor, John Kasich. That's an interesting choice. Finally, what matters is to beat Trump. If the VP pick helps he should pick anyone, regardless of what people like me feel about it.
20
@James I think Klobuchar is a better pick unless Clyburn decides otherwise. Harris is immensely disliked in the African American community.
10
@A.G. Not Kasich for sure. Klobuchar, because it has to be a woman.
8
I do wonder exactly why Mr. Biden would stop being clueless because he is doing so well as it is. If the reason would be to try to narrow his appeal to be more like that of a candidate who has had to drop out, someone should stop him.
1
I think Hillary Clinton wrote this piece. Joe Biden isn't clueless, he's power-hungry. The people who are clueless are the Democratic establishment who think like this author. Joe Biden is Hillary Clinton in a suit and tie. She couldn't win 4 years ago and God only knows what the moderates will tell themselves when Biden loses. Trump like, they will probably blame the kids. My kids won't vote for Biden, and unless he clearly endorses a very significant part of Sanders' platform, I'm not sure I will either.
Elizabeth Warren? I gave her money, voted for her and worked for her and while I'm willing, nay, eager, to be proven wrong, I think she sold us out.
6
I love this article. Bureaucracy busting? Yes please! Power to the people. Amen! This is exactly why I gave my vote to Warren. I can’t help but think her light shines too bright to be Joe’s VP, but it would open the door to Prez in 2024.
8
The most critical trait of any Veep is absolute loyalty to the POTUS. It's the role Joe Biden so admirably played as second to Barack Obama.
There is absolutely no way Elizabeth Warren could serve well in such a role. She is independent minded -- a trait that may be admirable in the Senate. But the one thing she is definitely not is being a team player.
Biden, or any nominee, would be crazy to put such an independent actor in a place that requires absolute loyalty.
5
Liz is the perfect teammate for Biden and next President in 2024. It is as plain on the nose on your face.
185
@Eric P.
She consistently finished 4th or 5th and could not even place reasonably in her home state.
Other than her gender and quasi-POC status [right -we don't talk about that any more] - what exactly are her qualifications?
4
@SteveRR What are her qualifications? You've got to be kidding me. Senator, lawyer, teacher, advocate for consumers, leader of a major agency for consumer protection (actually she founded that); professor (Harvard, right?), mother, wife. Good person, who has consistently demonstrated she knows how to connect with others.
56
@Eric P. Absolutely not. As far as likable goes, she is HRC on steroids.
2
I'm a Vermonter who not only supported Bernie (a really good senator in our opinion) in 2016 but raised $ for him. This time around I wanted Warren -- a progressive with terrific brain, a plan, and wicked sense of humor, something Bernie lacks -- a fighter for the little guy, and yes, a woman. If Biden could work with Warren to bring in the progressive fold, it would be a win-win on many levels.
10
@Bronwyn
Warren wouldn't do much to bring in progressives, especially with all of the power elites - the DNC, cable news, lobbyists, big money donors, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. - still at war with us. And she and Biden would be like oil and water.
Besides, she's burned bridges with a lot of progressives with her treatment of Bernie Sanders. Not cool.
4
Liz’s a fantastic brain and a very imaginative one at that, yes I’m from Oklahoma and Native American, got fired when I was pregnant bla bla bla
1
Elizabeth Warren would be a disaster. We just have to look back to Hillary Clinton’s effort in public health care when she was First Lady to Bill Clinton. Ms. Warren would fail in the same way and for the same reasons.
It’s possible that Mr. Biden knows this. Let’s hope so.
3
@Global Charm you mean because they’re both women?
5
You Warren-istas need to get over it. I understand that many candidacies are fueled by the kind of lurid cultic passion imaged so well in the accompanying photo; but this is no reason to smear the presumptive nominee with a radical misreading of his policies and positions--especially now that he is our only hope against Drumpf. (Stop doing Drumpf's--and Russia's--work for him).
3
Elizabeth Warren entered politics to take down Biden. So I'm not sure how Biden will suddenly become open to hearing, let alone acting on Warranism.
5
I hope he does this.
I’m not sure what Biden’s platform really is, beyond returning us to the Obama years. I think a lot of Bernie supporters would say that Trump is a symptom of the disease - but Biden keeps saying that Trump IS the disease. I think Biden adopting some of Warren’s plans would be a good way to show that he is, at least, listening to the other side of the party.
7
EW is a must as VP
5
Sen Warren said she’ll forgo big money donors in the primary, but not in general election. “I Do Not Believe In Unilateral Disarmament" And Mayor Pete said same.
A past NYT article in 2015 said-- “Just 158 families have provided nearly half of the early money for efforts to capture the White House.” (in 2016) They are overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male.
Not since before Watergate have so few people and businesses provided so much early money in a campaign, most through channels legalized by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.” (in 2010)
Wikipedia says “many European countries do not permit paid-for TV or radio advertising for fear that wealthy groups will gain control of airtime, making fair play impossible and distorting the political debate.”
Imagine-- countries ban the ads which are our biggest campaign expense, needing mega donors to pay for, to flood and manipulate US voters. Our news media doesn't talk about it.
Now, most Americans and many politicians connect cause/effect and want to reverse Citizens United--which helped disunite America. It turned our own Constitution against citizens--- saying that limits to donor money are anti 1st Amendment Free Speech.
So, the voice of mega donors was amplified, that of the citizens muffled. The wealthy got power to vet, promote & finance candidates compliant to them.
Where are columns on how public money set aside for all candidates can unblock our politics, so other reforms we need can happen.
6
One of Warren's best ideas was that if she were elected, she would establish a committee to look into the Trump administration's corruption. I would still love to find out what that committee's findings would be on Trump & Co. It might take a while but it would be well worth the time and effort. I hope Biden intends to do the same.
5
This is magical, wishful thinking. The people behind Biden and the DNC pulling the strings, including "Uncle Joe" himself, want neither the Sanders variety or the Warren variety of reform. They want the status quo.
Otherwise they would have anointed Liz as the candidate to beat Trump (supposedly), not Biden ("if an MfA bill comes to my desk I'll veto it").
Of course, Biden wants the votes of disappointed reformers and progressives and promises them a place in the campaign: to donate, vote and then go away and shut up while he placates the "crossover Republicans" who just want a status quo to where the madman in chief is not an additional threat to their investments.
What am I missing here?
10
ELIZABETH WARREN Would add to Joe Biden's strategic thinking. As Obama's VP, Joe was at Obama's elbow during much of the time, helping with suggestions, which was essential to Obama's success, as Barack's experience with international affairs was limited. If Elizabeth Warren is Vice President, she can help Joe develop plans to plan and implement the desperately needed reforms, both governmental and infrastructural. Both Elizabeth and Joe come from humble origins and worked their way up through the system. They have not abandoned their commitment to the values that built America's strength. Joe and Elizabeth will be the best team to help us work toward a more perfect Union in the troubled years that lie ahead.
8
Thank you for this, Warren is my hero. I hope she continues to exert her influence on the Democratic platform, she gets us working people.
9
Warren is the exact opposite of MBNA-Joe.
Warren went into politics to FIGHT Joe Biden's corruption.
There is no way Joe Biden will put Warren in any position of power.
The most Warren can hope for is to embarrass Joe Biden's Wall St nominees on C-SPAN for their corruption before they get confirmed by 'bi-partisan" Senate majorities.
Banksters have hit the jackpot with Joe or Trump.
6
@CDP agreed, this is wishful thinking, but we must push the Biden campaign to do the right thing and unite the center left with the left and avoid any hint or perception of corruption.
3
@Chris Except Biden is trying hard to run as far right as he can to get a small fraction of never Trump conservatives while risking enormous losses to the Green Party on the left.
Warren's problem was that she threw her political lot in with Bernie and his band..if she had run as a moderate,she might have gotten more traction.
1
@Terrance
Sure, she should have run as one of the 22 moderates in the race. And she should have given up her principals to do that. Good idea.
4
An op-ed columnist, (Ross Douthat?) wrote something that Democrats can either mourn history or make it. Time for some real politic.
2
Yes.
4
Until we see on March 20th the names behind Warren's "dark money' super pac I think it's unwise to consider her in any position to fight corruption. The whole thing, from Julian Castro's endorsement of her AFTER she tumbled in the polls to the drop-outs and endorsements of the other candidates (even the day before Super Tuesday) and her refusal (again) to endorse her ideological colleague, in addition to this super pac flip-flop of hers simply reeks of party coordination/collusion, i.e. corruption.
5
Ah, yes: we make her plans more palatable by putting a man in front of them first and then (maybe) her as well.
This is not only incredibly disrespectful to Senator Warren herself, but also the fact of her as a thinking, prepared, capable woman and leader.
It's a shame. Instead of mere Warrenism, somehow more palatable/electable as a noun instead of a proper one (curious, that), when we could have just as easily had President Elizabeth Warren herself.
7
@Kim
Playing this kind of gender politics during the primaries did her no favors. If you think you're helping, you're not.
1
Yes, Biden needs to adopt the "plans" formulated by Warren because primary voters were so enthusiastic about her.
4
This was the Obama administration's fatal mistake in 2009.
The banksters knew the jig was up. They were ready to have their faces torn off and would have taken whatever terms were dictated to them.
They were beaten, blown up, and the government had complete leverage to dictate terms. The banksters were laying prostrate, waiting to take their lumps. Nationalization, Volker rule, reinstatement of Glass-Steagal, it was all on the table.
Then Obama blinked. He imposed no terms, bailed out the banks without asking a thing of them. Free access to the discount window, free money, you name it.
That was the moment the banksters lost all respect for the Obama administration and said "game on".
Big capital respects power and especially the exercise of power. They're all monopolists and oligopolists at heart. They figured the government would use its powers to the full extent and smash the crooked game they'd all rigged up. Then government didnt.
No broken teeth, no jail terms, no disgorgement, no real sanctions for bogus foreclosures. Part of this can be traced back to Clinton's neoliberal triangulation and market worship.
Once upon a time, the Democratic Party was the labor party. That time needs to come again. Including broad shoulders and bare knuckles. Uber-capitalists are going to give anything back, it needs to be taken away by muscular government acting in the broad public interest.
Capitalism is OK and long as government keeps capitalists in check. It's time to fight.
8
She is far more valuable in the Senate.
2
I note that the author wrote “Warrenism” not “Warren”. I agree wholeheartedly that we as Democrats need to start championing the idea of a government that exists for the needs of its people, not just the rich ones. Warren put forth an amazing plethora of strategies for attaining that. The party would do well to move - even at a snail’s pace, if absolutely necessary - in that direction. Leave the Repubs behind in the mess they made for themselves.
3
Warren was overwhelmingly rejected by the electorate. We have had enough of self-centered "leaders" and want someone who is more soft spoken and gets government back on its' feet after these deplorable years under the evil of Trump and his cohorts. You are off-base here and maybe one day we will have more progressive achievements. Right now we want to restore democracy and get back on our feet. Warren's death knell was when she refused to shake Bernie's hand on stage after one of the last debates ( pre-coronvirus panic): it showed her for what she is as a nasty person. We have had enough of nasty.
5
Except no one was interested in voting for Warren, even in her home state. Let’s go with Biden/Kolbuchar. Amy is younger than Warren, equally smart, and a proven vote getter from the middle of the country.
3
@Judith P a very exciting VP for a very exciting presidential candidate!
You need to unite both factions of the Democrats and engage young people.
@Judith P
Klobuchar isn't a proven vote getter. No one was interested in voting for her, either. She didn't even make it as far as Warren.
2
Warren would be a good health or treasury cabinet appointment if Biden can win. Seems to me Kolbuchar would be a smart VP choice as she would bring in some undecided Republicans. It's up to Sanders voters to show up or Trump wins
3
I don’t think there is any more republicans and after today I doubt there’s undecided
Independent’s.
1
Nicely put. Billionaires and billionaire corporations really have coopted American institutions to serve their purposes. From the tax code, to antitrust enforcement, to environmental regulation, to the FCC, the SEC, the FDA, go down the line. All of them have morphed to be billionaire-compliant.
3
I think writers like this are arrogant. This is because they do not understand the difference between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Warren is very smart, OK. But there is no such thing as "Warrenism". Warren is a former rapacious Republican who somehow saw the light a few years ago and radically changed her views. Politically, she would be nothing without her association with Sanders, who graciously took her under his wing.
Bernie is the real deal. He has not changed his views. Instead he has brought this entire country to an entirely new understanding of glaring shortcomings within the raw capitalist system upon which our economy and our way of life is built. He has been doing this for years, but finally the country woke up to what he was saying. That had very little if anything to do with Elizabeth Warren.
To her credit, Warren listened to Sanders and built an alliance with him. But she pales in comparison to Sanders as a politician, and she is most certainly not the architect of the massive progressive political movement, which has reshaped the modern Democratic Party and its future, bringing millions of young people in the party. Her performance in this election makes that very clear to anyone who wants to look. This writer apparently does not.
7
@Dem-A-Dog Agree with everything up to "bringing millions of young people into the party." I don't think the young people will want to affiliate with the Democratic Party, especially after the way the party has treated Bernie. If Biden gets the nomination, I think most will go third party, especially if a palatable option emerges, or sit out the election.
4
Sorry, victim hood for bernie sounds a lot like victim hood for trump.(“ the way they treated bernie”).
The only thing millennial’s are interested in is free everything with no explanation on who’s gonna pay.
It’s always someone else’s problem.
2
The Walter Cronkite Republican notes that Senator Warren has much more to offer Mr. Biden than Senator Sanders in terms of appeal to the progressive wing of the party and theoretical and intellectual heft in her plans. The Republicans have taken advantage of two flawed elections in this century in which they lost the popular votes to aggressively impose the will of the their minority upon the rest of us. They then thwarted at every opportunity a Democratic President who had been elected with wide mandates. This was despite Mr. Obama saving his predecessor from prosecution for war crimes. This tyranny is especially evident in the case of the judiciary, which is now stacked with unqualified judges from the Supreme Court down. This is tryany and enough is enough!
5
Hear, hear! Wish I could have cast my vote for her.
3
Biden would be well advised to follow the "team of rivals" approach and choose some of his erstwhile primary opponents for key Cabinet positions. I'll start the bidding: Warren for Treasury and Kamala Harris for AG. Any takers?
2
OH MY GOD --- THANK YOU!!!!
I've been in mourning ever since Warren stepped away from the contest because, clearly, she is the woman to meet the times and the people simply could not see that in their celebrity loving obsessions with Sanders and Biden. Your article gives me hope that I'm not the only person who sees this. While almost no one will see my comment, I simply have to send it in, and *thank you again* from the very bottom of my Liberal, Lizzy Loving Heart. THANK YOU.
10
I agree with you about Warren, she would make a great President or Vice President. BUT, why do we keep calling Bernie a Socialist? No wonder there is less support for him. Why do we keep saying "Socialism" when we talk about reforms? They are "socialistic", but they are not Socialism. Socialism is the ABSENCE of Private Capitalism. Bernie is not trying to take Private Capitalism away. We really have to get this message across and stop misleading people.
8
@Frances We keep calling Bernie a Socialist because that's what he calls himself. Which if you're running for President, is not a smart thing to do. He could have at lest labelled himself a "social democrat" which from everything I've read is exactly the same as a "democratic socialist". But he just had to have the word "socialist" in there as a badge of honor no matter that the typical US voter immediately shuts off their brain when they see that word.
This is another reason he's not my first choice. Governing in fractured times like these is hard enough, unnecessarily laying down roadblocks to effective governance is just prostrating yourself at St. Upid's altar.
2
@RH No, Bernie calls himself a "Democratic Socialist". There is a difference, despite the willfully obtuse Biden Supporters' insistence that there isn't.
@RH
No, he doesn't call himself a single-word socialist. That's the op-ed team at the NY Times that does that. Wrongly but intentionally.
1
This column is right on point. Sure, I would rather have Warren than Biden plus Warrenism, but we have Biden and must deal with that.
I see the primary issue as one of convincing Biden & Co. that they should embrace Warren and her many plans. It's a winning formula for November and for governing with a newly reconstituted Senate.
It will not be easy, but the steps must be taken now.
7
Yes, yes, yes!!! My Kansas farmed raised mother would have been cheering Liz on. And so I am. We need women to lead us out of the mess we are in.
5
Powerful and well written!!!
3
I was all-in here, with hope: All those great plans for redistributive justice. Till finally I had to gag- another soft-hands administrator talking about "fight".
To me, Warren's "evisceration" of Bloomberg was just a bad-taste cheap shot in a crowd of eunuchs. However legit a call on his leg-beater manners at that time, it does not remotely describe the purpose or outcomes of his leadership for men and women, nor does it credit Bloomberg's growth. You'll note Bloomberg did not return an insult. Whatever he mumbled, the answer I heard was: If you can't see it, I'm not going to try to tell you. [From the billionaire's cushion.]
What this writer does not say was that "blood and teeth" was 2010. Even within the six years she had of a Democratic executive, what progress did she make?
That's the difference between a leader and a staffer.
For the second difference, go read her constituents' comments on the referenced website.
Senator Warren is a caring, disciplined, principled legislator. I only wish the erstwhile top of the ticket had as good an engine or constructive facility. Not to mention the organization he is set to lead.
Here we are. Let's make a way.
2
Hallelujah! Finally! Yes, we need Warren and Warrenism. Thank you sir for your rallying contribution to the national conversation.
1
Elizabeth Warren would be a HORRIBLE pick.
This year's VP pick will be the most consequential since FDR dumped Wallace and put Truman on the ticket. Biden's advanced age, unsteady performance and the fact that he's had two surgeries for brain aneurysms, puts his health in serious question. His running-mate needs to be ready on Day One to be Commander-in-Chief. None of the Democratic Presidential candidates fits that bill.
In addition, Warren's anti-business animus and her authoritarian streak (evidenced by her auto-pilot design of the CFPB) will tank the economy even without a global pandemic.
The fact that she finished third place in her home state as the only woman on the ballot while four men split the vote should be telling. She is a bad candidate.
122
@Liberty hound
Where in this article do you see it suggested that she be a VP pick? Seriously, where?
What Mr. Wilkinson is saying is that we need her policies. Maybe she'll be a cabinet pick. Maybe she'll be chosen to head her brainchild the CFPB, which has so exceeded expectations in protecting consumers from finance sector greed and excess that the first thing Trump did was try to shut it down.
It's Warren-ism Mr. Wilkingson is selling, not Warren herself.
I'm hoping that Biden doesn't think we actually prefer his milk-sop middle-of-the-road kumbaya-status-quo-schtick, because we don't. We Democrats have simply decided that defeating Trump is Priority One, and quite honestly, even though Warren is my Senator and I admire her, I just didn't see her beating Trump.
86
@Liberty hound I disagree. I believe Amy Klobuchar or Kamela Harris both have excellent potential. At a minimum, both would leave Pence begging for a lifeline during the VP debate.
29
@Liberty hound...”The fact that she finished third place in her home state as the only woman on the ballot while four men split the vote should be telling”... It is, indeed, ‘telling’ but probably not in the way you seem to think it is.
94
Image a world where Biden is the US president SURROUNDED by Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar and Yang (yes, the prolific and different kind of visionary Yang!) and possibly some input from Bloomberg (i.e. the best of Bloomberg). I think this hypothetical administration will make this country pretty great.
2
@Chris You must be forgetting that Biden has assured moneyed interests that there won't be any changes with him in charge. It would be pointless for any of these candidates except Klobuchar to be part of a Biden administration.
4
Mr Wilkinson Senator Warren I am sure it has not escaped your notice is getting on there too. The voters have decided that age is not a disqualification , we want to play this very safe and support Biden because we feel he is the candidate who is the best bet to beat Trump.
Personally I am fine with Senator Warren as Biden's running mate or Senator Harris for that matter both women are equally well qualified,it is just a question of who is the best fit.
"Warrenism’s obsession with policy detail sometimes smacks of managerial paternalism,"
The reason women can't break the federal ceiling..
paternalism spoken in a lady's voice even when it is brilliant, effective and long overdue.
6
I looked at the author’s picture, read his article, and understand the angst that the “young” Progessives face with us boomers. Disrespecting the largest voting block in the Democratic Party isn’t going to make your case; we are moderates who watched as our heroes Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Bobby Kennedy all got killed or destroyed in elections they couldn’t win. We became moderates to effect change from within. Not moving too fast for you? We patiently understand; we’ve been there. Maybe quit acting like you know EVERYTHING and start listening for once.
7
I think Bloomberg is the best answer if Joe Biden has trouble down the road. Elizabeth Warren, as well as Kirsten Gillibrand, destroyed their image by blatantly attacking the other candidates. Warrens chance of rising in the polls took a dive after her ugly attack on Bloomberg. Hilliary Clinton was excellent at controlling this aspect of her image and her electability. She won the presidency despite all the smear campaign generated by the GOP and Russia. Elizabeth Warren might serve better in a cabinet position under Joe Biden.
3
@WR I think she tanked after attacking Sanders. She raked in a ton of money after attacking Bloomberg.
2
Warren was the best candidate. If this were an 8-year cycle, she could/should have been the nominee. Unfortunately, she ran into a situation in which most of us are simply scared to death of 4 more years of this incompetent, bellicose poseur, who preens and whines when he isn't tweeting, watching TV, playing golf or eating. When I heard that many progressive women were afraid to vote for her since they thought that Biden was a safer bet, the writing was on the wall. And, there's a good reason that the Orange-a-tan tried to get Zelinsky to besmirch Biden. He's scared of him. So, fear meets fear. A poor way to run a country, but we have to get out of this existential mess.
Warren will make an excellent SecTreas, if she'll take the job. she knows this stuff better than anyone, as her CFPB credentials show well.
3
Totally agree with the opinion writer, but it's never gonna happen. The party establishment united around Biden because he was the old reliable party man, easiest to control, even easier now that he's entering into mental twilight. They see no need to unite the party beyond the establishment, buttressed by their new declared base, black voters. And that will be the convenient excuse not to add Warren to the ticket: she's a woman, but not of color.
4
This article is absolutely spot on. Very articulately put, and very incisive. thank you.
1
Such non-sense. Biden and Warren have almost identical policy prescriptions. Primary voters are signaling that Democrats think those policies are ill advised and unworkable. You can be sure that the general electorate will believe the same tenfold. Biden would be wise to ignore the hankerings of the radical left and focus on what moderates, the majority of the American people, want.
isn't it too late for this article to tout Warren's attributes. The Democratic electorate , elected officials and even DNC seem to have already elected the "saviour" . Joe Biden. I am happy that Sanders is not yielding. He is the "different" one - passionate,sharp and super articulate. That is what is needed at this time. Both Trump and Biden are the mumblers and it would be hard to say who is worse(not better) in the debate. It's clear Biden might be the nominee. He could select Sanders as his running mate to get the best balance of progressive and liberal ideas. And they can keep all their voters on their side ,in order to avoid them going off to Trump.
4
In the event that the Democrats take the White House and the Senate, job #1 above all is overturning Citizens United with a simple constitutional amendment that says the corporations do not have the same rights as individuals, only individuals can make campaign contributions and that the House and Senate can set those restrictions. No more "charities" that are fronts for big dark money.
Until we get the nasty destructive impact of money on our political system, not much is going to change.
Then add two members to the Supreme Court.
6
Spot on. And as to her age, chronological age is one thing. Few can keep up with Elizabeth Warren. She is absolutely dynamite reacting on a second’s notice. I would put her health-related age at closer to the fifties!
9
Self delusion is a powerful force, as witnessed by this article. I'm still in mourning over Warren, but this piece is an exercise in pretzel logic. Biden picking up the banner of Warrenism is an oxymoron. Biden ran as the antidote to Warren/Sanders. Sanders as harebrained because he waves his arms but wink, wink we really do need structural change? Biden won because most Dems are content with our system as is, if it were only more civil and led by someone less distasteful. Don't tax me too much, don't dampen predatory "entrepreneurship", don't defy the market, and PLEASE don't let those poor people of color move into my community. This is Biden's program, along with hugs; and it's the program of those who voted for him. It's the program of your T. Friedman who launched a Red Scare when it looked like Sanders would win and offered us Bloomberg instead. Complacency about power isn't the problem with "we" liberals; it's that liberalism paved the way for the concentration of power; and that push come to shove, it will defend that inequality in the face of demands for serious redistribution. Warren's differences with Sanders are ones of degree; her differences with Biden are ones of principle. I will vote for Biden, but ultimately if it's about power, don't invoke Warren to refute her.
7
What a long-winded pointless rant! We had our chance to elect Warren, the best qualified candidate in every way, intellectually and morally, and we muffed it. There's no going back. And if there's one thing we know about Biden is that he would be utterly incapable of understanding Warren. She stands for reform, for the future. He stands for a long a log-ago vanished past, for "business as usual" because it's the only business he understands.
5
"We liberals," Will? I doubt most Times readers will agree that "The Constitution of Liberty" is, as you wrote, "the twentieth century's greatest statement of the liberal creed." Do you think progressives would hold that view (after they google it to find out what it is and learn Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher shared your opinion)? Such liberalism is what the Left terms neoliberalism, lumping, as they do, a Hayekian in with an Obamaite.
Moving down your "reformist" road via Warren, or via her acolytes, is going to bring, in time, a near-total jettisoning of the Hayekian part of your "Rawlsekianism" and an overloading of the Rawlsian part, even when, even if, that isn't your intention. And I think that you've found yourself so disgusted by the Right, you're starting to see virtues in its opposite that don't really exist, or, if they do, are overshadowed by absurdities.
In the real world, a "progressive" takeover of Congress and a Warren presidency would see the country look rather different than the one you're sketching out with this strange twinkle in your eye. Most of the problems you lay out are real; these problems, as most problems, can be solved in multiple ways. I'm not sure why you think it's a good idea to try to solve them via the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, whose ability to see problems so vastly exceeds the solutions they proffer.
Megan McArdle's loathing of Warren is so great, she said she'd prefer Sanders. No one disagrees more than libertarians.
1
It's way too soon to write off Bernie Sanders.
Joe Biden still needs to get the 1991 delegates to gain the nomination on the first ballot. This seems highly unlikely, if Bernie stays in the race.
The media go on and on about how many STATES Biden is winning, but that's not what counts. It's DELEGATES that the candidates are trying to accumulate.
A lot can happen between now and the Democratic convention in July. Biden could self-destruct. Bernie could win a brokered convention.
If the Democrats nominate Joe Biden, a lot of Bernie's supporters will vote for Trump, just as they did in 2016.
They will feel betrayed, again, by party leadership.
Many young voters will, simply, not vote at all.
I think the Democrats are poised to make the same mistake they made in 2016.
7
Yes, yes, yes. The country may not be ready for a female president, but it needs Elizabeth Warren to steady the helm in some way, shape or form.
6
"Mr. Biden can beat Donald Trump."
This belief, in a nutshell, is symptomatic of the problems in contemporary American political culture.
Why is a doddering senior citizen, one with a history of poor decision-making and cozing up to Wall Street, be the anointed one, the so-called unifier who can overthrow the incumbent?
Bernie and Elizabeth, at least, are acute.
A sign of what is acceptable in American society, but a symptom of a more profound malaise.
Any of the other democratic candidates would have made a better president.
Why "Warrenism?"
Why not a New New Deal?
The natural world seems to have sent the world a sign that universal health care is long overdue.
Viruses do not distinguish the wealthy from the impoverished--although it is easier to fight off infection if you are wealthy--or those who enjoy employer provided health insurance from those who remain unemployed.
5
The DNC is far and above the biggest obstacle to reform. The old guard still in control of this desperately backward looking institution. One would think after the true debacle in 2016 that the DNC would, with even a scintilla of self-awareness, reform itself, but alas, it is so entrenched in it's power structure began by the Clintons and reinforced by Obama, that it's zombie-like process seems to still walk the Earth-to the detriment of human destiny.
9
I wish folks would do a little more research before forming opinions. I’m from Massachusetts and she is hated here. There’s a reason she finished third in the primary. She’s a complete and utter phony. She claims to be a populist but she has a net worth of $12,000,000 including a $3,000,000 house in Cambridge and a million dollar condo in DC. She lied about her heritage to get ahead. Sorry, I think it’s a serious issue when you use it for personal gain. Her policies are very Socialist but she claims to be a capitalist. She wants to devalue the US dollar to make exports more attractive- so long world’s reserve currency which allows us to borrow easily. She wants to forgive ALL student loans and make college free(our tax dollars) even for the wealthy. She talks of class warfare and demonizes people who’ve worked hard to get ahead. I paid my student loans over 10 years of hard work and sacrifice. I think it’s an insult to ask me to pay someone else’s if they are capable. Warren or Sanders have some good ideas but overall, they are terrible, both of them.
9
You've got to crawl before you can walk. What America needs is simply decency, honesty, and listening to experts, both supporters and critics. Let's fire Trump; restore normalcy, stop the judge bleeding; gain control of Congress; and proceed down the road toward the great social revolution.
3
I sure would like to see the debate held around a table, with the speakers seated, instead of standing in the middle of enough glare and reflection to give one a seizure. We don't need another setup for people to just shout sound-bites at each other or at an audience.
4
This was one of the most accurate expressions of the issues and solutions facing us. From striking at the moment of weakness of the powerful to bring forth consumer protection she has shown the guile and focus to fix things and in understanding of how things work. The prolonged work to remove or defang this shows where the current political forces are aligned. Would the B part of the ticket be a good place to continue work from?
3
Two political scientists named Mann and Ornstein have been telling this story for nearly a decade. Nobody listened. The media paid no attention. The truth was too disturbing: it’s not about Democrats and Republicans, it’s about a Republican Party intent on one-party rule, that party being the Oligarchy Party. Mann and Ornstein (the latter is employed by the American Enterprise Institute) use the words “radical insurgency” to describe the Republican Party. (They’re careful not to say “fascist insurgency.”) It flourishes and grows as the product of a right-wing propaganda machine so effective that a majority of Americans vote against their own interests — a machine built on a manifesto written by a Republican party hack named Lewis Powell, who shortly thereafter was cleaned up and made a Supreme Court justice. When the history of our era is written, if it is ever written by anybody who can tell the truth, the Powell Memorandum of 1971 will be seen as a turning point, the moment when a great experiment in representative government called the United States of America began to die. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, among very few other politicians, understand how the downward spiral began and where it is headed. Biden doesn’t need to understand because enough people around him will. The larger problem is the distinct likelihood that the party of the oligarchy will do anything — and I do mean anything — to maintain power. Our darkest hour is yet to come.
6
Warren is hoped for by the author because she may replace "older" Biden if he becomes ill or, worse, if he dies or has a stroke. But, wait : Warren is also old in her 70s. Four months after he is elected and takes over in January 2021, Warren turns 72. Which means that, in her 2nd term, she would close in on her 80's. That's just too old. Remember Reagan...
Besides, she remembers a lot of men their own mother-in-law. She has all sorts of ways to fix her sons-in-law's problems--i.e. those of their beloved wives. No way, Johnny...
From Joe Blow in Montreal with dual citizenship, by the way, and a doctor having worked on both sides of the border. Guess which country has the right Health System.
2
@CMG. As a doctor I would hope you would actually read the article. It is not suggesting Warren be VP, or even Warren be anything...
@CMG. I won’t reply to your mother in law comment, but she walks 6.6 miles a day and looks to be at least a decade older. We all wish we could have her incredible energy! Women generally get started later in politics (see Nancy pelosi) and they also live longer (and Warren keeps herself very healthy).
1
Clueless is the difference between a pretender and someone with authenticity. Biden is a pretender. Warren is authentic. Biden may try to use Warren's words in his messaging to win an election, but he will simply be parroting her words without any true understanding of what "Warrenism" is. He has already stated that nothing will change if he is president. He intends to maintain the status quo, because just like Trump he is a pretender and defiantly obtuse about just how clueless he is.
4
Typical progressive attitude that only they have any answers. I am tired of those who cannot see that the primary goal right now is to win the election and get Trump and the Republican Senate out of power. To say that Biden will not be any different than the Republicans is completely disingenuous.
5
Why would you want someone such as Ms. Warren who is merely picking up on the thread of Bernie’s ideas when you could have the real deal in Bernie. Did everyone forget that Warren supported Hillary in 2016; she blew her bonafides of being a true progressive then, why would anyone believe her now?
2
@Ted I think you haven't familiarized yourself enough with Elizabeth Warrens work. One could argue she is the expert people like Bernie call on for actual policy. Bernie Sanders is a campaign politician.
5
@Marlee We are all entitled to our opinion. I agree that she is indeed a policy wonk and a brilliant one at that which is why I had hoped she would join with Bernie at some point in the past or future. I don’t believe she alone would be committed to progressive policies, I believe she is a centrist at heart, if not she would never have thrown her support behind Hillary in 2016. BTW Bernie is far, far more than a campaign politician, although I am unclear what that term actually means, my characterization of Bernie is a man who has been committed his life and indeed his entire being to elevating living standards and giving voice too those less fortunate, giving hope to those for whom there has been no hope nor representation for forty plus years and presenting his programs in no more radical an envelope than did FDR .
1
I already am seeing how to support Warren, but try not to forget that 4 years ago Bernie electrified the country.
We are going to have a Brave New World Aldous Huxley) or a 1984 ( George Orwell ) country at this rate. I think you don't quite get it, Mr. Wilkinson.
Unless the powerful are made to feel fear we are sunk. Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt did make them feel fear 80-to-85 years ago.
Get ready to live apathetically and powerless if we the people do not rise up against the corporate state.
Do you think that even with a totally Dem's government you will get something approaching income inequality with a congress that's been lame for several decades?
President Virus has already been responsible for many deaths and illnesses.
Please, please stop with the disrespectful language. “Blinkered complacency” sounds a lot like “Sleepy Joe.” And how many times do you need to use the word “old.”? Sounds like ageism to me. Joe is a good man who’s done a lot. Give him credit. And if you want to advocate for Warrenism, fine with me. She has a lot of good ideas and ran a darn substantive campaign.
223
@P Joe Biden thinks that millions of Americans should be denied healthcare. That is a fact. A fact is thing that actually is and is based on evidence.
17
@P
It's not ageism when Biden is in obvious mental decline. Biden's team is hiding him from the public, only allowing him to appear for brief amounts of time and in friendly venues. It's incredibly sad to see, but it's a necessary conversation to have, like when my mother had to talk with with my grandparents about giving up driving when they became a major danger to themselves and others.
In addition, Biden's ideas are out of date and proven unworkable. Sanders is even older than Biden, and Warren is nearly as old, but their ideas are fresh (at least in the US).
Hiding these criticisms now does everyone a disservice. Trump and the Republicans will bring them up every chance they get!
25
@Chris Fact? Biden supports doubling the budgets of community health centers, the safety net clinics which serve millions of people, especially in rural areas. Biden supports a public option, which might be passed now if the Dems take the senate, but was a bridge too far 12 years ago when the Dems had 60 votes in the Senate and passed the ACA. Biden supports reference pricing for pharmaceuticals and importation of drugs from foreign countries to lower drug prices. Why not take 3 minutes to read Biden's policy proposals on his web site before making claims that he wants to deny health care to people?
27
The unfortunate thing is Bernie has infected a whole swath of young people with socialist ideology. There are even some Bernie supporters on my Facebook feed who invoke Communism. If he had just been a progressive like Warren, it would be a whole different story. As things stand, people are embracing socialism when almost no country on Earth functions the way Bernie describes it. Socialist historian Eric Hobsbawm has described the United States as already a government-private enterprise. Tipping it any more into socialism territory would vanquish private initiative.
1
"Progressives need to understand that Bernie Sanders was never the answer."
Compared to the European Union, American social programs are Third World and if Americans wish to escape a socioeconomic system that will crush them they first need a social democratic party and then a social democratic government.
Anything less and the American model goes down the toilet.
4
I did vote for Warren, but as usual, the DNC fears someone too 'left-of-center', so we're stuck with Biden. Elizabeth Warren is the only prior-candidate who actually had detailed plans to make her agenda work.
Maybe one thing to consider would be to change the primary system, to use 'ranked-direct-voting' instead using middle-men (delegates and super delegates) to control the voter's choices. And this should also extend to the Electoral College, which should be abolished. Just let American voters decide for themselves, minus any manipulations by party elites.
4
I like the premise of this article, that we really do need some important changes in the way we select leaders, the rules of the road for the economy, taxes, international relationships, and the factors that have made for the extreme disparities of wealth in our society. But Warren, like Bernie, presents a bald-faced set of ideas that directly challenge the powers that can stop them. We need someone a lot craftier: more like FDR than they are. Actually, crafty like the Republican leaders who got us into these messes without creating mass objections and hysteria.
1
If Joe does not tap Warren for VP he will lose votes. If he ignores the real angst in the soul and minds of those of us who are seeing our rights and representation being taken from us at hyper speed by the rich, he will be seen as a shill for the rich. This Democracy cannot survive with the power grab that has been put on steroids by Trump. The people need our government fixed. EW has a plan. Joe should take it on and let her at Wall Street and Facebook. If he doesn't we are toast. Bottom line.
7
I keep thinking of the main character in Catch 22, Captain Yossarian. As I remember from reading it many years ago, he's convinced the Germans are out to kill *him* when they shoot at his plane. He takes it personally. As a male over 70, I take it personally when Trump tries to kill *me* by his lies and incompetence. He has to go. So I'll support the Democrat I've got since I couldn't get the one I wanted - Warren.
If Biden can eliminate Trump, and we get the Senate and keep the House, we'll have a chance at doing what we need to do - enact Warren's priorities.
5
Isn't Warren herself a pretty good vehicle for Warren-ism?
3
Warren has made a big difference as a Senator, and is needed there. Her voice will be heard, and ideas can be expanded on, from wherever she is. It may turn out that she will be able to accomplish more by staying in the Senate than by being President because a Democratic Senate is sorely needed. Biden can choose from an array of non-senator Democrats to be in his administration and help increase the number of Democratic Senators. All branches of government need to be much more thoughtful and protective of our rights.
2
"Clueless?"
I've never heard of Mr. Wilkinson. Joe Biden has been a significant
participant in American elective politics since he was elected to the US Senate at age 29.
6
"Clueless?"
I've never heard of Mr. Wilkinson. Joe Biden has been a significant
participant in American elective politics since he was elected to the US Senate at age 29.
3
I have supported Biden since he announced his candidacy. Having said that I think Biden should try to get Warren involved in a highly visible role in his response to carona virus. Not on the medical side. But no one knows more about medicare and the structure of health care. (Sorry Joe, I think she does ) And no one knows more about trying to make sure that the assistance funds go to those who need it and not to corporate america and big players. One think I admire about Biden that he has always been a team player and he recognizes when others can add to an effort.
2
The problem is that writers like this one think that Bernie's ideas are quixotic when they are the centrist reality in most other developed countries. It is true that they seem bizarre to the average American pundit who has no sense of history or world politics. But the true outlier here is the uninformed American voter, not the centrist political concepts of Bernie. The objective job of any journalistic media is to educate the people on the actual meaning of the various proposals offered and an explanation of how they are all eminently possible in todays economy. But our media is conditioned to go for exaggeration and click bait rather than moderation and facts. To sell newspapers all writers must now deliver their thoughts with a large helping of political entertainment, and the "fight" between the moderates and the progressives is the go to source for the standard loud volume. The reality that is not reported is that there are no extreme policies proposed by either Bernie or Biden, they simply speak to a different constituency. Bernie wants to govern for the people and Biden wants to govern for corporations and both of these approaches are eminently mainstream. In fact one is the typical Republican approach and one is the typical old Democratic approach and they are both vying to bring the electorate back into the normal range of politics from the extreme disfunction of todays authoritarian government.
Why don't writers tell us this truth?
4
I wrote a comment yesterday advocating Elizabeth Warren for VP in 2020 so she can make progressive agenda a reality when she becomes president in 2024. Glad you agree.
5
I agree that what Mr. Wilkinson refers to as "Warrenism" is what we need. I call it getting real. What a pity that we know what's needed but can't vote for the person who told us.
2
I have been saying that Warren should endorse Biden and at the convention, if there is one, Biden should name Warren as his running mate, if he waits that long. I believe that the Biden/Warren ticket will beat the Trump/Putin ticket in a landslide. Happy Days are hear again the sun is bright a clear again.......
1
her core knowledge is financial & she has demonstrated leadership & the ability to build(re-build) an organization. Warren for Sec. of Treasury.
4
Spot on. Note, what he says Biden needs is Warren-ism, not necessarily Warren herself. Biden should speak along these lines: "I'm not a revolutionary. That's not my style and never will be. But Senator Warren's arguments have made clear to me that we need to look beyond Trump's defeat to the bold changes required for a resurgence of democratization. Not revolution, but a very much quickened pace of evolution."
314
The article is gold and your comment is gold.
Warrenism should be the backbone philosophy of the new dems
40
@eisweino
Keep Pete! Mayor Pete is a smart progressive with ideas close to Bernie's but not as extreme. Aside from the flak he got from Bernie/Warren for millionaire donations, where he pointedly remanded Warren of her hypocritical stance, there is no Pocahontas or anything else that would take away from his integrity in a debate, where authenticity and character are at the forefront. Sorry, Mr. Wilkinson, you can't convince me that Warren would be a winning V.P. choice, given the focus this time around. Consider the fact that the two candidates who came out on top are the most forthright, credible people in the room. Lack of popular trust--credibility ad honesty--explains why Kamala Harris slipped in the polls, and that's why Warren slipped behind the others, including Mayor Pete.
Considering what we are looking for in 2020, I would like to see Sally Yates as V.P. if not the eloquent Mayor Pete. Both would be a comfortable, complementary fit with Joe Biden.
4
@eisweino
I respectfully disagree. I would rather have Warren herself without being attached to Joe Biden. Why should she? She has great ideas which speak for themselves. Biden has none. It's down right insulting.
23
To say Sanders isn't about big structural change the way Warren is is misleading. He also advocates for many of the same things Warren wants. Same day voter registration, campaign finance reform, lobbying regulation, independent redistricting commissions, etc. He only doesn't talk about it nearly as much because he's so focused on Medicare for All, and that resonates more with a lot of people. For many suffering from a lack of affordable healthcare, Medicare for All needs to happen yesterday. Big Structural Change can wait another year. What good is Big Structural Change when you're already dead? It doesn't help that Warren dialed back on Medicare for All some time ago.
2
@Allen Unfortunately Sanders is a moderate when it comes to institutions, because he’s been in the Senate so long. And so many fear that none of his policies, including M4A would have no way of getting through in the current Congress whew not even a Coronavirus bill is passing.
Contrast that with Warren, who’s thought deeply about her policies in a way that they can have a chance of getting through in this Congress that just doesn’t work. She’s thinking very creatively about ways to gain power and rewriting the rules of our democracy. She’s for eliminating the filibuster, taking bold executive actions on each of her policies. In addition, her first priority was anti-corruption, which would help everything else, including passing the Green new deal and M4A. You can’t get that stuff through with Manchin Sinema as they are and without getting rid of the filibuster.
1
America (here we call it "North America") is exhausted. A vicious, malevolent stupid, nut-job has done it. We have seen what an "outsider," a "non-politician," a "new approach," can produce.
Buttigieg, Klobuchar, O'Rourke...the country is looking for somebody to trust, not a fresh-faced youth or a competent lower-level politician coming up through the ranks of state and local government. The kids love the zeideh who promises pie-in-the-sky, but even the kids know we can't waste four years fighting over democratic socialism (which doesn't exist, even in Scandinavia), especially when nobody knows what the hell it is and nobody knows what the next Congress will be like.
And America doesn't want another non-politician with nary a wisp of experience in government, telling us to eat our spinach and adopt structural change after structural change that will do nothing to calm the present chaos and drive us further into financial Pollyanna-ism. even if Grandma was a brilliant law professor in her day.
Neither the kids nor the non-Democrat Democratic dotard can bring stability, calm, repair that we so desperately needed, even before the Pandemic.
Biden may not be a genius, but his apparatchiki will at least know what they are doing. He will begin to reestablish the alliances that will take years to restore. In short, he will not work us up into four-legs-good-two-legs-bad frenzies, or encourage the kleptocrats, but govern.
Even State, HUD, Education might go back to work.
1
As a keen follower of progressive media, I can say with near-certainty that the consensus among progressives is major antipathy towards Elizabeth Warren. Whatever technocratic wonkery she is capable of to address "big structural issues", she does not have the support of the movement that shares her supposed agenda.
Foisting an accusation of sexism at Sanders the day before Iowa, criticizing Sanders for receiving superPAC money (he didn't) and then accepting contributions from a superPAC herself, failing to endorse Sanders when it was clear she had no path and that the moderates were all coalescing around Joe, not to mention withholding her endorsement of Bernie in 2016... she has lost the trust of the progressive movement.
Given that between 30% to 40% democrats support Sanders (70% under 45), a significant amount must be won over to Biden if he hopes to defeat Trump. Sorry for the realpolitik, but trying to throw Warren in the administration as a sort of consolation prize to the progressive movement will most certainly backfire.
4
If he wins in Yang, Warren, Booker, and Steyer he’ll have some of the best choices ever for a Cabinet, and Harris like it or not will be his VP.
We deserve this virus . I know not on a personal level I don’t wish harm on anyone. When will we stop being such selfish destructive creatures . Maybe this virus is the karma we deserve.
4
How many 2020 Democratic Party caucuses and primaries did Elizabeth Warren finish 1st or 2nd in the general voting?
How many 2020 Democratic Party caucuses and primaries did Elizabeth Warren finish 1st or 2nd in the black African American voting?
How many Electoral College majority votes can Elizabeth Warren as Democratic Party Vice Presidential candidate garner in the general election in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin?
What difference did Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin make?
What difference did Lyndon B. Johnson, Spiro T. Agnew, George H. W. Bush, J. Danforth Quayle, Albert Gore and Joseph Biden make?
4
This article's first flaw is alleging that Mr. Biden isn't clueless.
"I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate" - Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Feb 25, 2020
7
“As president, I will veto any universal healthcare that gets passed by the Senate.” Biden, March 2020
4
We get it NYT!
You think Warren should be president.
I’m sorry your collective feelings are hurt that she’s no longer in the race, but the people voted...and they disagree with you!
5
You had me at the subtitle.
4
Wise words, great column.
1
Depending on the debate results on Sunday, if there is a debate on Sunday, Warren may not want to tie her wagon to Biden's star.
Clueless? He beat her, badly, in every race. Not even close. Are all those voters clueless? What this writer forgets about “democracy” is that it produces losers as well as winners. She lost. Bad. He won. Big. He’s been wise to invite everyone into the tent. That’s how to beat trump. But the invitation into the big tent does not mean you get to say that your ideas “should” prevail. It means you must study what won and try to amplify that! That’s the non arrogant, non ideological, non self-centered WINNING formula for all “progressive” options including the federal judge appointments that will determine the next 40 years of American life. Please. Get a clue!
4
Seems you better be sure you get control of the Senate, then.
I have always liked Elizabeth Warren. But Mr. Wilkinson's article seem more intent on insulting liberals and progressives than just supporting Ms. Warren: Apparently, we are "spellbound" and "in denial" - "sleepwalking liberals". Democratic socialists are "in the grip of unworkable, harebrained dogman", and democrats in general are being duped by "Mr. Biden's blinkered complacency and Mr. Sander's quixotic hand-waving". Even with his praise of Ms. Warren, Mr. Wilkinson seems more like a Trumpist hack than a democrat.
3
Click saver - this is a paid advertising for Warren for VP, paid for by the NYT for Warren Committee.
Warren ended the Progressive movement the Sunday before Super Tuesday when she should have joined ranks with Sanders, but instead was selfish and did not.
She split the vote that day and allowed Biden to easy pieacy rush past both Sanders and Warren when he could have been trounced if Warren had not been selfish.
And now you want her as VP. Why?
It's not like she will get anything done as VP, none of her policies will pass, ever, she will just embarrass the president no end and contribute to the log jam like no one before.
Progressives had a moment. Warren ended it out of her own selfishness.
5
It is unfortunate that these NYT articles singing Elizabeth Warren's praise are too late. Where were they when she was actually running for president? I can only conclude that their absence was on purpose and that Warren's proposed policies would negatively affect the NYT interests.
3
@Alex. Yes, our “system” works on seniority......one of it’s big mistakes.
Schumer has been called “ Wall Streets Senator “
How can we get this message to Joe?
2
@PB. Little time for “transitional” administration regarding climate change or, obviously, healthcare for all.
Regarding his donors: Can Biden take their money......and vote against them?
Otherwise, he’ll just be mouthing the words. NYT : “Wall Street Opens Wallets for Biden” ....after Super Tuesday.
The ongoing obsession with Elizabeth Warren by The NY Times is clearly clickbait. Only online is she this popular. It is such a bubble that it's staggering. She lost her home state of Oklahoma and Massachusetts. Why do people keep forcing the winners to lean towards those who were roundly rejected by voters?
6
A continuing parade of people like this guy and their smearing of Bernie Sanders, sums up the NYT. Their pages today harken back to Friedman Unit, Judith Miller, & ceaseless promotion of Iraq War.
Who is @willwilkinson... "Until August 2010, he was a research fellow at the Cato Institute where he worked on a variety of issues including Social Security privatization"
V P here: "The Niskanen Center is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates environmentalism, immigration reform, civil liberties, and a national defense policy based on market principles. The center is named after William A. Niskanen, an economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan."
3
You, and most other Times writers, seem to be afraid to speak the truth. We are a racist nation, perhaps now more than we have been in some time. As offensive and deplorable as it may be, America has never elected a Jewish president. Voters certainly do not seem to be poised to do so in today's climate, one that visibly expresses increased antisemitism. Bernie's religion was as significant an obstacle as his socialist platform.
74
@Disillusioned We've never elected a female one, either, and frankly, we're the biggest share of the population. Our misogyny is stronger than our racism and anti-semitism. If you doubt me, go read Amanda Marcotte's story in Slate about why Bernie tanked in Tuesday's primaries. The statistics are illuminating.
23
@Disillusioned I have no idea if Bernie's Jewish background was a big obstacle for him, but I think you're wrong that it was as big an obstacle as his platform or his reputation as a socialist. Almost everyone I know who preferred Biden over Bernie was either a person of color with moderate political views or just thought Bernie was undetectable or irresponsible because of his reputation as a leftist. The Democratic Party is barely a majority liberal party, let a alone a majority leftist / democratic socialist party. That's why Bernie lost.
24
@Disillusioned Interestingly enough, I've heard and read folks bashing on his policies or lack thereof, his mannerisms, and his age, but never his religion. I guess we run in different circles or something.
27
Methinks you slightly underestimate Joltin Joe Biden. Once Sanders and Warren are united behind Biden, Progressives Democrats can formulate a plan for a Governing Majority that can produce meaningful reform that doesn't scare people about so-called "Revolution". Stay tuned.
2
Warren will have her chance to influence government policy once Joe Biden is elected president. As will Sanders. But both of them, as well as the author of this article, should not forget that the Democratic Party and its members came together and overwhelmingly chose Biden and his policies. Wilkinson is disparaging about Biden, describing his as "an old hand of the party's old guard," suggesting that only Warren and Sanders can give "democratic power back to the sovereign American people." But the people chose Biden; in a democracy, they're the ones who must be trusted to know what's best for them. Biden knows whom he's beholden to. And he can be entrusted to serve their interests.
Whom ever becomes Biden's VP pick would be a 'heartbeat' away from becoming president if Biden can pull this win out.
That is exactly why I want Warren as Biden's VP pick. We need the strongest person the Dem's have with regard to righting the ship. When I saw her shred Bloomberg and others in the Democratic debates using strength, courage and knowledge, I was convinced she would be ready to step right in if needed, as our president.
4
To @PB and others touting Biden's capacity for big structural change:
1) Although Biden did work to help pass the ACA when Obama insisted on going ahead, he had initially strenuously argued against it being a priority, saying change should be much more incremental and undertaken much later. It is much fairer to thank Nancy Pelosi for the ACA.
2) Warren, in contrast to Biden, pretty much single handedly got the CFPB done in just a couple of years.
Biden will need a lot of progressive activism and really good inside advisers (which I think a lot of people will insist he have) to move the needle much on structural change. But first, as reader PB says and voters are demanding, let's get the country off the operating table and out of the ICU.
4
Warren exhibited extremely poor judgement throughout the course of her campaign for the presidency. DNA testing, Medicare for all rollout and the list goes on and on. She had energy, enthusiasm and passion - all totally destroyed by poor judgement. I was very disappointed that she chose to emulate Sanders and his policies without critically looking at the feasibility of the proposals.
1
"Socialists may be in the grip of unworkable, harebrained dogma..."
In case you're not up on the loony, leporine details, just think about the hellscape of Northern Europe, and weep.
3
Please lord jesus, let it be Warren.
2
My wish: Warren formally withdraws from the race and declares her support for Biden and the join the other dem candidates in doing everything to defeat Trump. She would be an excellent VP choice but if not, she needs a serious position on the incoming team. We need her, her ideas and her ability to achieve those.
2
Abolish the Senate altogether. its hyper- gerrymandering's an insult to American democracy.
1
I absolutely agree, but fear Biden's $upporter$ won't allow it.
4
@ugh That is exactly why he needs her. Balance in life/presidential ticket, is very important.
I think Warren is terrific and would love for voice to remain influential in our political life.
But this is a strange piece. Or rather, a strange choice by the NYT op-ed page editors. A 30,000-foot paean to Warren, well after she has dropped out due to lack of public support, without any clear explanation of what it would actually mean in practice for Biden to adopt her ideas?
3
By now, we're all aware that many of the NYT staff are passionately pro-Warren. She is, after all, the candidate who most closely resembles those occupying the bi-coastal elite bubble.
The woman finished third in her home state.
African Americans who don't work for the NYT or a non-profit don't vote for her. Blue collar workers - the people who are struggling to find economic purchase in this changing global economy, and for whom Warren claims to be a champion - have completely rejected her at the polls.
Please stop writing/publishing pieces about how Warren is essential (as VP or as next nominee) to Biden and the Democrats. The Dem electorate has spoken. Warren is essential to no one in the 2020 election.
Get out of your bubble. Wash your hands. Mingle (not too closely) with people from "flyover country." Listen to voters in Michigan. Heed the wisdom of the African American voter.
Stop trying to resurrect Warren's failed candidacy.
4
Amen! Warren for the World!
3
Wow. Who is this guy? The best analysis of what's going on in the US I've read in a while. I can think of 3 regular male Time's Opinion Columnists Mr. Wilkinson can replace in heart-beat.
3
What Biden needs to do to win is to announce that Liz will be his VP.... AND that he will only run for one term, giving way for Liz to run twice more.
A Biden-Warren ticket will win. And then, with Liz effectively his chief advisor, Joe can live out his dream.... and America can live down the trump disaster.
Vote for Biden-Warren!
3
Bad idea. Stand her next to Joe and he looks even more asleep.
1
Warrenism. I love it. America needs it. The corona pandemic proves it.
3
Biden is losing his mind.
It was only last year when he was being interviewed by Anderson Cooper of CNN when Cooper asked Biden if he was going to confiscate guns and Biden snapped back "Bingo!" referring to AR-15's or any other gun that was previously declared an "assault weapon" in the disastrous previous legislation that was finally withdrawn even by Democrat lawmakers having concluded it did absolutely nothing to stem violence.
So Biden was lying when he told that auto worker in Detroit this week that he was full of excrement and lying.
Sounds like Biden needs to apologize.
Maybe he'll do it if Bernie asks him to on Sunday night?
2
Yeah, no. We need Warren like a hole in the head. There’s plenty of thoughtful folks out there that can think around corners. Warren just gets in her own way....
3
So the voters did not strongly support Warren but the NYT believes she is the 'soul' of the Democratic party.
Voters have the 'real power' and this irks jounralists.
3
Very tired of NYT opinion writers telling us that "big structural change" is not a helpful goal or that Sanders "was never the answer." The reason we are getting stuck with Biden is because of defeatist thinking like this, that says good and necessary ideas are "impossible," "never the answer," "a dreadful political slogan," etc. Even when these ideas ARE held to be "okay" (as in this tepic article), Sanders is dismissed.
Sanders offers actual change; Biden absolutely does not. Warren may, but she is no longer in the race. WHY can't anyone at the NYT support Sanders? What are you all so afraid of?
5
Yes, exactly!
Biden, make Elizabeth Warren your VP, this world will be a better place.
2
this column is a real "perfect letter".
On Warren and Joe Biden. Being a politician on the left it will always be a temptation to offer people with little some free stuff to get their votes. Some free college loan forgiveness here, some free health care there and soon you have promised a lot of idiots much too much. That is where Warren AND Sanders find themselves and they are neither smart politically or in reality. The programs this woman, and Bernie, suggested are not good for anyone, especially the deadbeats that cheered for them. They are just like those on the right who fight for more gun ownership. The country has plenty of gun nuts and plenty of deadbeats who want their mistakes fixed by government money. We really need smart candidates who can speak and interact with the other side and we need them on both sides. Joe may have been the guy 20 years ago but it is obvious he has memory problems beyond being "minor". It is sad to look at both sides and their flailing. Neither democrats or republicans need to be proud about anything!
2
Sorry, Will, but I’m really sick of pundits such as yourself characterizing “ social democracy” as some obscene agenda left over from the Trotsky Era. I will forgive you due to your young age , unless that’s a very old picture of you; but America in what was indisputably it’s golden era post WWII through the sixties was more “ socialized” than European countries today with top tax rates on the rich at over 90%, CEOs earning 8 times that of the rank and file not hundreds, the difference is our taxes were building America again through the WPA, the introduction of Social Security , when the dollar actually bought something before the dissolution of Breton Woods and the take over by the disciples of the Milton Friedman School of Economics whereby leverage, debt, financial engineering and destroying labor( remember Friedman began his career with a test run, decimating Chile’s economy, aiding in the ouster of their duly elected President and decades of rule by Chilean Dictator Pinochet, much to the delight of the neo cons and neo liberals who would stand to gain massively over the next fifty years as the middle class was thrown to the wolves of Wall Street. Your premise that America is not ready for a President more in tune with FDR than Pinochet is an out right lie, America was ready in 2016 and was denied by the status quo DNC, Wassermann Schultz and her acolytes with BTW a lot of help from every pundit that The New York Times could find who would write a supporting article.
4
The writer exposes exactly why the oligarchs are so terrified of Senator Warren---and why she literally became persona non grata in the MSM when she performed so well in the early debates.
Our journey down the rabbit hole sped up when Reagan disemboweled the Air Traffic Controllers Union and upended the uneasy truce between the haves-the money folks-and the have nots--the rest of us. Time to reset the scales.
While ideally Senator Warren should be the VP candidate, it probably isn't going to happen, but Secretary of Treasury will do. We desperately need a return of the smart people to the WH---and she's one of the smartest.
1
The Biden/Sanders debate will be useful to understand if the first would be able to confront with Trump. But I strongly doubt it.
Biden should not accept such a confrontation because the POTUS’ rhetoric - mastered by trillions of sharp and concise tweets - would disorient Biden’s course of speech.
Trump will also act – while Biden speaks - with his theatrical smirks, body swayings, hair adjusting, heavy sighs, mouth or belly protudings, wringing hands or eyes rolling: TV directors love airing such grimaces, because people stay glued to the “Box”.
But apart this, there is a stronger justification in avoiding such an onslaught: Trump was impeached by the Dem majority Congress because considered, told in few words, “a Disruptor In Chief” of historical american values: read the “Resolution” and you will find much more than my caption:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/10/us/politics/articles-impeachment-document-pdf.html
The way out would be to accept a debate between the incumbent vice president Mike Pence and the chosen Dem vice president nominee.
You may deem Pence an evanescent hologram, but, for sure, he is a very agreeable person to confront with.
The point for the Dems – all together - will therefore be choosing the right vice president, and future President 2024!
Because Biden, given his age, is destined to be at the helm for just a single term. Coen's “No country for old men”, where the country is USA, is eloquent enough. Elisabeth Warren? Forget her.
1
if Joe really wants to hit home his POTUS win on Nov 3, he needs to bring Liz Warren on as his VP running mate RIGHT NOW !!!
1
@peter H definition of “Presidentialness” is She was for a wealth Tax and financially hurting our “Insurance industry”
Biden will forever be clueless.
4
"Liberalism is on the ropes because it became complacent about power."
Exactly right. Democrats spend too much time nitpicking each other to death about policy niggles, and not nearly enough time fighting for power. Win power first. The rest will follow.
2
Elizabeth Warren ruined Sanders campaign in more ways than one. He give away to rich kids in the form of forgiving student loans and providing free college education made Senator Sanders come along with the same idea. He should have resisted but that is not politics. Warren's support for giving unqualified women more undeserved advantage is more of the same along with creating open borders. Again, Sanders should have resisted and stuck with health insurance reform and ending the absurd wars the United State persistently loses. It is sad to see progressive position go down the drain but Warren's positions spoiled any chance of getting even minimal reforms. Lets hope she goes away forever so no one will ever be influenced by her again.
2
Senator Warren hasn't accomplished a thing in the Senate. She’s very unpopular as a legislator, proposing out of this world projects incapable of being funded. Being a leader should be about getting things done in the jobs you have. Not making speeches about stuff you dream about doing, without any clue nor care about how to actually accomplish what you preach.
Warren has had shifting positions on health care (initial proposals to provide medicare for all, then going across the board in backtracking from that), and her too-far-to-the-left proposals on several other issues. She presented unfunded, unrealistic, pie in the sky, dreams to folks.
Being a serious democratic candidate for the second highest office in the land requires significant discipline, along with lengthy experience in high office, and an agreeable sense of humor as well.
There are less than 20% of the voting public at play, folks. 40% of the voting public are diehard republicans; they go to the polls and vote republican down the line. Same thing with 40% of the voting public who are diehard democrats; they go to the polls and vote the democratic ticket down the line.
To sway that 20%, smarts and reasonableness, along with a sharp but inviting wit, will carry the day. Amy Klobuchar has all of that with gusto.
Be smart, Joe. Amy Klobuchar would clean Pence’s clock in debates, and help bring in the undecided voter to your ticket. Go with Amy, and let’s get out of the cave that Trump led us into.
2
Warren already proved she doesn’t really care if the American people have access to universal healthcare, by not endorsing the only candidate left who is still fighting for us all. Warren is untrustworthy and a fraud, if you judge by her actions. No thank you.
3
Warren was by far a better candidate than Biden, in every conceivable way. What a shame things have worked out as they have.
4
And too bad Warren ran to try to take out Sanders instead of fight for the American people.
5
If Democrats love democracy, its news to me. To the contrary, from abortion to affirmative action to same sex marriage, one of the biggest liberal projects since the 1960's has been the erecting a counter majoritarian apparatus to use the courts and the administrative state to advance liberal social policy objectives without the input of voters. This process has handed liberals outcomes on various issues they wouldn't have gotten at the ballot box but it has been at the cost of destabilizing our republican institutions and poisoning our politics.
1
Warren sold the progressive down the river. She will never come back from stabbing Bernie in the back, ever.
5
Before his opponents fill the airwaves with excerpts of Biden's mis-statements, you need to spend some time actually informing yourself of how unable he is to express himself BEFORE the party convention.
You don't want to find yourself surprised after it is too late to change your party's decision. There are many 14-month-olds better at talking than poor Uncle Joe.
1
This makes some valid points about Warren's qualities but it is so insufferably condescending that it probably doesn't do her much good.
"[Trump] is at the top of a relatively small elite that monopolizes the power to set and enforce rules that allow the ruling class to enrich itself and reinforce its rule through domination and exploitation."
Now, speaking of "relatively small elites that monopolize the power to set and enforce rules that allow the ruling class to enrich itself and reinforce its rule through domination and exploitation" -- you wouldn't mean the DNC, would you ?
What a nonsensical column. As if the power structure behind Biden would, or will, give up anything at all.
2
And who the heck are you, Mr. Wilkinson, to call a public servant with a long record of responsiveness to this country's needs, who has given a son to this country, and who has borne his personal troubles with dignity, to call Mr. Biden: clueless?
Seems to me your title to this piece itself defines who is obnoxiously "clueless" about the civility and respect that this country needs right now!
2
The Niskanen Center, where Mr. Wilkinson is VP For Research, is a Libertarian organization run by a former CATO Institute executive. I am a fan of Warren's. But I don't trust libertarians as far as I can throw one. So am quite suspicious of this op-ed's actual (unwritten) agenda.
3
Yeah - we had a vote - "warrenism" consistently ran a very sad fourth or fifth.
Part deux - you don't get bonus points for your gender - finishing out of the running overall and failing miserably in your own state as a litmus test disqualify - sorry - no do-overs.
Another takedown of Biden masquerading as a recommendation of Warren for VP.
What a joke. The DNC wants the corporations to win and Biden’s idea of bipartisanship is give the Corporations and Republicans what they want and claim victory. He’s a poser. He’s anti choice, he’s anti worker he’s anti consumer he’s pro lobbyist and pro big money. What’s that sound like....REPUBLICAN! He just plays a Democrat on TV.
1
Definite VP or cabinet material...no doubt!
Sure wish she were in charge now.
2
I voted for Warren. I think Biden is too much an “old gentleman”, or misogynist to want her on his team. Maybe Obama, could convince him otherwise? But remember the Obama/Biden team: DACA that solved no problems but registered “illegal aliens” using a promise of a path to citizenship; Merrill Garland who vanished without a fight by Obama; deportations at the southern border states.
1
Waiting on 159 delegates in states where Bernie leads, while Biden leads by 140
1
I’m saving this op ed. “Awake to power” is something we should all be...how could we not as the GOP has shed all of its mores and standards in favor of naked grasp and grift.
Spot on! Warren’s truths march on!
1
I'm sure Mike would be most supportive.
How refreshing to read this on the heels of Tom Friedman yesterday. Wilkinson gets it Friedman doesn't.
1
Trump, Biden, Sanders.... any of these men could be dead in November. They're all in the highest-risk groups both for contracting COVID-19 and for dying from it.
Whether it is Trump, Biden or the man on the moon in 2020 one thing is a certain unchanging fact. People like me will continue to pay for everyone's "programs, as a barely upper middle class people. Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations: us. Medicare, free college etc for all: us.
We owe this to you? I put myself through college working on a trash truck one summer. What I have, I earned by dint of hard work and saving it not spending it.
When you think to send us the bill for your next program, you might want to check the address. I believe it's time to leave the old Red, White and Blue. Your taking only works if we keep giving.
1
@Me Really, are you sure you put yourself through college working on a trash track? You think maybe what you paid them wasn't the full cost of what you were getting and you were subsided by (gasp) tax dollars? Do you honestly think college is as cheap now as when you went? Work all summer for a low wage job now and that will pay for what, a couple weeks of the first semester?
3
I voted for warren in the primary and, although disappointed, I'll vote for Biden in the general. I'd really like to see Warren on the ticket although I'd hate to loose her as my senator.
1
A really thoughtful and well articulated article. I would see Elizabeth Warren best serving this country as Senate Majority Leader or as Secretary of Labor or Treasury. Those are the places where the power of her ideas and the commensurate authority of her position can have the greatest impact on reducing the excesses of capitalism. Joe Biden would be well served to make her a key advisor to whom he listened and heeded.
I don't think she would be right for the VP position. I feel it would be wasting her talents. Furthermore, the Democratic movers and shakers should be viewing the next VP as the person they want to groom for the next Democratic nominee for President (post Biden). An awful lot of VPs end up being top dog at some point. As such, a millennial (the oldest millennial are now 42 if you can believe that) or a Gen Xer should be the next VP in a Biden administration. Picking the right person in those generations would further help Joe Biden win this election in the first place, more so than Elizabeth Warren would.
1
One thing the author forgot: 'if there is a structure left after this catastrophe! Forget Warren we need a miracle as the markets sink into a black hole. The question is at what point does civilization begin to dissolve? So far we are on the brink of doing just that as more and more reality begins to sink in and the bubble falls away. I was out knocking doors and the fear is seeping in as the person working with me decided the risk was too great. This requires more than an Elizabeth Warren it will require a Joan of Arc!
1
I am a staunch Bernie supporter. Two points.
Elizabeth Warren has a history of opportunistic pretend-victimhood which displays a fundamentally untrustworthy nature. She is now justifiably reviled by a large fraction of Bernie supporters for her betrayal of the left by refusing to endorse Bernie. Someone who dedicated their life to progressive causes does not equivocate between Bernie Sanders and a man who voted for the Iraq war because somebody sent her a snake emoji on twitter. Clearly she is hoping for a cabinet position, which Joe Biden has no reason to give her because primary results showed that she doesn't have much popular support. She is too progressive for the centrists but also not trusted by progressives.
Second, nothing about any proposal of Bernie Sanders is "hair-brained". His self description aside, his policies would be considered centrists in most 1st world countries. Turkey is a right wing country with a substantially lower gdp per capita than America and it provides its citizens with free universal health care and free college. The fact that centrists keep talking about these ideas as if they're dealing with a fringe utopian cult demonstrates their fundamental bad-faith. Warren or no, centrists Democrats will have to learn that they can no longer take the left for granted while giving nothing in return. I am seriously considering staying home in November unless Biden offers a major carrot to the left, and I'm sure this applies to a large number of people.
7
No, it wasn’t the “establishment” that put Joe Biden in position to get the Democratic nomination; it was people voting, people for all their myriad reasons. I was for Warren, but I will vote happily for Biden in the general election, if only because he is a good person, and the current president isn’t.
5
It was the kitchen sinks, the washer and the dryer and a Democratc party, funded by Republican Bloomberg and enthralled with Republican Warren that is scared to death by Bernie's threat to exploitative capitalism that sunk this country, and it will not get better until more of us realize that social and economic justice and a media that reports on the news instead of maniplate for their high bidders interests. And deny it or not Americans are becoming enlightened. What Bernie accomplished is fantastic, and it is just the beginning. q
1
Biden is a diminished version of Obama, so it will be better no to have expectations because even if he wins his will not be allowed by his donors to do anything that affect their interests.
3
I cannot convey how much I admire Elizabeth Warren. She was unfairly rejected by the GOP to head an agency she created, the CFPB, and turned that into a successful run for Senate and a plausible and influential presidential campaign. She's an effective legislator. If progressive ideas like Medicare for All, a federal minimum wage, or climate change action have any chance in the next Congress, it will be through the efforts of leaders like her. If anyone can turn a failed presidential run into something better than the presidency, it's Elizabeth Warren. Biden or Sanders may be elected president, but there's still a good chance history will call this era the Warren New Deal.
5
Warren has nothing to do with this. She even refuses to continue to fight for the American people unless it directly benefits her personally. Kind of reminds me in no small way of Hillary...
1
Thanks SO much for this -- best piece about Warren I've seen in the NYT in some time, perhaps ever.
Too bad there were not more analyses of her extremely well considered plans, determined practicality, strong DC power negotiation skills, and real differences from Sanders when it could have done her campaign some good.
Please, please, Democrats, especially Biden, use this woman's brain and passion to restore the nation's capacity to lead, prosper, and expand opportunity to all. Biden (my 3rd or 4th choice) may beat Trump (and I will work to help make it happen), but he will need all the help he can get to govern.
9
I absolutely agree. The Dems have to take off the gloves, because the Republicans have morphed into an autocratic, undemocratic corruption machine that will do anything to retain power. Regaining control of the Executive and Legislative branches is paramount. Sanders progressive should not dismiss Biden. He is a creature of the Democratic Party, which is now much more progressive than it was in 2016. He will sign what ever laws the Dems muscle through. If the Dems get power back, the most important thing is a strategy to keep power or else the Republicans will undo whatever gains can be made. Here’s how: make DC and maybe some of the Territories states — more Democrat senators; add additional Supreme Court justices to correct a right-wing court that does not reflect majority opinion; fast-track Dreamers and select immigrants to citizenship and register them to vote; begin the process to abolish the Electorial College that makes a sham of “one person, one vote” democracy.
2
I admire and respect Elizabeth Warren and remain hopeful she can find a way - a 'delivery system' - to make clear what needs to be fixed & how she's the person to do it. The message(s) need to be reduced to simple concepts (& perhaps graphics & cartoons) to make the points totally clear. Not because people can't understand it all - but because the major message needs to be clear, simple & powerful.
2
Dream on. It's darkly funny that this guy writes one of those "savvy", above-it-all, Big Picture pieces about Power and how it works...and then says that Biden needs to take all his orders from a defeated opponent. The first rule of power is that almost nobody gives it away. Certainly not old men that have had every success hoarding it and using all their lives; he's the least-likely guy to change.
Warren's rhetoric and fans will be mined for their support, given vague promises that their agenda will be respected...and then will be ignored. Is Biden going to tell all his friends and donors of a lifetime to take a hike, he has new friends now?
3
This is why Elizabeth should immediately declare her support for Joe and pitch in--for the sake of our country.
2
It is difficult to overstimate the gullibility of the American public. Months ago Democrats finally listened to Elizabeth Warren and her popularity surged. Then something happened; it is hard to know exactly what, but certainly the fear instilled in the 1% by the thought of a real reformer who was clearly electable led them to pull out all the stops and send their main stream media and pundits into action to take her down. Warren is the real hope of the Democratic Party and of the 90%. They have been sold a bill of goods on the "electability " of Biden. I am afraid that Trump and the Republicans will eat him alive and make the Hillary smear campaign look like child's play. Nonetheless, I, and all progressives will vote for Biden or anyone else who wins the Democratic nomonation while holding my nose with one hand and crossing my fingers on the other.
6
"There can be no meaningful change in policy — no universal health care, no clawback of systemic corruption, no large-scale climate action — without distributing democratic power back to the sovereign American people. And that means leaving blood, teeth and shredded filibuster rules all over the Senate floor."
Wow. This is the best work I've seen from the Times in years. Well done, Mr. Wilkinson.
8
If this was written by a Times reporter....
Mr Wilkinson works for the Niskanen Center which is a spin off of the Koch brothers funded Cato Institute.
And while he says he will miss Bernie Sanders, he apparently will not miss Bernie’s or even Biden’s healthcare plans.
The Niskanen Center statement on healthcare calls for catastrophic insurance ( read “not real health insurance”) that is consistent with market based efforts .. blah, blah blah..
Essentially a libertarian stance that you are really on your own for health coverage.
4
This paean of praise of Warren is fine and I agree with it, but it stops short of saying that if Biden is the Democratic nominee to challenge Trump, then Biden should pick Warren as his running mate. Perhaps that was implied but not explicit.
If Biden did that he would accomplish two things in one stroke: (1) pick the best candidate available for the job, and (2) put a woman on the presidential ticket.
And a third accomplishment if he is elected would be to make Warren our first female Vice President.
Finally, Warren would get under Trump's skin without having to say a word to him or about him, and that is a big positive.
14
I couldn't agree more. Biden would be smart to keep Elizabeth Warren on speed dial. She understands the country better than anyone and has the ideas and plans to fix things. Biden needs her.
8
Perhaps we need a different perspective on administrative law and regulations. Instead of viewing regulations as a means of oppression, either as a goal, or alternatively as something to avoid, the administrator/regulator should regard regulations as a means of protecting the public from arbitrary and partisan administration of the laws passed through legislation. To accomplish this our system for generating regulations must neuter the power and access of interest groups to shape rule making to the liking of the permanently present interest group lobbies. Maybe we can start by elimination of lobbying expenses as a legitimate business expense for either the enterprise or it’s ownership.
1
This Warren Democrat would love to see Sen. Warren picked for the VP slot, as her health, vigor, and sharp mind would be essential assets should presidential succession come into play. That said, we need her in the next administration, badly, so I'll be satisfied if she's tapped for a cabinet position. As another commenter suggested, a reconstituted HEW or Labor would be excellent slots for her as well. But if we really want to see heads spin, make her the new Treasury Secretary. Just imagine what she could do there.
6
You convinced me, an upper 70’s white woman.
Now, could someone who knows how to organize write a follow-up article and let’s get going!
140
@M. D.
Biden will always be clueless and corporate.
"Socialists may be in the grip of unworkable, harebrained dogma, "
The above is the usual bias from the NYT and other Establishment media, that has disparaged Sanders and his ideas, working ferociously to kill his candidacy.
Sanders has won the battle of ideas.
Look at the exit polls.
But the warmongering, Wall Street supporting, status quo protecting Republican/Democratic Establishment, and Isreal, knew that to protect their interests, they had to push Biden to frontrunner status.
And demonizing Sanders and continually pronouncing Sanders as unelectable, was effective.
I'm looking forward to Sanders debating Biden.
Biden is clueless about the American Dream dying decades ago.
And clueless about the obscene colossal and growing inequality of opportunity, income and wealth, where the richest .1 percent take in 196 times the bottom 90 percent.
With Joe, inequality will only grow... as it did during the Obama administration.
Warren has good plans, but Sanders has always, his whole life been sticking his neck out, trying to make lives of working people better.
A minimum wage of fifteen dollars an hour, the idea that healthcare is a right, tuition free continuing public education after high school, are all Sanders promoted ideas that the majority now support.
I hope Biden pays attention to the questions Sanders will be posing to Biden in the debate Sunday.
15
@Lucy Cooke
Warren has shown herself to be more about herself than the issues. She failed to endorse Sanders when that would have given him a nudge in the race.
Having done that, she has shown who she is--an opportunist more than a progressive.
3
@She
I agree.
Sanders would not have run in 2016 if Warren had run, despite sooo many people wanting her to run.
So, Sanders took the opportunity to run to promote his long held ideas for making life better for working people.
Warren did not stick her neck out to endorse him then, as now.
Because of that, I distrust Warren, and respect her less, while recognizing that her
work to create the CFPB was fantastic.
Also, I loved the way she shredded Bloomberg!
But, yes, it seems her pride and her ego are more important to her than endorsing Sanders.
3
Warren is a reform candidate with a deep knowledge of the structural problems which plague corporate capitalism. In my opinion, this election cycle demanded a reform candidate. I couldn't agree more, she should play a key role in efforts to recover from the most morally and fiscally corrupt administration in the history of the US.
11
Thank you! What Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and even Mayor Pete and Amy Klobachar discussed, Warren more fully but the others with better remedies, is where we needed to go. The problem was that the candidates and the electorate were paralyzed trying to decide which one horse to ride. So the decision was to ride a retired derby 2nd place finisher because they couldn't confidently imagine their fellow voters to come around and back a new name. What a shame.
I frankly cannot fathom Biden coming up with anything that is not scripted, but a hug and empathy, in a time of crisis. He's just not that smart. He is a survivor. Hope he can surround himself with brilliant people. If his older son Beau were still alive, I'd have more confidence.
2
I agree with Wilkinson that Elizabeth Warren's understanding of the fact that money and power have corrupted our democratic processes and needs to be rooted out. However, characterizing Biden as part of the problem while acknowledging him as the presumptive nominee only demonstrates the writers complete ignorance of politics. Deeming someone incapable of changing the system and then asking them to do just that isn't a good start in transforming the Democratic Party. It's what I would call the intellectual superiority of a opinion writer with no sense of the practical.
1
This may be the most salient piece I've read about Elizabeth Warren's politics and policies since she announced her candidacy. Warren has made clear the threat that the current concentration of wealth and power poses to U.S. democracy, and her proposals to fix it are indeed bold and necessary. Following Warren's campaign has educated me on the connections between economic power and political power, and the need to disperse both in order to have a truly representative, transparent, functioning democracy in the U.S. Warren is capitalist to her bones, and she is also democratic (small-d) to her bones. Wholeheartedly agree that the Democrats need to take up Warren's ideas in a big way to reform and reinvigorate our faltering democracy.
12
This is one of the best opinion pieces I've seen on the Biden candidacy.
Our one and only goal is to put the Democratic Party in position to govern the country.
After 6 years of scorched-earth GOP Congressional opposition to Obama, and 4 years of Trump lunacy and corruption with total acquiescence by his party, our mission is simply to end the madness.
Build the broadest possible coalition to win as many offices as possible nationwide. Get us to where a Democratic Congress is working to fix the health care system and running the oversight committees, a Democratic President is staffing the executive agencies and appointing judges, and a Democratic Senate is confirming them.
That's not "the status quo." That's a position Democrats have only been in for 4 of the last 40 years. Absolutely nothing in our political system gets better until we have that.
Joe Biden is going to win the nomination, for better or worse. At best, he's going to be a figurehead. He's not the worst figurehead we could have picked. If we approach this election like we're in a Parliamentary system of government and vote accordingly, the country will be in a much better place than it has been.
8
Wilkinson states Biden is "in denial about the depth of polarization" between Democrats and Republicans. Does he think Sanders is the answer to ease this polarization? Sanders' ultra progressive platform has polarized the Democrats. I agree that Biden can benefit from welcoming many of Warren's ideas, and if he becomes president, Biden would be wise to offer Warren a key cabinet position such as Secretary of Education.
1
Secretary of Education! How droll. Let’s see, Betsy DeVos.
How about Warren as Secretary of the Treasury? Or Attorney General?
2
@nzierler
Really? Secretary of Education--where her expertise in economics and finance can best be used?
1
Mr Wilkinson should not be subjected to the argument that Americans rejected "Warrenism" because they rejected Warren. Her message is indeed separate from the messenger. What her message might be is of course subject to debate, but his column seems to provide a cogent argument for a deserved fight over "good, old-fashioned American republicanism with bite."
1
I deeply agree with everything you write. Thank you, I'm forwarding your piece to others.
1
Yes, the Democrats need a dose of Warren-ism. Not with her as VP - she would be wasted. Give her a position of power either in the Senate or in the Biden administration. For VP, think Klobuchar.
3
Ideals are wonderful things. Unfortunately, they often blind us to the effects of the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.
America is a gigantic engine of prosperity. Of course not everyone shares equally in that prosperity. Nonetheless, all, or nearly all, benefit to one degree or another in that enormous pot of wealth. Yes, the people have some power to organize and change the terms of the sharing of that wealth. The difficult question is what will be the effects on that wealth of changing the rules about how it is shared.
It is entirely plausible that if we drastically disincentive the accumulation of wealth we risk radically slowing down, or perhaps even halting, the huge engine of wealth accumulation that is the American economy. Sure, the wealthy and powerful will be effected, but undeniably the effects will be more harmful to regular people. In fact, the entire Trump debacle can be fairly laid at the doorstep of millions of working class Americans being pushed to the margins of the economy and finding their voice, admittedly an inaccurate voice, in this lying, self aggrandizing, alleged businessman.
So changes are good, but let’s take it slowly and carefully so we don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
1
Absolutely correct, Mr. Wilkinson, and if the Biden and DNC forces take your wise advice, I can get on board. But you know they won't.
How could they when Joe Biden is the bone and sinew of everything structural that needs reforming? And why should they listen to Loser Liz and Socialist Sanders when Democratic voters are voting in droves to affirm their anointed one? "See, the people don't want reform! They want normalcy!"
So dream on, Mr. Wilkinson. If Biden is elected, and let us all hope for the sake of democracy that he is, there will be no scary "revolution" but there will be no structural reform either. Four years later, there will be a Trump 2.0 in the Oval Office who will finish the job of tearing down the people's house and giving title to the land beneath it to a fascist oligarchy.
5
I can't bring myself to vote for Biden, even if Warren is his running mate. I'll write in Warren for President but I won't vote for Biden. The man has lost his mind, he said he won't change in anything in Washington (it will be business as usual), and he's too old. Listen to him try to speak. He can't even handle speeches let alone unrehearsed answers. Biden is also an angry man who yells at constituents, curses at them, and tells them to shut up. We already have that type of "man" currently occupying the Oval Office. Why Democrats continue to push losers in national elections, I'll never understand.
5
Excellent essay, brimming with insight.
But please don’t use the word “clueless” in a headline next time. The right wing disinformation echo chamber will use this against Biden. I can just see the following headline: NYT: “Joe Biden...Clueless”
3
BIDEN/WARREN 2020!!
1
Preach Brother, Preach.
I would like Elizabeth Warren to have as much influence on the next president as Frances Perkins had on FDR.
From the Frances Perkins Center:
"When, in February 1933, President-elect Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor, she outlined for him a set of policy priorities she would pursue: a 40-hour workweek; a minimum wage; unemployment compensation; worker’s compensation; abolition of child labor; direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief; Social Security; a revitalized federal employment service; and universal health insurance.
Perkins made it clear to Roosevelt that his agreement with these priorities was a condition of her joining his cabinet. Roosevelt said he endorsed them all, and Frances Perkins became the first woman in the nation to serve in a Presidential cabinet."
At the time of Roosevelt’s death in April of 1945, Frances Perkins was the longest-serving labor secretary and one of only two cabinet secretaries to serve the entire length of the Roosevelt Presidency.
In 1944, a piece portraying Frances Perkins in Collier’s magazine described her accomplishments over the previous twelve years as “not so much the Roosevelt New Deal, as … the Perkins New Deal.” She had accomplished all but one of the items on the agenda she had presented to the newly elected President in February of 1933: universal access to health care."
999
@Seanchai
I've been thinking along those lines for Warren. She could do an incredible amount of good as Secretary of a re-established super-department of Health Education and Welfare (possible renamed, but with that portfolio). If she made the same kind of bargain as Perkins (including the required commitment to tax restructuring) she could make sure legislation and implementation in those areas actually improve the lives and life-possiblities of the bottom 80%
50
@Seanchai - - - You can thank the American auto industry for the 40-hour work week.
Always depend on the freedoms allowed by private enterprise to lead the way in provising for workers and their families.
If one employer quits having the right ideas, a competitor with better ideas will come forward with more of what workers want, such as free health insurance at work.
4
@L osservatore
Health insurance at work is never free. It's the opposite of free. Indentured servants?
It is separated compensation and it only works for the employer, not the employee. Especially as it has worked for decades with pesky things like pre-existing conditions, making it difficult for employees to leave a job.
Universal Health Care solves everyone's problems except the excess profits of the top few might diminish a little.
Times change. Healthcare is not free now for anyone, nor will it ever be free. It could be a lot cheaper over a lifetime and more stable esp. in pandemic response though.
47
Biden-Warren is a golden ticket
2
Hear, hear!
1
"quixotic hand-waving"
Really? SMH
2
Warren's not in the race anymore.
5
Elizabeth Warren for Vice President!
3
Let me be frank. I would have preferred Bernie because I don’t think Biden has a clue or is capable of acting on one if he could. Over the past couple of weeks we have seen Biden very much like someone who is getting a bit senile. Getting in verbal altercations with people, doesn’t seem to be able to put two cogent sentences together, makes far too many gaffs. This isn’t the Biden of 12 years ago, I have a suspicion that the is actually a false front and before the convention he will decide he isn’t up to the job and try to pass the nomination to another one of the centrists who has their mind in gear.
3
10 - 4
1
Biden Warren 2020
1
I heard Sally Yates name and thought what an excellent person to reintroduce and reinforce the importance of the rule of law, honesty and integrity in governance should we be fortunate enough to find Biden president in November.
2
Amen!!
No. Wrong.
1
Amen, brother!
1
Amen!
1
Amen.
1
Amen.
1
Amen.
1
Biden - President
Warren - Vice President
Harris - USAG
This trifecta would start by taking names and kicking corrupt bottoms. They'll drain the swamp!
4
They are the donor-friendly, neoliberal swamp that created Trump. No thanks.
4
You would think, judging from Wilkinson's hysteria over Biden's paeans to bipartisanship, that Biden has offered to let Mitch McConnell fill all vacancies on the Supreme Court if he becomes president. What would Wilkinson like to hear Biden say about Republicans: that they are "human scum," or "enemies of the people," or that he will chop them into sausage and feed them to the dogs? Trump is going to lose in November because a majority Americans, who stand between the two extremes, are sick and tired of that. Wilkinson is certainly correct that there is little to no hope that Republicans in Congress will accept the olive branch. Biden, having been our "Kenyan" president's v.p. for eight years, certainly knows that as well as anyone. But he should continue to make a show of making the effort anyway.
1
The black community, especially black women, brought Biden’s presidential bid back to life. Thus, I recommend Stacy Abrams for VP. She is quick-witted. smart as hell, and could possibly turn Georgia from to purple and maybe even Blue.
2
@Sonya Ms. Abrams would be a solid choice. The question I have is, would she accept it? My understanding is that she has resisted calls to run for the US Senate, preferring to concentrate on Georgia's issues.
1
Amen. Peter Hirschberg had an idea for Biden to form a cabinet now, filling it with many of his endorsers/former rivals. Czar or the economy: Elizabeth Warren. Think of the split screen of President Trump golfing / Biden cabinet working through what might work for combating COVID-19!
2
Warren for Secretary of Treasury.
2
I told my wife 5+ years ago that the rise of the angry white male was upon us
A classmate told me 2 years ago that you ain’t seen nothing yet the delegitimization of voters had just started
This is an excellent recipe to help save capitalism from its’s extremists and make it work for more and more not fewer and fewer Americans
3
Assuming Dems win, Warren will have four years to get work done. Give her a majority Congress to work with (and Katie Porter...that woman is dynamite!) and Warren won't disappoint.
360
@Rw Warren? Sorry no. She's extraordinarily intelligent but her affect (especially body language) give me vertigo. Now Katie Porter is not only extraordinarily gifted- especially in economic policy- but she's calm, focused, and formidable in seeking out the truth.
9
Warren for VP is the smart move. Given Biden’s age and cognitive difficulties, anything could happen. Even a woman as president.
3
You nailed it! Hopefully the DNC and the puppet masters see this clearly.
3
Once again, The Times feels it's appropriate for conservative ideologues to lecture us Democrats as to what is best for us, and which candidates we should select.
This time it's Will Wilkinson of the right-wing Niskanen Center, which was created by a group of right-wingers from the Cato Institute. Under the guise of praising Elizabeth Warren, this essay actually is all about attacking Bernie Sanders and his increasingly popular polices of national healthcare, free university tuition, and an aggressive response to global warming.
This conservative pundit tells us that we Democrats "are hungry for reform, not revolution," while attacking Biden's "blinkered complacency."
I have had it up to here with The Times' filling its opinion pages with lectures from conservatives for us progressive Democrats.
Enough!
9
What a good article!!! It does not make you electable but when elected it sets the right agenda for the future.
So why did nobody vote for Warren, then?
2
The choice of Kamala Harris for VP could go a long way in accomplishing the same things, symbolically defusing the stridency of ”Warrenism,” as you call it.
1
Finally, the first article about Biden vs Sanders that isn't an attack screed on Sanders AND is inviting to progressives. Thank you.
Given Biden's age his choice of VP will be extra important, even crucial. But I can't even begin to guess who his choice will be.
Right on! Warren should be the VP and Biden should listen to her and wake up.
1
Warren already showed she was merely running to prevent us from getting the policies she pretended to support. She’s a fake. She’s untrustworthy.
1
Why is the NYT still trying to spotlight a politician who has just been so firmly rejected by the electorate? The senator spent years preparing for this campaign, only to come third in Iowa (losing to an unknown small-town mayor); fourth on the neighboring liberal turf of New Hampshire with <10% of the vote (losing badly to a largely unknown fellow female senator who raised about 60% less cash); fourth and below viability in Nevada; fifth in South Carolina (below a candidate with highly publicized issues around the black vote); third in her home state and fourth in most states on Super Tuesday, losing to (among others) a problematic billionaire she famously eviscerated on national TV. Voters in her own party have made it very clear that they do not support this politician, and one can only imagine how much weaker that support would be in the country as a whole. Perhaps these results are embarrassing for the NYT, given its prominent endorsement, but they feel like a signal that it is time to move on.
2
@Chris
It's not the politician, it's the policies that are the focus here, policies that are desperately needed.
Elizabeth Warren did not convince American voters that she could could beat Donald Trump even though many understood what she was saying and agreed with her. The problem is, we have one top priority: ousting Donald Trump. Was she the one to do it? She made political missteps, and there were doubts.
You're from London, so maybe you don't understand how desperately we want Trump gone. Even supporters of Warren and Sanders, like myself, were worried and so we did not necessarily vote for the person we would like to be the president. We voted for the person we think swing voters in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will vote for.
That may be wrongheaded, but that's what we did. We want Trump out, so we have settled on Biden. He's not ideal, but at least the word 'socialist' will never be attached to him.
Joe Biden should not make the mistake of thinking that Americans don't want what Elizabeth Warren was offering. Poll after poll confirms that, yes, we do want her policies. We just can't afford to lose to Trump.
If Biden doesn't figure that out, he will lose, just as Hillary lost.
4
@Chris Absolutely dear chap! You nailed it. Anyway,
the Democrats can't afford to lose any senators. The
ideal V.P. would be a brilliant young and attractive African American congresswoman. She exists.
1
Warren was muted by corporate democrats at the expense of the nation. She posed an existential threat to thier addiction to corporate money. They knew that Bernie could eventually be defeated by his bogie word of socialism.
Warren’s initial rise was due to calling a rigged system where those with money are the ones the rule our politics and offering a legislative fix which would bring more transparency to the system.
Her many enemies realizing that her strength comes from the more educated, the young and women, decided to fund Klobuchar and Buttigieg to poach off some of her supporters, which they did. Having so many plans to fix our many problems also left her exposed to the minutia her plans such as paying for Medicare for all, unlike Bernie’s.
Her biggest mistake was not to tie in this rigged system with why when the majority of us are for universal healthcare, gun control, global warming, etc., the revolving door of politicians and lobbyists means nothing gets done. She didn’t point out to the GOP’s Trump's impeachment acquittal as a payback for tax cuts, deregulation, corporate welfare etc.
With Biden our plutocracy will continue, any marginal change by Biden if any at all will continue to disenfranchise those who feel the system is rigged. The pool of voters will be less and less giving the GOP the chance to reemerge with another right-winged demagogue, but more intelligent, less treasonous and corrupt. The democrat’s myopia will bring another Trump.
Warren is an immense force to be reckoned with, intellectually and in terms of driving policy reform, and she laudably offers that to the country at a critical time. But that intensity doesn't (yet?) resonate across the broadest
supporter base that it needs to, even while anyone who's listening can see she feels the pain of ordinary Americans and institutionalized injustice, and even while she garners huge admiration. Biden should absolutely embrace her necessary, authentic reformist power, ideally in a top Cabinet position that provides the opportunity to produce not only lasting structural change, but the objective metrics proving it, in line with Warren's facts-based style. Warren has the mojo to do it! As much as I dream of a Biden Warren ticket, I don't think that's the best way forward to beat Trump or - this cycle - to harness Warren's clear potential to deliver on profound reformist goals. Warren is an essential part of the solution for a Democratic takeover.
1
This article reminds me of my working years and all the incompetent men who were managers and business owners.
The men took home the money and the credit, but the women did the work.
7
Yes, Joe Biden needs Elizabeth Warren in a senior position pulling him toward more progressive policies. Then his election would give Democrats 4 years to come to terms with what needs to change; and the younger generation of Democrats can begin to champion elements of her agenda that appeal to younger voters.
4
I believe people will regret falling for the sexist and elitist backlash against Elizabeth Warren after she became the frontrunner earlier in the year. Elitist? What has she ever done that is elitist? Her work with the CFPB? Do you realize how many middle-class and poor people mired in debt that she helped there? She has a bill in Mass. to make hearing aids more affordable and accessible--is that elitist? Will anyone ever look at someone's record before they paste some false meme on them? And the press led the backlash with headlines like, "Why don't we like Elizabeth Warren?" I'm sorry, Will Wilkinson, you are too late with this viewpoint. Let's hope she finds someplace for her distinctive and original voice in the next government. If not, I'll be glad to have her back as my Senator.
4
Elizabeth Warren would be a brilliant replacement of Mitch McConnell. Everyone needs to work hard now to flip the Senate and get her as our new Senate Majority Leader!
7
Sanders' call is for a "political revolution," not for revolutionary change wholesale. In his stump speech, Sanders makes clear that what he's talking about is getting big money (and ideally even little money) out of political campaigns. Publicly financed elections, free long-form air-time provided to serious candidates, and maximizing access to voting are the pillars of this revolution. The theory is that if you reduce the influence of the powerful and increase the participation and engagement of the many, then popular and needed reforms like universal affordable quality health insurance, affordable higher education, and a massive investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, public transit, and smart growth will be put into practice.
5
We could have used this piece about 2 months ago. Where was this smart, balanced perspective then?
4
Warrenism is popular but the candidate Warren who went all-in on woke policies repels voters.
5
The Times endorsed Warren and Klobuchar with good reasoning. Biden can be shown the editorial and take it from there.
Vice president Warren. I like it.
1
Folks, Trust busting time is here and Today’s T.Rex says, “Let’s get this party started!”.
1
Wilkinson states "Democrats should pick up the fallen flag of Warren-ism and run." I agree - run fast and run far away from Warren, Stopping only to bury "the fallen flag"
One other “lesson about power” - crime bosses are supported by knuckleheads.
But, I will never give up my belief that Hilliary Clinton won the vote by 2.8 million and should be president, period the end !
Que the pandering by right wing democrats trying to pretend they care as they attempt to get the progressives they hate to once again vote for a right winger who believes that millions of people without healthcare should remain that way.
The liberals are always a minority. Only about 20 percent of the country and the rest are greedy and cruel right wingers. It is a fact and it will not change and no promises from the democrats is real.
3
The revolution is to unseat a de-facto dictator. ANY RESPONSIBLE ADULT is a good start.
1
Bravo! My sentiments exactly.
Seeing the words clueless and Joe Biden in the same headline is no accident. Joe will continue to embarrass himself in a big way on the campaign trail. He will perform face plant after face plant. His most recent dust up on AR-14s is just the tip of the iceberg.
2
The typical confusion between rhetorical elegance and doing something. "Warrenism" is "Obamaims" in your face. It is hard for some people to understand that Warrenism, not Warren, did not get the votes. Stop being fascinated by your own narrative. Take the right steps at the right time.
Biden has a lot of negatives, but a Democratic team is infinitely better than the crazies "in charge" now. I wish Klobuchar or Bennett would have picked up speed early, but any moderate was treated like a dinosaur. And here we are.
Remember that Obama won big as a candidate in the middle. And Pelosi helped him be a successful president in the first term. Stop complaining, take the win, and build the team. And if the dem truly want to win, better remember that Warrenism lost.
2
There's a lot of obscure lingo here, but I believe I agree with the writer. Especially about the blood and teeth.
Revolution? Democratic Socialism?
One reason Sanders wasn't embraced by older people was that we've heard all of that tired rhetoric before. Revolution? Isn't that the flip side of the Hey Jude single? Wasn't that supposed to happen about 1971?
Democratic Socialism? Why would any politician with a brain shackle themselves with a label like that? Maybe because it was cool back in 1971.
We've seen that movie.
Sanders adopted good policies. None of which he invented.
But using the sloganeering of 1971 is going to fly with anyone that is aware of 1971.
@David Gagne
Correx: But using the sloganeering of 1971 ISN'T going to fly with anyone that is aware of 1971.
1
Not to belabor the point but Warren deserved to be the nominee and a white male of comparable achievement and competence would have sewn it up by now.
She is uniquely and critically relevant for this moment in time (brilliant, pragmatic, clear eyed with a focus on solutions) and I fear rampant sexism, political polarization and misinformation means she’ll never have the chance to influence or enact her sensible policy ideas.
She’d be brilliant as treasury chair-BUT- the big banks will never allow it.
She’d be outstanding as Federal Reserve Chair - BUT- the Republicans will never allow it.
She’d be great as secretary of Commerce BUT big business will never allow it.
She’d be fantastic on the Supreme Court BUT the Republicans will ever allow it.
She’d be wasted as VP with only superficial, ornamental tasks and no policy control and given the current anti Warren climate she’d tank Biden’s chances.
We get the government we deserve. I’m speechless and broken by how far we have fallen. It feels like the Fall of the Roman Empire.
568
@JAS Yes, Warren is brilliant, pragmatic and clear-eyed, and I would add, compassionate, with an understanding across class differences.
78
@JAS not to mention that if she becomes VP, Charlie Baker (Republican Governor) would likely pick a a Republican to replace her in the Senate, making further change even more challenging.
26
@JAS
"It feels like the Fall of the Roman Empire."
Only faster.
47
"distributing democratic power back to the sovereign American people." Will, you mean take power away from those who disagree with you? Are the people of Dixie not part of the sovereign American people? Your attitude is a fine illustration of the problems of so-called "progressives." How words decay! A progressive gets important things done; a progressive does not whine and whinge and pat himself on the back for achieving nothing.
3
“Dreadful political slogans” don’t win elections.
The only difference between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren of meaningful substance is their looks. This is superficial and superfluous. This is the way Trump looks at and evaluates people! Holly Hicks has (“the look”) and John Bolton has the mustache and was shown the door.
Both Warren or Sanders policies are what we need. What we need is a revolution and I don’t think Biden has it in him. I do however agree that Warren needs to stay close to Joe Biden’s war. Bernie could as well, but to superficial people, like Trump, they don’t think he has “the look”.
@George Washing Tub
You can't judge a book by its cover.
1
Once again, a nice, mediocre man will take a competent woman's ideas. Let's hope he gives her credit at some point .... that will be progress.
7
Warren as a VP would be a terrible idea.She is not authentic and has no convictions.
Mike Pence will destroy her in a debate.
2
@gdk. I lived in Indiana when Pence was Governor. He was terrible & about to lose re-election when he begged to jump on the Trump crazy train. Pence is an ex disc jockey, a religious extremist/sanctimonious hypocrite who allowed a small Indiana town to be ravaged by an HIV/AIDS epidemic because he refused to approve a needle exchange program until national criticism forced him. He is a mental midget compared to Elizabeth Warren & she would eat his lunch in a debate. As a previous post noted: any pale male with Warren’s intellect and policy and planning skills would have nailed the nomination early on.
2
Where was all this media about Warren when she was still in the race? This is maddening. It’s like that situation that all smart women have experienced: you throw out an idea at a meeting and you are ignored. Several minutes later a man says the same thing and is lauded (*cough* Pete). Only in this case, you’ve now quit the job and men turn to each other months later and say, “Wow. She was good. We’re in trouble without her.” I can’t express how angry I am about all of this. And I don’t think I’m alone.
4
Progressives and Warrenists and Bernie people ought to realize that Biden can be moved to embrace the substance--if not the rhetoric--of common-sense reforms in health, campaign finance and income inequality.
They ought to self-identify as the " Persistance," or "M4A Democrats" and their mission ought to be embracing Joe as the standard bearer for the Progressive agenda. Not all differences between Democrats are the product unprincipled, corrupt, self-dealing hacks.
The Tea-Party, funded by the Koch Brothers and the NRA, promoted by Rupert Murdoch, and pretending to believe in "death panels", "climate change hoaxes" and "government gun-confiscation" , while just happening to support their businesses.
But they have a clear identity within the GOP as the Freedom Caucus--or had one, before they drank Trump's Kool-aid.
A clearly identifiable Progressive Democratic wing can drive a Biden Presidency , a Democratic Senate-- while the so-called moderate wing can only grumble about the "unnaffordabilty" of forgiving student loans or M4A . (They are the hand wringing Cassandras and Eeyores of the Party). They will compromise through a sincere, intellectually honest negotiation with the Progressives. Not calling one another Socialists or Republicans.
Start with what no one can seriously oppose: reverse Citizens United, pass public funding for political campaigns and Elizabeth's "2 cent" billionaire tax to fund childcare.
Progressives: Joe Biden is our friend.
Our friend, Biden? Sanders is right, not Biden is right and is the president we need to get us out of the steep downward slide of our country and into an even possible twenty first century future. And the majority of the American people know we need this basic cornerstone of civilization, universal healthcare. Biden has just said he would veto it. That’s ‘healing’ the nation? Not my president, Biden. Not my president. Why would anyone vote for that hot mess?
4
@John C
So long as Joe Biden calls young women lying dog-faces, challenges voters to fights and tells his female black staffer to shush as she's trying to save him from yet another cringe-worthy incident, he is not my friend.
A man who votes for the Hatch Amendment is not my friend. A man who thinks Clarence Thomas is Supreme Court material is not my friend. A man who doesn't care about medical debt and student loan debt is not my friend.
A man whose donors own him, and who he tells that "nothing will fundamentally change" is not my friend.
1
@Viv
I wasn't suggesting you have him over for tea, I was suggesting that the Progressives in the party can and should push him --like the way Eleanor pushed FDR, and we didn't push Barack. Push him to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with another Kagan or Soto Mayor. Bernie and Elizabeth should teach the rest of the Democrats--have them make a true progressive party out of the DP. That's what wise adults do, they swallow their pride (it's not poison) and go forward.
“Socialists may be in the grip of unworkable, harebrained dogma . . .” Really?
What parts of Bernie Sander’s policies distinguished them from what this writer calls “Warrenism?” All he identifies is the word “socialism” and the fact that Sanders “waves his hands.” I wouldn’t have used the word “socialist” to describe myself if i were Sanders, but that plus hand waiving is hardly a description of the substantive differences between Warren and Sanders.
Piling on Sanders has now become fashionable. So, by all means, let’s all climb on the bandwagon. But to reach back to Warren, whose campaign never got off the ground, as the panacea we need instead of Sanders without substantively distinguishing between the two is glib, facile and superficial. There was little daylight between the two except Warren claimed to be a capitalist and Sanders a socialist.
What is this writer’s point? Warren in 2024? Oh please.
2
"A man in denial about the depth of polarization and systemic corruption can’t begin to fix what’s wrong with the country or the Democratic Party."
I'm not sure Biden is that clueless, folks.
What he offers voters is a chance to resurrect democratic values without which nothing can really change at all.
Adherence to the rule of law. Equal justice. Helping "working families." Restoring American leadership in the "free" world by promoting democracy not dictators.
I'm eager for the Bernie-Biden debate. But Joe may surprise us, first by breating Trump then picking a winning team. Warren--whose favorite president is trust-busting Teddy Roosevet--should head a new-financial corruption unit ten times more empowered than her consumer protection agency.
Biden is up to the challenge of big structural change because he has so much talent to choose from.
3
Yes. And then she'd be a heartbeat away...
1
Really?
No question income inequality is the worst thing that has happened to this country. I can't see how we will ever get out of it unless we have WH, Senate and House under majority Democratic control.
but to say Biden is 'clueless' without Warren is a bit much..... its darn melodramatic.
1
Warren for VP!!! Truthfully, she would be a terrific leader in that role. She could advise Biden and his government of solid plans to "revolutionize" America and return it to serving its ordinary citizens instead of a few mega-rich white men.
I hope Mr. Biden seriously considers her!
1
My "dream ticket" against Trump in 2016 was "Biden-Warren." It still is.
2
Warren’s “ideas” are repackaged Bernie. I’m cool with that...
Why except the neoliberal, untrustworthy substitute?
1
Warren was not the answer. She was lacking in Presidential-ness
3
Enjoyable...were it not a reflection of these awful Trumpian times of disarray, deep incompetence coupled with corruption, while abusing their power. But it wouldn't be fair to blame the Trumpians for all the current chaos and crookery, in elevating the already odious inequalities we are suffering with. Instead, you raised a likely culprit, complacency. Who said that a democracy can be real when we, the people, chose to disengage, look the other way, because we were told not to get our hands dirty...by getting involved in politics. Some humility, if not contrition, is necessary, to realize we elected a 'brutus ignoramus, and cheater in-chief, fully knowing we were buying 'damage goods'. And now, paying the painful price of having a narcissist (mental disease demanding self-gratification, and lacking one iota of 'feelings' towards 'the other'). But I digress. However true that Biden shall win the presidency, he needs Warren's style of programs to awake the nation into participating in this novel ideal named 'democracy'. For that, he mus surround himself with professionals more capable than he is, honest and with a sense of dedicated service; and Elizabeth Warren ought to be part of it. Biden alone would fail in restoring freedom and justice and peace in this vilified nation. A quasi-revolutionary reform worth it's name.
2
You’ve already coronated Biden then.
The primaries are not over yet.
4
All true--but the fairly mindless slam at democratic socialism is knee=-jerk name-calling. Unless you figure the New Deal, with Norman Thomas influence strong, was "harebrained." Cut the rhetoric and make your point!
3
Great column except for the "dogfight" reference. How about MMA fighting match, boxing match, battle instead?
Biden is clearly a sub par candidate. However, Bernie would have been destroyed in the general election, and all the others were deeply flawed as well. Fortunately trump is the worst president in the country's history so he'll lose, but picking a good VP would certainly help things along.
Warren is really smart but already is too damaged by all the smears she's been tagged with. Not to mention she's a bit awkward when it comes to her physical presence. Not unlike how Biden is when he opens his mouth.
If Biden picks Warren, then Trump will win.
3
Cynicism about Progressives that only a Libertarian can bring.
Mr. Wilkinson must've sat at the foot of Charles Koch when he worked at the Cato Institute.
1
Very well said. Warren for VP? Yes!
Biden needs to put Warren on the ticket. I keep hearing people say he needs to pick Klobuchar. Nonsense. We need Warren's ideas and energy to propel the Biden/Warren ticket to a landslide victory over this incompetent President and his administration of clueless, crony crooks. I hope Biden understands this and that Warren will accept it.
1
Way to signal approval of Elizabeth Warren's incredible lost potential to be president without actually sticking your neck out: "Warrenism" is a neat way to divorce the woman from her program. Typical of the cowardice and conservatism now gripping the Democratic majority, which ensures the victory of Trump over a candidate with so many glaring liabilities it's painful. Too late to resuscitate Warren, so reanimate her as "Warrenism?" This is painful and, alas, typical.
1
Elizabeth Warren should now have been the forefront choice for the Democratic Party. Instead, over long months the reigning power sectors worked to ensure she would be sidelined. What they recognized and caused alarm is that Warren is the one candidate with the ability and resolve to get things done. The kind of constructive, progressive change that would threaten the dominance of the corporate/finance sectors in government operations. A trajectory of focus followed by both Republicans and Democrats each in their own distinct ways over the last 40 years. Both Parties traveling on a detoured road that abandoned the best interests of the American worker/wage earner and led us into the aberrant territory of destination Trump.
2
Biden's running mate will either be Warren or Hilliary. Either one would make it easier for Trump come November.
The main problem with Warren is that her policies and goals are not much different than Bernie's. She is a staunch progressive. I shudder to think what would happen to this country with her at the helm.
@Bill
Faulty assumption. Neither Warren nor Clinton will be Biden's running mate. They have both been rejected by the voters.
1
Since when has rejection by the voters stopped the DNC from blackmailing us into voting for an unsuitable and weak candidate who will lose to the worst president in history.
1
No one has a total winning formula much less the means to get there. None. Biden ain't my cup of tea, neither is Bernie; Warren deals with issues and proposed solutions closer to my heart. Of course I will vote for Biden, in a heartbeat. I want Trump out: my number 1 priority. Biden Mr Wilkinson overlooks a salient point imo. I think Biden will both listen to Bernie and Warren and others, and seek out ideas and people in the commonweal using his own sense of savvy. He's been around the track for a long time. Perfect? No, but there is not achievable perfection. None.
1
I fear a Biden admin. will be just a caretaker, better by far then Trump but mostly do nothing and in 4 years the angry white guys will be back. I think our only real hope is a real rise in the authority of women. They might be able to make the structural changes we do desperately need.
Enough with the red-baiting! Boiling everything Bernie and his supporters down to the word "socialism" -- which is apparently grossly misunderstood by many Americans -- is nonsense. He's a social democrat of the European model, i.e., capitalism with the rules and regulations written to protect the masses, not the oligarchs.
And Bernie is calling for a *political* revolution, which isn't so different than Warren's calls for anti-corruption, pro-citizen systemic change.
Biden promises to change nothing.
7
Thank you for this. You could not be more right.
"She may be gone from the race, but Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that."
And, why is Warren gone? Because Democrat primary voters did not vote for a woman or a person of color. It's not Trump's fault. Not the Russians. Not the app. Not Rush Limbaugh.
OK, she was labeled Fauxchantis and Li-awatha. She brought that on herself. I think it's better the truth came out before the primaries, rather than after the convention.
There is no need to pick a woman for the ticket that could not get enough voters interested in her before she dropped out. Why not Hillary. I think she could be tempted to come back.
So true. My Oakie for all.
Great editorial. Always wonderful to see the supportive opinions after the candidates dropped out! And after dealing with a barrage or right-wing talking points from the media and her competitors. Yes, America is corrupt--to the core.
2
I probably would have called this column “ Why Warren Should Have Won the Nomination”
The best, most insightful, accurate column I’ve read in the Times ( a long time reader), maybe ever.
“It’s the STRUCTURE that needs change......so we can have change”, might have been a good campaign slogan for Warren. Though, without Sander’s questioning our system over his career and believing in it, we probably would not be here.
3
Total garbage, Will Wilkinson. Elizabeth Warren doesn't have a clue on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions whereas Biden supports putting a price on carbon. Also, both Warren and Sanders engaged in a lot of oversimplifying class warfare that greatly oversimplifies economic problems and their solutions.
@Holly Stallworth. I wish a carbon tax had passed 25-30 years ago before it was killed by energy company lobbyists. It would help now, but it is a minuscule effort based on what is needed now. Now, we need a “moon shot/War effort” type understanding, including much of our “defense” budget/debt on rebuilding our energy systems and grid. It is a question I hope Sanders asks Biden: Do you think the U.S. government should Subsidize Coal, Gas and Oil.....because we still are. We have no time to let lobbyists dictate our Energy OR Healthcare decisions.
1
Elizabeth Warren or Stacy Abrams. Joe Biden might want a dependable figure like he was to Obama, but he will be showing his values in who he picks.
If he does not choose Warren, she should be made a cabinet member where her intelligence, clear thinking and her spine are best taken advantage of. Women all over this country love both Elizabeth Warren and Stacey Abrams.
This column is incomprehensible. Mr. Wilkinson is obviously a supporter of Warren. So he just repeatedly asserts that her "plans" are the solution. It's like reading a religious sermon in which the observant are urged to believe.
1
Because Biden, like Obama, does not have a problem giving powerful women agency, respect, and credit, we think he'll be fine. Warren has a plan for that.
Oh, the American people can or will soon see that Avuncular Joe can do clueless all by his lonesome. We'll have month after month after month for our buyer's remorse. . . and then Trump Redux. It'll be fun.
1
I'm kind of shocked you didn't write "The One Democrat America Would Be Clueless Without is Sanders" - upon who's shoulders the ideas Warren espouses stand.
As for your assertion that Biden is in denial of the "systemic corruption" in our government; I am in total opposition as he was deeply involved in supporting massive deregulation of Wall Street, passing the 2005 Bankruptcy bill that netted credit cards tens if not hundreds of billions at the expense of everyday peoople, backed the illegal war in Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent civilians based on lies.
Joe was at the heart of the plutocrats plan to move the nation closer to fascism through a good cop bad cop neoliberal, neoconservative ploy of false choices.
Warren was my first choice up until she decided to accuse Bernie of sexism. Whatever he may or may not have said, making it a major issue brought an absolutely unecessary divide among the progressives. It made me begin to question her real motives and whether the well being of America or her personal ambition was foremost in her hear and mind. Bernie is perhaps the least sexist man I can possibly imagine and to make that an issue is entirely ridiculous.
Bernie was out and front of these issues long before and he never worked for any major corporate law firms.
With Trump's handling of the Corona Virus, any Democratic candidate will beat him.
So my question is, "at the end of the day, which candidate is best for our nation?"
5
Amen
1
Amen
1
Very smart column
I think if Democrats take control of the senate Elizabeth Warren would make an excellent majority leader.
1431
As capable as she is, that has a vanishing small chance of actually happening. If the Dems retake the senate, it is Schumer’s job, and he will be competent at it.
22
@John Secretary of the Treasury! Use the power of that office to regulate banks in favor of the consumer.
48
@John
Yes, PLEASE anyone but Chuck Schumer. Schumer has been a weak and ineffective leader in the Senate... he has never boldly or publicly stood up to McConnell. Elizabeth Warren on the other hand will not remain complacent or silent.
76
Ugh, another Sanders-bashing NYT article....
3
I voted for Elizabeth Warren in the California Primary because I see that she is a genius at defining the problem and coming up with a solution. My dream is that Biden will surround himself with people as smart as she is, that the Dems will take over the Senate and get more seats in the House. That Elizabeth Warren will be the majority leader in the Senate and that this next government will move on the plans she has already developed. I'm also hoping that Barack Obama is asked to come on board and help Biden realize what's good for us Americans and presses to get those plans enacted. Down with corruption! Forward with helping the American people live a better life! That's my dream!
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Wilkinson's astute argument doesn't mention that Warren's diagnosis of the corruptions that plague our democracy are widely shared by people who wouldn't vote for her. The restoration of power to the citizens (done properly) is an issue that could unite the disaffected on the right and left.
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There seems to be a lot of semantic gymnastics going on here trying to differentiate Warren from Sanders whose policy platforms are nearly identical.
Is it "Mr Sander's quixotic hand-waving"? "Jitters about electability" as if Warren was doing better in that arena?
Warren took the path that Sanders laid the groundwork for. You seem to be trying to distort that.
I'd say the main difference between Warren and Sanders is that Sanders appeals strongly to the working class and, like it or not, Warren doesn't. That's a very important distinction necessary to get elected in this country.
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It also helps that Sanders would destroy Trump in a debate. Biden has flashes of coherence still, and I’ve heard lots of apologists say it’s okay because Jill isn’t senile, but we aren’t voting for Jill.
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Joe Biden is obviously clueless from a policy standpoint. But there is one thing that even a Biden administration might accomplish if Biden wins and Democrats take the Senate: admit DC and Puerto Rico as states. That’s 4 additional Democratic senators and control of the senate that would end the Republican part for good, a good foundation for the future that even clueless Joe ought to be able to grasp. All it would take is a majority vote in both house, and it could be done in one day.
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@Robert Better check again. I believe it's ⅔ of both House and Senate, which I believe isn't obtainable.
@Robert Great idea worth considering! It would be justified given past problems addressing PR and DC's problems adequately.
Also, it would be sucker punch to Republicans who have likewise relished dirty tactics like denying Obama's choice for the Supreme Court to come to a Senate vote. And many others.
PR is plenty big at 2mil + and DC has more people than do Wyoming and Vermont.
Closing off the Senate to Republican rule in the future is justified in terms of what the Republican majority has done these past three years.
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Biden spent 8 years dealing directly with GOP obstructionism. If Wilkinson doesn't get that Biden intimately understands the nature of today's GOP it is he who is naive.
Biden's mission right now is to get elected. There are critical voters who are or have been Republicans.
I appreciate Warren's srengths but at this moment in history Wilkinson's fan letter is not useful.
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Great insights and observations. Warren is not gone, she is an excellent Senator and would be outstanding in a Cabinet position except that she would be missed in the Senate. As an idea person she is great. The problem for her, as a controller type, is working within the administration. She wants things her way just as much as a president does and that makes her difficult to work with in any setting. Her husband must be a great supporter personality type.
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Biden should adopt Warren’s agenda on corruption and power and run on restoring law and decency. She does have the ideas to take the party and the country forward. Biden is not delusional about partisanship or stuck in a rosy nostalgia, but he recognizes the hopeless longing Americans have always nurtured for a lost Eden of cooperation so he speaks in those tones. Please Democrats, do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Maybe this was always meant to be— the man who leads with compassion and heart beats the bully.
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Was Biden’s shouting on the Senate floor about Black youth predators leading with heart? Was Biden’s despicable treatment of Anita Hill, being a ‘great guy’? Was shouting that he would veto a bill for universal healthcare even if it passed the Senate, an obvious sign that our politicians were .finally. starting to represent the will of the people, great leadership? This is to start by ignoring that he has dementia and only flashes of lucidity still, and to ignore his love for one of the most powerful and famous racists in our history, Strom Thurmond. Democrats don’t let Democrats vote for Republicans posing as candidates who can best Trump. We were already forced to try that with Clinton.
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Mr. Wilkinson, earlier you wrote of Warren relying on "French Socialists" for helping form her policy agenda.
Hard to imagine Biden considering any ideas from "leftist economists" (your words.) And Biden being the candidate of the DNC, is there a reason to believe proposals from the Warren camp would ever be under consideration, other than to be payed lip service to in Milwaukee?
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You’d have to be pretty out-of-touch to think that Warren jumping on Biden’s ticket would bring in a critical number of progressives.
She’s not the darling of the left — she’s an avatar of cynically-employed identity politics who has alienated genuine progressives during her run. From her she said-he said spat with Bernie, to her reneging on M4A, to her accepting Sanders-spoiling pac money in the death throes of her run, to her failure to endorse Bernie, most on the left see her as a stalking horse and cynical actor. She’s the Potemkin Village version of progressive politics that’s palatable to the party establishment.
It’s hard to overestimate how much she’s vilified on the left now. She’s a careerist who put her personal brand over the politics she claims to support. If she had endorsed Sanders upon dropping out, it could have made the primary competitive. She might bring in a few lefties, but making her Biden’s running mate could potentially repel more genuine progressives than it would bring in.
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Thanks! Well written and on point.
Warren for VP. Given Joe's age and his experience as an engaged VP under Obama, I believe Elizabeth would have real influence in a Biden administration. Not to mention, she'd prove to the country that she would be ready in 2024.
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The author completely fails to recognize that some of Trump voters -- six million -- voted Obama twice. Biden was my 5th - 6th choice, Warren my first. For Wilkinson to suggest Warren had a monopoly on "structural change" is an attempt to gaslight us as if we were naive, earless and brainless. Shame. Buttigieg spoke significantly of structural change. He even proposed court packing to prevent the supreme court from blocking progressive reform. Warren was not the only candidate to call for ending the undemocratic filibuster. We need to hold Biden's feet to progressive values and programs. We also need to decrease the polarization in our country. Words like, "... that means leaving blood, teeth and....." inflame polarization. We are only going to gain a desperately needed majority in the senate, keep the house and regain the White House with a clear, simple rhetoric of persuasion -- something that other candidates in addition to Warren practiced and practiced well. Wilkinson's obtuse, dogma-laden language is the last thing we progressives need at this time.
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YES, we need some of Warren's plans for institutional change. She got the mechanism if govt.
But I disagree that
"Liberalism is on the ropes because it became complacent about power."
No because of political money that has corrupted the system for both parties.
Democrats have wasted power when they had the chance vs Republicans drove it down the countrys throat. We need the Senate & new leadership & yes Warren would be great.
PS : thanks Bernie for leaning the party left!
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The reason you have Warren and Sanders is the system is hopelessly corrupted by the money behind Biden, Hillary, Obama, Clinton and more. You can’t govern for the middle class if you’re paid for by the upper class. It’s possible the virus will beat Trump. Biden won’t.
"Systemic corruption"? Elaborate please.
Concentration of income and wealth are behind the political problems this columnist mentions. What does Biden propose to do about that?
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My thoughts are Kamala Harris has broader electorate appeal and could easily diffuse the Trump machine's lies & blather. She possesses experience, a balanced demeanor and a strong intellect. Kamala would provide greater Democrat appeal & be a fantastic VP/future President.
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Biden is crazy if he does not convince Warren to run with him as Vice-President. And she would be in a strong position to run in 2024 then.
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I can get with this. No question.
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Unless trump is held responsible for the evolving corona fiasco, he will be re-elected. Say what you will, Warren cannot overturn the entrenchment of the Democratic Party. Tyrants do no give up power voluntarily or willingly, Biden is the front man for the Democratic cabal. Biden is a puppet for the monied elites. Truth be told, there are no choices in November, only nightmares to come
If Biden would be clueless without Warren, then with Warren Biden would be clueless and indecisive.
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The Media certainly likes Warren so the fact that she was so not liked by voters kind of shows us how distant the Media is from the people they are supposed to serve.
When liberals were eating each other 16 years ago, that is how Erdogan came to power consolidating many right wings and religious groups. This is where we are after 16 year. No secular country, greedy dictator destroyed constitution, eliminated military consolidating them under his power while his supporters were cheering for him. Now he is the KING, like Trump for right wing and religious people. US democrats are making same mistake that we Turkish people did NOT UNITING the way the other side is doing behind one person whether he is sane or insane.
Am I the only person who shuddered over Putin's life time leadership? Why, you ask? Because Trump follows Putin's lead. Care to envision Trump in the Whitehouse for the next couple decades?
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I so agree with this point of view.
I am a reluctant supporter of Biden, only because he's the one left standing to carry the flag to November.
Here's what Biden needs to do. NOW.
Start making speeches that remind people what a President's best secret weapon is........the people he brings with him to run the country. Without having to name names, he can point out that his power will be in the knowledge that HE ALONE CAN"T FIX IT !!! He can't think of everything, and he should remind everyone that no one else can either.
Part of Obama's power was to surround himself with people who were smarter than him. Counseled with them regularly. Then took the best ideas from the bunch (sometimes).
Biden's power to reassure and calm the Bernie storm-whipped waters will be a plea for their service to America, noting the wisdom of their goals. Be a member of the integrated solution.
Biden's best appeal right now is to remind America that we are great as a nation because of all that we are, all WHO we are, and all what we can be, if we ask our best people to lean in to the problems that need urgent reform, and be part of the solution.
Warren is certainly one of those people, without question, a critically needed player, though not the only one.
Bring' em! Let's go Democrats. We need all of you. Those with a calling, like Sander's supporters (& Yang, Pete, all of them) have a rich collective palette of transformative ideas.
That would be a message for all Americans in November.
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The reason that Warren is not still be considered for the Democratic nomination and Biden is, is that large parts of the electorate won't vote for anybody that is smarter than they are--especially if she is a women. Biden is the perfect candidate--he doesn't threaten their egos!
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Joe Biden will sign EVERY piece of progressive legislation passed by the House and Senate, and NONE that does not. Trump would VETO all of the former. Biden is likely to be elected and Warren would almost certainly lose. Period !
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That’s simply not true. Biden just told the world he would veto universal healthcare if it was passed by the Senate and came to his desk as president. He has also talked repeatedly about cutting Social Security. Please. Dementia aside. Democrats don’t let Democrats vote for another losing candidate against Trump.
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@Rob You're missing the point of the essay.
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I agree. I think that Elizabeth Warren truly understands many of the economic and social problems in the US, and has sound strategies for fixing them. I think she would make an excellent vice president and if Biden wins, he should put her in charge of developing and implementing an economic and regulatory reform plan for the country.
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Biden would become a legendary president if he followed your suggestions and selected Warren as VP. Unfortunately I think his ego, his handlers and the Democratic elite will get in the way. Now if my favorite President Obama weighed in publicly and privately the country would begin to change for the better of all.
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We would all be saved but for the Establishment! If there is one politician that doesn’t appear driven by ego, it’s Biden.
Yes, we need Ms. Warren's leadership and ideas! I will support her in whatever role she feels she can make the most difference, and Biden, as the likely nominee, would be wise to recognize the asset she is and the signal that embracing her would send towards healing a divided party.
MA law requires a special election within a limited time frame to fill a vacancy, so fears of her temp. replacement by a moderate Republican Gov. should not hold her (or us) back. Imho, Senator Ayanna Pressley has a nice ring to it! That said, Warren would also be a great Majority Leader.
Ms. Warren and her campaign were by no means perfect, but it amazes me to see how many people discount her popularity and the hunger for her approach. We may never know the true depth of her support when so many liked her but did not vote for her because of "strategic" voting or electability fears and sexism by proxy ("Will OTHER people vote for her?"). Similarly, many, many people are voting for Biden just to get things over with and defeat Trump, not because he is particularly inspiring or because they like his platform. By and large, Americans agree with the positions that Warren and Sanders champion. Yes, a return to normalcy will be nice, but we need more to win in Nov. and address our country's problems.
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Warren needs to be Joe's VP pick. It would bring Progressives and Moderates together, and show that he's going to be bent on reforming our system rather than same ol' status quo.
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Amen! Warren knows exactly what we need to be fighting for... And that this is truly a FIGHT!
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During the primary process I came to feel that a homogenized platform of Warren/Sanders, which weren't terribly far apart, was the best the dems had to offer as a way forward.
Joe has been identified as more same o' - same o' establishment stuff of the kind that got Mr T elected in the first place.
If Joe gets the nod then the only remaining good option I have is to attempt to control both branches of congress.
With Pelosi running the house, and Schumer the Senate, the American public may potentially see the first US president convicted of crimes against the constitution.
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Firstly, I completely disagree with your premise that Bernie could not win.
I agree with most of the rest of your argument about Joe Biden's faults. Yes, He is clueless and fetishizes bipartisianship Joe usually liked to negotiate in favor of Republican policies anyway.
The centrists and establishment Democrats NEED to make a serious overture to Bernie's supporters and Progressives, or many of the young and disillusioned won't come out to vote for same ol same ol Uncle Joe.
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@Vibarama
"Win" what, exactly? The White House? Even if Bernie could win the White House, then what? What would he actually be able to accomplish when he only represents about one third of one half of the total the American electorate, at best?
I respect Bernie. He deserves enormous credit for pushing the Overton Window to the left, and snapping the Democratic Party out of its complacency. He will go down as a very important person in American political history. I respect and appreciate his moral outrage and his passion, and that he has reinvigorated the energy of the little guy.
But he is not a planner or a doer. Having wishes and anger is not enough.
Mr. Wilkinson has it right: we need Warrenism.
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Those young people didn’t bother to show up to vote this primary season.
Too busy with TikTok and such.
No, the people will show up to vote for Biden as a repudiation of Trump. The numbers are clear.
I think Warren as Secretary of the Treasury is a great place for her.
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Politics is about perceptions. you and I may know that Democratic socialism is not radical but accepted in many places as a fix for the such issues as Health care for all, but what people believe right now will shape what can be created here.
Warrenism is a working solution to the problem of perception as it goes around the problem of words to actually create something that can be acceptable to the most people.
And Biden no matter his previous actions or leanings would do well to listen and act on the plans and policies of Warren as it is the only real to work our way out of the quagmire of inaction and conservative policies that are strangling our society. In any case Biden is better than Trump and I believe with his election that we will move closer to our common progressive goals.
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Warren for Senate Majority Leader, if Democrats retake the Senate. By far the most consequential position for her to influence policy.
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@Andrew - That would be awesome!
Need another twenty years as way too many Americans in the key states will not elect a female President. It is sad but it is also factually true and confirmed by poll and after poll.
This idea that the Democratic party wants “reform” not “revolution” is quite an absurd assertion given this primary campaign. Sander’s “revolution” set the tone, as Frank Bruni pointed out just days ago, for debates on everything from healthcare to immigration. He was at the head of the largest grassroots campaign movement in modern United States history (in 2016 and again in 2020). And up until two weeks ago, when the full weight of the Democratic establishment finally came crashing down, he was the clear frontrunner.
Even as Sanders has lost primaries to Joe Biden, exit polling has consistently shown that it’s HIS agenda, not Joe Biden’s, not Elizabeth Warren’s, that voters are drawn to.
Warren, Wilkinson’s progressive savior, had an opportunity to do the right thing when she dropped out. She could have endorsed Sanders (and his platform) at a time when he was sorely in need of prominent supporters. But she didn’t. Instead, she went on SNL and criticized attacks by the media’s favorite bogeyman (the “Bernie Bro”) on Rachel Maddow. Many of her supporters went to Biden instead of Sanders. She’ll probably have a cushy position in the Biden administration if Joe pulls it off.
“Warren-ism” ain’t saving the Democratic Party. It’s been co-opted by it.
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@Rian D. there's a reason many of her supporters went to Biden rather than Sanders. It had nothing to do with Warren and everything to do with Sanders and his supporters.
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@Rian D. Why did she have to endorse Sanders? The man was campaigning against her in her own state when he should have been, obviously, campaigning elsewhere. Just because they share some planks doesn't mean that Warren automatically has to endorse him. Believe it or not, she actually gets to make up her own mind, not automatically endorse Sanders because he really needed it. She wasn't in the campaign to make sure Bernie was OK. Thanks for the patriarchy.
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@Grainne Sanders supporters are just as kind/rude as just about any other candidate’s and yet only one gets consistently covered.
One of the problems with American politics is this cult-of-personality style of candidate loyalty. I supported Sanders throughout the primary but would have gladly supported Warren if she was the nominee. It’s because ultimately I care very little about either of them. I care about progressivism/social democracy/whatever.
It’s obviously fine that you went from Warren to Biden. You're probably more committed to candidates than ideas or ideology.
The fight is just beginning. I voted for Elizabeth Warren after she suspended her campaign and bought a t-shirt that broadcasts that I'm a Warren Democrat, both as an affirmation of a good vote and a warning to the contemporary smash-and-grabbers and the clueless beneficiaries of the status quo of yesteryear. There are 2.1 million of us who cast a vote for Warren, and many more who didn't the chance. We're here. And we will insist on the structural change she advocated.
Oh, and P. S., all this arm-chairing and chin-rubbing (don't touch your face!) about where all these little ladies should best be now that we're down to three old white men to choose from is insulting. I'm pretty sure that Elizabeth Warren, Stacey Abrams, Amy Klobuchar, et al., are canny enough to decide for themselves where they best can serve American democracy.
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@Rusty I think this advice is to Biden, not to Elizabeth Warren. As a Warren supporter who is going to hold her nose and vote for Biden, the best possible thing he could do is to court Warren to be his VP. Hopefully he will be content to be a one term president, and then pave the way for her to run again for president, only this time as the VP. I also love the idea of her being the senate majority leader, but am not confidant that we will have the majority in the senate. I think choosing Warren for VP would attract progressives enough to help him win the election.
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Warren for VP! Even though she would have made an excellent President!
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@DMurphy How about Secretary of the Treasury? There's a mess to clean up and she did a great job in 2008.
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I agree with almost all this column, except the part about being sad to see Bernie Sanders go.
His windbag maximalism promotes and boosts the agenda of conservativism. It gives the Right the straw man they need to move things decisively in the opposite direction.
Small wonder Trump (and, if not Putin, Bernie's internet army) want Bernie to be the democratic candidate.
As for Warren (who hasn't endorsed Bernie, who left his 2016 campaign apparatus functional in Michigan) she would make an incredible attorney general (should Biden, in the interest of balancing his ticket) not ask her to be his running mate.
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What Warren needs to do is get behind the bigger picture right now and not stand around “positioning” herself.
Getting rid of trump is all that matters now.
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Donald Trump is sitting back thinking and probably saying " this is even easier than I thought my re-election would be "
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Dream on. The Trump nightmare is almost over.
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Please stop calling Bernie Sanders a revolutionary. He wants to go back to the status quo of the post war years without the racism and Jim Crow where tax rates were fair and we had a healthy middle class.
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And, unlike Biden, his candidacy doesn’t depend on completely hiding his actual words and record from the electorate. But, even if Biden does get forced on us again by a united media and donor class propaganda, there is zero chance he has the mental capacity left to take on and best Trump. Not to mention his agenda will do nothing at all to make this country better, or even stall our national slide into oligarchy and utter despair.
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Warren is probably in no mood to do so, but it would be helpful if she'd work with Biden as a DEBATE COACH. She should not be his chief or only coach, though. Biden also needs to display his naturally affable, avuncular qualities while debating angry old men like Bernie and dt... In addition to presenting policy specifics, Biden could probably use a supply of zingy one-liners as he reviews details of dt's many crimes, misdemeanors, and constitutional violations, from failure to set up a blind trust; release tax returns; emoluments clause violations; self-dealing thievery of taxpayer funds through Secret Service-protected junkets to golf resorts; and nepotism as grand larceny, to his countless egregious policies, from locking up refugee children in freezing cages without diapers, food, or medical attention; cozying up to deplorable like homicidal North Korean dictator, ex-KGB serial killing Russian autocrat V. Putin, Al-Sisi of Egypt, and Duterte of the Philippines to betraying our Kurdish allies, dissing our NATO partners, gutting the State Department, EPA, and other crucial areas of expertise; pardoning war criminal E. Gallagher, etc., etc. (just for starters).
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@bereft ex-runner I've said to others she should be Biden's pinch debater. Like a pinch hitter in baseball. ;-)
The only issue, and I repeat the only issue, I have with Elizabeth Warren is her age.
Normally this wouldn't bother me, but with the Coronavirus now officially a pandemic and the people who are most vulnerable being senior citizens well... Biden is 77 years old, Warren is 70 years old, and following that Nancy Pelosi is 79.
I'm just saying that it would be nice to have someone in the leadership chain who isn't part of the most vulnerable segment of the population.
Of course if this virus disappears tomorrow well... hurray for VP Warren, long live her plans for that!
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@Hypoteneus Hmmmm...hard to find experience, wisdom, AND intellectual strength in anyone under 30. 70 isn't that old considering the life expectancy in the US today. And COVID19 is dangerous for individuals with underlying health problems. Senator Warren is healthy!
Here we go again, the latest installment of the "my candidate's ideas lost in the battle of ideas called the primary, but I'm going to ram them down the winner's and the public's throat anyway" drama playing out daily in the NYT's Op-Ed pages.
You guys have to make peace with this, and fast: Biden will not adopt Warren's strategy, and he will not pick her as VP. (That honor will go to either Kamala Harris or Stacey Abrams.) The American public agrees on progressive ideas such as increasing access to health and making education more affordable. That has never been the issue. The issue is, and has been, the means by which we get there. And the American public has said, resoundingly, that we are not in favor of EITHER Sanders' revolution or Warren's death cage match. Please listen to us, the voters, for a change; stop insisting that we submit to your theory of the case, or else.
Have some patience, and even more humility. The Democratic coalition required to keep the House and retake the Senate and the White House is assembling before our very eyes. Trust the voters and the person in whom they have reposed their own trust. Frankly, you "big, structural change" at all costs folks are just as authoritarian as the folks we're trying to get rid of. You swear you mean well, but we've all read Animal Farm and know exactly how things end if we give you power. And that's why we won't.
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@Michael Kemp Fanfare for the common man? Take a look around. The wasteland you see was brought about in the spirit of compromise
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@Michael Kemp I think most people in the south are, on the whole, much more conservative than those of us on the west coast, and especially young(er) people on the west coast. Also, we aren't as loyal to Biden because he happened to help the first African American get elected as so many people in the southern states seem to be. We see things differently. In order to unite the country, it would behoove Biden to try to be attractive to as many people as possible and to not duplicate the kind of mistake that Hillary made by picking another moderate like Tim Kaine. Only really appealing to the moderates was one of Hillary's biggest mistake.
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No, it is the result of fundamentalists on the Left so pure in their motivations that they voted for Ralph Nader rather than Gore in 2004, and for Jill Stein rather than Clinton in 2016. We are going to win this year, and we will not be held hostage to childish antics.
Unfortunately, in looking at the Michigan results this year compared to 2016, it seems that white people without college degrees, both men and women, will not support a woman running for President. They apparently are resentful of smart women like Clinton and Warren. Warren, in my view, and I am a man, was by a mile one of the most intelligent and smart people I have ever seen run for office. It's a shame.
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MA has a Republican governor. Warren needs to stay in the Senate.
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Yeah, let's elect a man and then have the best candidate with the clearest, most sound policies come in and fix it.
Yes, I'm frustrated still.
I agree that Biden can beat Trump. But it still really stinks.
Biden doesn't have one fresh idea - couldn't find one if it hit him in the face.
Let's beat Trump. Get Biden elected. And then let's focus on working toward implementing Warrenism. And then let's not forget to give due to her. Because women are often not given their due. Or elected.
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Is anyone sure Biden has any chance of beating Trump? There is another candidate, and unlike Biden, his candidacy doesn’t solely depend on completely hiding his actual words and record from the electorate. But, even if Biden does get forced on us again by a united media and donor class propaganda, there is zero chance he has the mental capacity left to take on and best Trump. Not to mention his agenda will do nothing at all to make this country better, or even stall our national slide into oligarchy and utter despair. Listen to The Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill podcast, We Have to Talk About Joe Biden. I was nervous before. Now, like last election when I started realizing Hillary was going to lose, I am absolutely terrified.
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Enough of the pearl-clutching Agnes. It’s March. The election is eight months away. It’s not 2016 anymore.
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@Kelly Hear, hear!
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We absolutely need Elizabeth Warren, and Warrenism.
I still hope for a Biden/Warren ticket to defeat Trump.
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Warren has proven she is untrustworthy and doesn’t deserve any respect for not fighting for the exact policies she claimed to be running on.
@Lilly
How has Warren proven herself untrustworthy?
@ Ambroisine
As a life long observer of the American obsession with optics and how someone "looks," (I'm 72) I have to disagree with your statement that "It's a shame that the media and many of its spectators mistook her [Warren's] expertise for school-marmishness."
The reason that Americans failed to get behind the very intellectual and practical nature of Warren's "expertise" and smart policy "plans" is that in Ms Warren's look, delivery, and sound she was overtly (to the celebrity obsessed American) and in fact "was" absolutely "schoolmarmish."
Ms Warren was unquestionably the smartest and most informed candidate in the Democrat field. But she failed the cuteness/likability (hello, HRC!) test that women must ace in the USA. Besides, said the People, she's a know-it-all as well.
Smart women and woke men know this sad reality. And anyway, what could be cuddlier than (yes) Sleepy Uncle Joe?
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Great piece Warren as a VP would run circles around sloth Pence and she is what Biden needs, she was instrumental in helping Obama bounce back from the 2008 meltdown and it looks like we are heading back into another crisis after Trump debacle of the virus and Wall Street.
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Biden will pick someone to the right of himself just as Hillary did. He will not pick a progressive to bring the party together. This is where the Neo Liberals use the party apprentice to crush descent from the left. Joe had floated the balloon that it maybe a Republican running mate to bring the country together. Jamie Diamond in his cabinet to bring in Wall Street and big business.
The Democrats had better hope they get enough Republicans to vote blue to overcome the majority of progressives leaving the party of corruption and 1% control forever.
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@gene - Jaime Diamond is not a solution. He is a big part of the problem. We're going to see 2008 all over again with this kind of thinking. In fact, it may already be too late.
It would be best if we had a Biden/Warren ticket, and then Biden very quickly took the 25th Amendment out of the way, going the way of McKinley or Harrison in the first few months.
That I could support.
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"America is embroiled in a crisis of deepening corruption. A self-reinforcing spiral of regulatory capture, self-dealing and influence-peddling has led to intensely concentrated power that is at once economic and political. That concentrated power has rigged the rules that define the structure of America’s democracy and economy to the advantage of the powerful at the expense of ordinary Americans."
The problem is, the tens of millions of (white) "ordinary Americans" who voted for this corrupt fool in the White House don't feel disempowered at all. They, too, may be, in the writer's words, "blinkered," but they feel empowered. Very empowered.
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Attention Biden campaign workers! Make sure the boss reads this. Uncle Joe is living in the past if he thinks the Republican Libertarians of today are going to reach across the aisle and make nice.
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Goodness. Someone turn on the bat signal, please. We need Warren.
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"Warrenism" is not "good old-fashioned American republicanism with bite." It is the best of democracy and democratic reform. That said, I agree that if we aren't getting Warren herself, we should adopt her policies.
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"Dear Will: welcome to the 'op-ed writers who praise Elizabeth Warren's platform only after suspending her campaign' queue! Your place is number: 8,527. Press '1' to stay on the queue; press '2' to leave a call back number"
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more over-blown sophistry by the author.
the problem with liberals is not that convoluted.
liberals are like herding cats.
liberals like most Americans have a short attention span and shorter memories.
liberals only act when mad or afraid. a little success and they pop on rose colored glasses and forget reality and the past.
Trump and Bernie stoke resentment. blaming others. spew hate and invective at any target that looks convenient or weak.
In other words they use anger as a weapon to create false dichotomies of us-them just to gain power and sow discord.
stop trying to sound high brow and just speak plainly.
This is spot on. Republicans understand the bloodsport nature of politics and will always play dirty. The Dems need to wake up.
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Biden represents the old-guard, status quo Dem Party. If he is elected, we can celebrate the end of the Trump nightmare, then go back to the mainstream Democrat party's business as usual--and expect nothing.
4
That assumes an awful lot. Trump is going to filet Biden, who sadly, has dementia, for one, and his candidacy depends one hundred percent on hiding his record on calling Black youth consciousless predators, in about five minutes.
In light of this glowing review of Senator Elizabeth Warren, what is behind the reason for her poor showing - 3rd- in the 2020 Democratic primary in her own state of Massachusetts?
2
@La Rana Fear. Lots of exit polls suggest Warren was a first choice for many who opted to vote for Biden instead in the misguided notion that she wouldn't be able to beat Trump.
3
@La Rana Sexism.
1
@La Rana By the time MA voted, it was pretty clear the choice was going to be between Biden and Sanders, so most people chose Biden. Also, as others have noted, fear was a major factor.
1
My ultimate dream job for Elizabeth Warren is Senate Majority Leader.
Back to reality.
Joe Biden has not won the White House yet, and it's far from a sure thing. A progressive VP would help, but the tricky part is getting that person White House Ready in four years.
I don't know that do-nothing Joe and his supporters have thought past his inauguration.
We can't lost sight of the fact that the election of Trump was an anti-establishment vote. In many ways we got lucky. Trump is clearly a buffoon and hopefully that's more obvious to the electorate than it was 4 years ago.
But do-nothing Joe is in danger of setting the stage for another anti-establishment vote. And we could end up with an evil genius next time instead of a buffoon. Someone like Ted Cruz, who's hardcore danger zone conservative with a genius IQ and plenty of establishment colleagues in the Senate.
Just when we think things can't get worse, the world amazes us.
3
Will Wilkinson is correct about Warrenism being awake to power. But she‘s not alone: HR1, the Democratic Congress‘ first bill passed after returning to power, was precisely this: about reforming and restoring democracy in our political system.
4
Joe is clueless and voters are misled by corporate media. This country will fail to the plagues of utter corruption and perpetuated ignorance and fear. Short of a major awakening and turn around in support of Sanders. we are yesterdays empire unable to deal with the realities of deadly contagions and climate collapse.
3
"Reform" is never, never more threatening to power than "revolution." Period.
2
I would argue that all these thoughts about policy change, liberal vs. moderate, etc., should be taking second place to the most important argument of all--Democrats and moderate Republicans need to band together to defeat Donald Trump in November.
A Trump re-election would give him four more, completely unfettered years to irreparably damage our country, both domestically and internationally. As a lame duck President, I am so frightened by what an unleashed Trump would do to us. That is why it is more important then ever to "Vote Blue No Matter Who" this year. Let's get the crazy man out of the White House. Once that's done, THEN we can have a debate about policy. I implore Sanders and Warren supporters to put the nation's well being ahead of their wounded egos and vote to get Trump out of Washington and send him back to his golden tower in New York.
1
I will Gary. Big structural change is beating Donald Trump and winning the Senate. Everything else is commentary right now.
Democrats don’t let Democrats vote blind. Why wouldn’t we want the truth? I do. Biden is against abortion and Roe v Wade? Biden calls my Black brothers predators? I thought his treatment of Anita Hill was despicable enough. When I saw he would deny us all healthcare like I had when I lived in Japan, I was outraged. The more I learn about this Biden, the more horrifying a prospect he truly is. Everyone is talking as if he’s our only chance to beat Trump? No one I know is planning on voting for him. I’m really terrified now.
3
Yes. Thank you, Will Wilkinson.
If there is an existential crisis today, it is not the mis-administration of Trump the transparently corrupt and incompetent, it is the complete and possibly irreversible regulatory capture of democracy by capitalism.
And didn't the long career of Joe Biden coincide almost exactly with the long, slow capture of democracy? Did he never see it?
So, no, I don't fret about Donald Trump enough to prioritize Joe Biden over Elizabeth Warren. She was the brightest political candidate of my lifetime who saw the real existential threat and gave pro-capitalist progressives hope.
4
Excellent op-ed. I tend to agree that big structural change is “exactly what America needs” even though Republicans—of course—will balk at the idea, and it might terrify Democrats. No way we could do it all at once (like Bernie and even Elizabeth seems to want), so a good place to start, it seems to me, is (1) pass federal legislation essentially outlawing the effects of the Citizens United case, and (2) pass the equal rights amendment. Those two changes, which I believe the vast majority of Americans favor, would definitely alter (and improve) the course of the aircraft carrier size boat we call the ship of state.
3
Trump has created a lot of wreckage and a lot will need to be done to upright this ship and set it back on course for the better of all humankind. Every lasting and rightful, enduring institution has been dirtied by the trump administration. What we will need from the next administration is a slow methodical pace to clean off the stains and grime left by trump. What we don't need is another qui ck and dirty change process that will only lead to more chaos and division Rather than react to trump we need to do the right things that will once again bring stability and needed change to this once great nation.
75
@Robert Perez I agree except that the catastrophic climate changing that's already occuring won't wait. we need WW2 level action.
13
@Robert Perez Trump didn't leave stains and grime, he took a wrecking ball to the federal government and corrupted it from the inside. Restoring the functionality of our government and regaining public trust in it cannot be done slowly.
14
@Lisa
Right! Warren would have been great to lead an anti-corruption movement in the WH.
2
I have always admired Elizabeth Warren since I first heard her speak a couple of decades ago. Biden has 3 good choices for a VP: Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren. We must have a female VP. Each of these 3 extraordinary women have excellent qualities to do the job of VP brilliantly. So, now what?
Harris has experience and it would be excellent to have a woman of color; Klobuchar is also an excellent choice with her mid western roots and her ability to win in every election she undertook. So, Elizabeth Warren. The choice of her would, I think, be acceptable to Bernie's supporters. The plain truth is this: DEMOCRATS MUST WIN IN NOVEMBER IF WE ARE TO CONTINUE TO LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY. Whomever Biden choses, whichever women, we must ALL support with everything we can do in order to win! Put aside preferences--VOTE DEMOCRATIC.
8
There is clearly a role for Warren in a Democrat administration. It should be a big role, but not dominant one. She appears - where appearance matters - to be driven by animus rather than analysis. Biden should make a deal with her to put her in charge of fixing some of the things that are broke in exchange for her full support.
Sen. Warren should absolutely not be Biden's running mate. The vice president's job is to help implement, and, if necessary, continue the president's policies. There should be no ideological daylight between president and Veep. Warren's role should signify Biden's commitment to her critique, not set her up to be his successor as president of all the people.
@Nemoknada
Warren has actually been an effective Senator. Why waste her talents in the v.p. role? Better to install a semi-retired person in that position.
We would be greatly reassured if Biden chose Elizabeth Warren as his candidate for VP. A decent and honest politician as Biden might be, he is a stodgy oldtimer, getting on in years, and of course we'll vote for him, anybody but Trump, but he needs somebody to put some fire under him. We need some serious changes and Biden would do well using Warren's guidance to achieve them.
6
@Elizabeth
What you don't know about Joe Biden is a lot.
"Warrenism’s obsession with policy detail sometimes smacks of managerial paternalism..."
Um, no. It's not paternalistic to sweat the details, it's simply good sense. Our politics are too reliant on sloganeering and not enough on pragmatism. Give me Elizabeth Warren's wonkish plans over Biden's wishful kum bah ya, bi-partisan-ism any day. The former is based in the reality of getting it done; and the latter is based in, well--fantasy.
This is a total re-run of Warren's efforts to bring the banks to heel with her CFPB. Like the agency she created from which she was ultimately ousted, her campaign was smart enough and tough enough to really resonate with a lot of Americans. But because the banks still wield too much influence with Democratic centrist candidates and administrations, she was cut off at the knees and won't get the credit (or the power) for the hard work that she rightly deserves.
Biden may be the nominee. But I don't see her policies being widely adopted by a Biden Administration, assuming he wins. (Which is not a given.) Blankfein and Dimon will make sure of it.
12
Amen to that. Joe Biden is only winning the nomination because the non-Sanders majority of the party coalesced around him by default, so the choice of VP is essential.
That person needs to be 1/more progressive to bring in the left wing of the party on board 2/young, or a woman, or a minority so as to bring excitement to a race between two old white men 3/clearly smart and competent since Biden doesn't seem as sharp as he should be.
Warren checks all the boxes. So do Buttigieg, Harris, and a few others.
7
Which is exactly why I still voted for her in the WA primary despite knowing she wouldn’t win. I couldn’t see choosing either Biden or Sanders, who were two of the worst candidates in the broader field, but of course either is infinitely better than a Trump.
5
Yup. I voted for Warren, and was fully in her camp. In my view, Bernie just ain't it. Leave Warren in the Senate, let's hope for a Democrat majority there, and then put her in charge of some powerful committees. She would be a powerful ally there to Joe, and would fight (blood, sweat and tears) for the financial reforms we need in this country. She is ready for this kind of back alley, in the dirt fight for the future of this country.
10
In the long run, we will find ourselves returning to Sanders platform for the fact that global capitalism is at odds with health and the environment. If we want to exist, we'll be facing it.
As for Warren, as Sanders and others, the point you failed to bring out is her opposition to unlimited money in politics due to corporate person hood, AKA Citizens United. Nothing changes until elected representative in both houses are set free from corporate ownership.
You do not need to be part of the parade of Sander slander. We have had more than enough of our share of socialism for the military industrial complex and the fossil fuel elite- and have failed at health, education and the environment. Sanders' platform will resurrect when we get over our Trump panacea and realize that there is a humanity and a planet in need of our attention.
8
Two questions. Why would Warren want to take a position that, in the sanitized words of John Nance Garner, “isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit”, rather than remain in the Senate, where she might be able to advance her agenda?
Why shouldn’t Biden choose as VP someone more closely aligned with his world view; someone who would step into his shoes, if necessary, and carry out his agenda? Primary voters seem to be pretty clear on their preference for a moderate.
4
It was clear to many of us all along that Warren was the best nominee and would have made the best president. The two remaining candidates are so flawed.
The question is, what to do now that we blew the primary.
12
@Emily Levine No, what is “flawed” is this logic. It’s not that “it was clear to many” that “Warren was the best nominee” but that some of you held that opinion—and apparently not enough of you given the primary results.
1
Wilkerson writes that Bernie Sanders is not electable because of his socialistic ideology, even though he is still in the race for the nomination being 150 or 160 delegates behind Biden.
Yet Wilkerson suggests Biden needs to select Warren as VP.
If the “electability factor” holds true for Sanders, why on earth would Biden select Warren?
3
@MDCooks8 Did you read the article? It lays out pretty clearly the why and also the differences between Sanders and Warren which are profound.
Also, while the VP slot is not mentioned here, I do think a Biden/Warren ticket would be compelling in many ways.
5
@Nicole
Warren has been flipping on issues as often as Biden makes a gaff...
Uhmm.... I hope you wrote an article exactly like this one BEFORE we all started voting?
Because the only articles I saw on Warren kept accusing her of being "too left" for America...and I found--and still find-- this "too left" idea maddening and mostly useless. ( We are never encouraged to consider, for example, how many of our very American programs like medicare/medicaid/social security/the USPS/ etc... are, if you embrace these categories, really pretty darned *left.*)
I just didn't see a lot of written accounts that might have American wondering what this whole "too left" idea is even about.
And now... now that Warren isn't in the running, here we have a fantastic artlcle that doesn't just slap useless labels on her, but explores the American political landscape in a way that makes her candidacy make sense.
REALLY wish I had seen a few more articles like earlier on...
27
What’s more hare brained? Having Congress and The Fed CONTINUE to give free money to banks and corporations so they can continue to destabilize the economy while gutting protections for workers, families, consumers, communities, and the environment? Or restructuring banks and corporations to make them more accountable to the tax payers, consumers, workers, and communities that make them possible?
Yes we need political reform. But we need that in order to get economic reform.
Giving banks and corporations a free ride is not helping workers, families, citizens, taxpayers, consumers, society or the environment.
Yes, we need people like Warren to fight on the inside. But she would be screeching powerlessly and helplessly forever without people like Bernie and his growing hordes of supporters backing her up.
3
Gerrymandering and filibustering seem to be the most important American political tactics, besides "No Tax-increase!"
When are Americans going to wake up to the fact, that the word "community" should include more than the moneyed élites?
5
Two of my friends in NM, after 30+ years being progressive activists in the Dem party, have become independents. Every, every, meeting they attended in recent years resulted in the same political mixed martial arts we call the "debates." Screaming vitriol was the norm, and the party flounders and stumbles around aimlessly. Unless the national party gets together and comes up with a reasonable platform, goal and strategy, we are doomed. Kaplan's book, "The Jungle Grows Back," is prescient and prophetic. Both diligence and dialog only can save us. ALL the Progressive Dems, not just Warren, must have their say.
2
High praise! I think you are exactly right! We must fight Republican and Republicanism. They are the enemy of human rights, freedom, equality, and fairness. They do not share our values, and we will only cut our own throats to try to make nice with them. They will never make nice with us; they will only exploit our weaknesses and, as you put it, complacency.
The fact that Bernie Sanders is largely irrelevant in no way means that we should accept, embrace, or tolerate evil. The sad part is that Joe Biden is temperamentally unsuited for this fight, and besides so far past his prime that he couldn't quarterback it anyway. Unless, perhaps, he puts Elizabeth Warren in charge of domestic policy?
1
I really wish the pundits would stop calling me (and others) socialists. I do not believe in government run business, I am a Democratic Socialist and I want businesses to run in the most efficacious manner possible. I want businesses to be profitable and hire as many employees as they need. But I want the owners to pay their fair share of taxes with an idea that we can all have even while some have more. If you call me a socialist then you do me a disservice. I believe the government is us and we can make it work for everyone.
5
@Dave
I'm not calling you a socialist, but Bernie sanders has on his platform:
1) The government take over of private businesses
2) The government takeover of private property
And he has said explicitly that:
"Like most socialist organizations, D.S.A. believes in the abolition of capitalism in favor of an economy run either by ‘the workers’ or the state — though the exact specifics of ‘abolishing capitalism’ are fiercely debated by socialists."
So, sure, YOU aren't a socialist. But Bernie and many of his followers definitely are.
I believe you ought to pay for what you get, because if you do not pay for what you get, someone else is paying for you. Certain very specific services might need to be socialized (eg primary school education) to insure that the vulnerable and children are not treated grossly unfairly, but otherwise the market should be used. Bernie doesn't agree, so I hope you wouldn't consider supporting him but instead someone like Warren (my choice).
2
@Dave
I hear you. Sincerely.
But, Team Bernie is to blame for not putting daylight between themselves and Jacobin magazine (avowedly Socialist).
If the intellectual heft of your (speaking for Bernie) comes from socialists, then Bernie is to blame for how the world sees him.
There are a lot of grifters on the left (also: Chapo Trap House) who’ve latched on to Sanders using Rush Limbaugh and Fox’s Model. They are doing Bernie more harm than good in terms of coalition building and outreach.
2
@Dave Thank you! That "far-left" Forbes magazine listed Denmark as perhaps the 3rd best country for business
1
Warren would make an excellent Senate Majority Leader, but a terrible VP.
She is electoral poison. In 19 contests, she never came in better than third, including her home state of MA. Harris or Klobuchar both bring far more to the table than the highly polarizing Warren.
1
@Sparky Harris and Klobuchar garnered much less support in the primaries than Warren. So I'm not sure your argument holds water.
Though I personally wouldn't mind see any of these three leaders on the ticket with Biden.
3
@Sparky
Remind me: what were Harris and Klobuchar’s best performances in the primaries?
Did either of them come second?
The only argument you’re making is one of personal bias.
3
So much of our media coverage is based on political analysis. Can a woman win ? Is so and so too old or too young ? Can a gay person get elected ? How will they play in the South ? The Midwest ? Ships at sea ? We have created a nation of political pundits. The problem is that the Constitution was written for a nation of citizens ! ( true just white men to start )
Warren was writing and talking for a nation of informed citizens. Instead media commentators were mainly concerned with could she win ? Yes it is true we must vet real world consequences for any candidate. However this essay was a welcome reminder that we should also be talking about the problems in our basic governmental system - but as a nation of citizens not pundits.
7
Biden might need “Warrenism,” but there is zero evidence he knows it, so what exactly is the point here? Does anyone really expect Biden, a politician who has helped build the corrupt system Warren tried to attack, to pick up her mantle? The Democrats need something more basic, and that’s a spine. I don’t think they will get one until their favorite “moderates,” working hand in glove with the Republicans they pretend to fight, face the genuine depression they will have helped to create. Even then, they’ll chime in with the Republicans claiming the “libruls” are to blame.
1
There are always good ideas but politics always get in the way.
Thank you, Will, for the most impressive opinion piece I have ever seen in the NY Times. I wish they'd give you a regular slot on the Op-Ed page.
Elizabeth Warren is intellectually brilliant, with a vision of how to improve this country, a desire to bring everyone together in pursuit of common goals, & a gift for explaining things in clear terms that anyone can relate to. She should be regarded as the "godmother" of the Democratic party.
Warren is virtually as liberal as Bernie, but infinitely more practical & personable. Bernie loves being a lonely crusader who wages Quixotic battles but always falls short & revels in criticizing those who oppose him. His failure to explain how he would institute his plans shows how most of what he advocates is really just for show. Warren makes realistic plans & has a strategy to make them reality. So, of course, she can accomplish much more of the progressive agenda than he ever could.
Warren would make a much better POTUS than Biden, Trump, or any other candidate. She surely deserves a prominent role in any Democratic administration. While she might be considered for V.P., Treasury Secretary, or Senate Majority Leader, it is likely that she will prefer to remain exactly where she is, playing a leading role on any issue which must be tackled.
Warrenism is good for America & good for the Democratic party. I hope it's around for a long time.
9
If, as one commenter states, Biden is a transitional not transformational President, so be it.
Let us allow this bracing article act as a rally-point for the understanding that when Biden wins, all efforts are two-fold: first, begin repairing the corrosive damage of our government by Trump, et al; second, to set the stage for a Warren presidency in 2024.
6
Medicare for All (whether you want it or not) is a political loser. So is an immediate end to fracking. The American public will vocally reject decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Removing all combat troops from the mid-east will further destabilize an already volatile region. Elizabeth Warren advocates all of these. She is a passionate speaker with a proven record of accomplishment in the Senate, (unlike Bernie Sanders). Too many of her other policies are unacceptable to the American public. There is a clear reason why she was soundly defeated in the primary contests, including in her home state.
1
Knocking Joe Biden seems to be a popular sport among the media and among Sanders supporters, but think of this: the most intelligent president we have ever elected hand-picked Joe to be his running mate. He found something in Biden that made him think Joe could handle the free world in his absence.
I would love it if Joe would ask Warren to run as his VP and set her loose at reforming government. This is a good time to do so. I know they differ on policy, but Biden would go a long way with the women of America by putting Liz on his ticket.
5
@Nina RT
Obama picked Biden for two reasons.
1) To convince the progressive wing that with Biden's help, he could get his progressive agenda through Congress and the Senate. Joe was billed as an insider who knew the ropes and could help Obama. He failed to do that for 8 years, forcing Obama to govern by executive order.
2) To convince centrists and independents that they shouldn't be afraid to elect a progressive black guy. There's an old white guy beside him to keep him in check, so don't worry America this progressive malarkey Obama loves to spout on the campaign trail won't be a reality. Biden succeeded wonderfully at that.
Because of 2), he will fail to get the progressive vote, Sanders will be blamed (as usual) and Trump will win re-election.
The closer they get to losing it, the more avidly they marshal every form of heft, pull, propaganda, coercion and extortion at hand to prevent America’s political economy from locking into an equilibrium of fully inclusive democratic equality.
That is exactly why you basically saw A Biden infomercial these last two weeks on MSNBC.
1
Senate? Cabinet? VP? The problem is we need three Warrens! I can only dream.
8
Powerful, well phrased, articulate.
Thank you.
3
Let's just remember that Elizabeth Warren still believes that the AIG crisis in 2001/08 could have been solved through US bankruptcy laws.
Talk about being clueless!
Will, what you don't know about Joe Biden is quite a lot, I'm sorry to say. I would just add that it wouldn't surprise me and countless others if Senator Warren ends up playing an influential role in a Biden administration.
I know where I'd put her - at the head of the Consumer and Financial Protection Agency.
@Elizabeth Miller
Don't worry, Biden's donors will make sure that doesn't happen.
@Elizabeth Miller
Edit to my comment above: that should be the AIG crisis of 2007/08.
@Elizabeth Miller I left Ontario about 60 years ago because it was so ultra-conservative. I grew up in the Ontario school system. It prevented students from even asking questions about topics on the curriculum. It was all just rote learning.
Elizabeth Warren does ask questions. She questions everything. Like me, she believes in analyzing all the nuts and bolts in legislation, rethinking them so things can be made to work better. Her work has been superb. I admire her.
As for the bankruptcy laws in 2001-08, banks didn't follow the agreements they had with homeowners. They got away with it. Instead of bailing out homeowners, the government bailed out the banks. Homeowners were left stranded. Do you really believe that was OK?
Judging from what you've written here, if it represents the approach to government of most of those living in Ontario, the province remains ultra-conservative. Except for the health insurance there, I'm glad I left.
I do not understand why you think another person who is a lighting rod the same way Hilary was should be involved. The hand writing is on the wall. People do not want a blunt instrument, they want a proven and trusted solution. The solution is to work with the other side, not run them over. As bad as the other side has been does not mean you have to be belligerent in negotiations.
The author makes many good points.
But his blanket statements about the type of "socialism" that he claims Sanders represents is a continuation of "red scare" tactics that are inaccurate, misleading and counter-productive. It's disappointing.
4
As a diagnosis of what's wrong with our society, this column gets it right. The American republic is on its way to becoming a Putin-style oligarchy. However, I think the columnist and too many of the commenters are too harsh and defeatist in their view of Biden as some kind of establishment lackey. One thing Biden has shown over many years is the capacity to change his mind, to grow, to think progressively (e.g. about guns, gay marriage, climate change, etc.) And our politics will be much improved if he succeeds in winning the support of moderate Republicans, which will isolate the diehard Trumpists on the fringe where they belong.
2
@Charles Michener
He changed his mind on climate change? Is that why he went to a fossil fuel fundraiser hosted by Western LNG, fracking company, spearheaded by his old friend, former campaign budget director and investment banking buddy from Texas?
Is that why he headlined a fundraiser for Fred Upton, a Republican who was running in Michigan and won narrowly, instead of the Democratic candidate?
As long as the corporate, Wall Street, and bicoastal elites have a death-grip on the DNC, any policies to the left of Biden or Clintonism are DOA. The modern Democratic Party has by design made itself into Republican-lite, at least embracing the sort of “moderate” or “consensus” politics that existed before the rise of Trumpism, and the two parties shared a major ideological platform that defined the political economy since the end of WWII.
That “power elite”, in the words of C. Wright Mills, is not about to give up its status, and Biden represents a known “safe harbor”, whereas Sens. Warren and Sanders are clearly seen as antithetical or indeed as “enemies” to the established order. Sure, do a little tinkering here and there, acknowledge massive inequities do exist, but never go to the root causes. No fear, don’t expect any close reading of Piketty et al if Biden gets the nomination and goes on to win.
2
Again since Wall Street is afraid of her as well as Social Media I miss her already I am so sad people didn’t believe in her
3
Will, you are right on. Our country needs EW now. She will give the Biden presidency some needed teeth. I personally wanted her to be the president this time around.
7
I don't know if Biden can handle Warren running into the Oval Office every 5 min. demanding he implement her new plans.
1
If we were (note the past tense) living in the "greatest economy ever," with the "lowest unemployment rate ever," why did we need to cut the Federal interest rate, cut taxes for the richest among us, and run up a $trillion deficit during a time when we were NOT actively engaged in an all-out war, when we were NOT involved in any major social initiatives at home, or any major infrastructure initiatives at home?
Could it be that the "internal contradictions" of our cannibalistic, predatory American Capitalist system needs fresh blood infusions constantly in order to keep one step ahead of bankruptcy?
Trump is only the pimple on the nose of our problems. Biden won't solve anything. Warren would try. Bernie would try. We need to have somebody in the bully pulpit who voices these obvious concerns.
1
My hope is that Buttigieg will be involved in a meaningful way in a Democratic administration. He has the intellect and core values himself to grasp the urgency of our situation.
1
Totally agree. Democrats need to just as cut throat about rooting out corruption and voter disenfranchisement as Republicans are about pursuing those two goals with abandon.
4
Warren would easily be elected the next German chancellor or Swedish prime minister.
For all the social progress we've made, we're still lagging badly on sexism and racism. That she'd have to settle for being a consultant to Biden in some way or form, the man who was probably the most non-woke of all candidates this year, is very painful.
4
Why do I keep seeing divisive articles about how much we need people and policies the voters gave resoundingly rejected?
Neither Biden nor Warren are what you pretended they are.
The author accuses Joe Biden and his supporters of being:
"In denial"
"Cozy with big finance"
"Blinkered complacency"
"Can’t seem to grasp our deeper problems.”
An affluent highly educated white man accuses blacks and women, who support Biden in overwhelming numbers, of this.
The author has much nicer things to say about Trump as "Trump (has) taught us a lesson about power."
According to the author, Trump's conflict and upheaval roiling America should continue. Keep polarization and vilification up, just have someone on the left do it, as if that can heal a world broken by Trump and the GOP.
That's the author speaking, not Warren: Warren seeks to achieve her goals by persuasion, never by force.
This author never heard of a competent healer, which is what Biden is. The author's idea is not to first heal a patient brutalized by a crazed and derange surgeon who botched surgery, but replace him mid-surgery with someone to carve the body up in different ways. (Again, not Warren).
Biden said of himself at the raucous rally in Detroit after his second string a massive wins:
"Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country." He was referring to Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker, on stage with him, but also to Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang.
Hardly the words of man who is blinkered, complacent, or in denial.
1
@Robert B
If you want healing, go to a doctor (if you can afford it) or to your spiritual advisor.
The president is not a healer, he's a leader who sets priorities.
Biden describes himself as a bridge. Ironically, that's an excellent way of admitting that the Republicans will walk all over him, just as they did during the 8 years he was VP.
Interesting piece by Mr Wilkinson calling for "Warrenism", which seems to be contained in "big structural change"(BSC).
A thought by Robert Burns speaks to this idea:"the best laid plans for mice and men oft go awry". A more plebeian thinker posited "What can go wrong, will go wrong."
Wilkinson, also admits socialists may "be in the grip of unworkable, harebrained dogma"; but, they are willing to fight, and this is seemingly good. So if one changes BSC to Warrenism everything is jake.
What are the raw totals of Warren votes and how many delegates did she receive during primary season before she dropped out? Might this be important to his argument for Warrenism, and fighting for it one supposes?
I am waiting for Mr. Biden to announce his Veep choice, I might send him some money and vote for him.
I would like to see a Veep debate between Amy and the current Veep; will he bring his Bible to a knife fight?
Warren would bring her "plans".
Even with the virus, spring has had a nice start. America will survive.
I’m still in disbelief that Ms. Warren did not do better. Her ideas and know how on political and economic reform are second to none. The democratic nominee, whoever it turns out to be, would be a fool not to enlist her services at the highest level.
3
We must pray for the so called job creators. Those worth Over $1 billion could suffer a 3% tax increase if Senator Warren’s proposed wealth tax was enacted. That would completely demotivate them. Can you imagine any sort of life with only $970 million dollars? The poor dears!
2
Best essay I have read in quite a while. The author is dead-on right.
3
Where was this opinion piece when Warren needed support before she dropped out?
So many calls of support for Warren, but only after she dropped out.
As someone once said, in advice to husbands, “The time to buy her flowers was before the funeral.”
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The Democratic party only needs to concentrate on crushing the progressive movement. The young people that are flocking to it need to be purged. They are trying to have children while they still have student loans? This is unacceptable. I paid for my college by working part time as a soda jerk and graduated dept free. They are to lazy to get a job and work 10-12 hours a week to pay for college?
They want universal healthcare. Well I have great health insurance Medicare and I will not pay for anyone's healthcare but my own.
If they get Corvid - 19 virus and go to work they should be jailed. Why cant these people just stay home for the 14 days and keep us safe? Just use your sick time or paid leave. If you have to cash in a bond or CD. Dip into your 401k if you need to.
@gene Maybe those young people should actually make the effort to go out and vote? A thought.
@gene unless this is some sort of "eat the children" satire, you might be exactly what's wrong with Florida-- in terms of lack of understanding about the world around you and any sort of empathy.
Thanks to the democratic party today we have Donald Trump and not Bernie Sanders for president. And the worst of all, they are not learning the lesson.
Even Elizabeth Warren is old. Can the Dems not begin to support and raise up sensible younger members?
Yes to a progressive agenda and a reality base plan to move forward and solve structural problems. Thank you Bernie and Elizebeth.
No to Biden's regressive agenda and the status quo. Shame on older Americans for a failure of imagination and resolve.
Biden sees no ethical dilemma in son Hunters Ukraine shenanigans, really people!
Agreed. Biden could do a lot worse than make Warren his vice presidential running mate. Which means he will probably do a lot worse.
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If this is the end of the second Guilded Age, we need a T.R., not a Eugene Debs or William Jennings Bryan. Warren is that T.R. But, assuming Dems can capture the Senate, it would be better to have the modern T.R. as majority leader. Imagine a Pelosi-Warren Congress pushing Biden to act! That could be your second Progressive Era.
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It’s not either or Warren Sanders, it’s both together. Only together the plans will work effectively. Bernie’s spirit and vision Warren’s policy and plans. Hearts and hands.
It’s possible to love them both and we do. Don’t you dare tell us who is a democrat and who isn’t. Your anti sanders slant is noted but in this era of coronavirus you are forgiven for your nasty ness, there’s a bigger one coming.
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Can Warrenism exist in a non-wonky candidate, or is wonkishness required? Because liberal activists, forever in love with the wonk candidate, consistently forget that the wonk always loses to the charisma candidate
Great piece, I couldn’t agree more.
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Can we please get Elizabeth Warren back in this race? Has it ever been more clear than now how much we need structural change and an end to corruption and incompetence in our government? Warren is the right answer. Let's call her back!
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@617to416
Warren burned a lot of bridges attacking Sanders supporters, the closest ideological allies she has.
I thought the DNA test would be her biggest unforced error. Turned out I was wrong.
Bernie's ideas are "unworkable, harebrained dogma"? Hey, nothing is as unworkable and harebrained as leaving the insane American medical system the way it is while continuing to exacerbate the gulf between the haves and have-nots. Not to mention allowing Wall Street bankers and financial sleight-of-hand artists to continue to grow rich as Croesus while the rest of America suffers. And Biden will do nothing, absolutely nothing, to change that. Just look at his record as a supporter to repealing the Glass Steagall Act and his more-than-cozy relationship with banks and credit card companies.
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Oh, so now candidate Warren has morphed into "Warrenism." As an ardent supporter of hers, I find this another offensive form of erasure. She should be the nominee, not a symbol for a deeply flawed nominee like Joe Biden. Here's another example of asking a strong, capable woman to bolster a weak, incompetent man. If this is a VP suggestion, I would urge her to reject it. She's bigger and better than that.
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Great op-ed and spot on. Finally, someone other than Dr. Krugman who 'gets it'.
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This is the problem in a nutshell - Joe Biden's embrace of the past where republicans acted in good faith . I don't think Joe Biden has the ability to understand the current republican mindset and therefore he won't be able to get anything done. It will be 4 years of nothing, which may open the door to a right wing populist who is competent and intelligent, unlike Trump.
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I want Warren to serve wherever she will be most effective: as Majority Leader in the Senate, VP, Treasury Secretary, or Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. It should be up to her to decide. Without Warren's clear eyed drive and personal power, an obtuse, complacent Biden will achieve zero in the face of revanchist Republican vitriol, lies and cheating.
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Biden should not select Elizabeth Warren to be Vice President. That would be “kicking her upstairs.” We need Warren exactly where she is.
I was a Warren supporter, and I had deep regret when it became clear that she would not get the Democratic nomination. But what the author of this article doesn’t seem to grasp that not all presidents need to be dynamos. After we get rid of Trump, we’re going to need a kind and decent person to help clean up the wreckage so that we can right the ship. I see Biden as a transitional figure, much in the manner of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, two decent men who I believe history will be kind to. It’s going to be up to somebody else, Biden’s Vice President, to start the boat sailing in the direction the author seems to want.
Given his age, Biden’s pick has to be able to step up immediately if he dies. I’m sorry, but that lets Stacy Abrams out of the running. Her sole experience is as a state legislator and failed gubernatorial candidate. There is no assurance that she can deliver Georgia to the Democrats in November.
It also can’t be Corey Booker. He comes from the same region of the country as Biden, and he’ll need to show that he is concerned about more than just the Northeast. Though tempting, it also probably won’t be Harris, since she had little traction in the presidential campaign, and it’s likely that Biden can win California and carry the black vote on his own. Barack Obama will have his back.
That leaves Amy Klobuchar.
Klobuchar can deliver Minnesota, a state Clinton barely carried in 2016. She's also from the midwest, and if Biden needs to make an overture to anyone, it's the people who feel the Democrats have left them behind. Democrats haven't had a midwesterner (other than Obama) on the ticket for a very long time. Klobuchar knows how to get things done in the Senate, and I think she would be able to be a competent president if Biden died. And finally (and obviously), Klobuchar is a woman, and if anyone is owed a debt of gratitude by the Democratic party, it's women.
I don't believe anyone that ran for the Democratic Presidency, would add to Biden's appeal, if picked for a running mate! Old Joe's problems will remain and his lack of any real talent, just a dash of charisma, will allow others to rule from a distance; not good for America, or any Democracy!
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As long as centrists insist on the dishonest narrative that “socialists” are “in the grip of unworkable, harebrained dogma” I can’t take them or their reassurances seriously.
First, there is and was no “socialist” in the primary race. Sanders is a democratic socialist, which is not a nuance, but a significant difference. Learn the difference before you pundit in public.
But, more importantly: Unworkable? Harebrained?
What about free public university tuition is either? Mr. Wilkinson, many American public universities were tuition-free within living memory. And in much of Europe, this is still the case.
Universal healthcare: So harebrained and unworkable that of the 35 OECD nations, all have some form of universal healthcare except the US.
Higher taxes on the wealthy? OK, I’ll give you that. Billionaires would be paying people to light themselves on fire on the Capitol steps before that happens.
So, sorry. Take your centrism and go battle Trump on your own.
When you take actual progressive concerns seriously, give me a call.
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@Serrated Thoughts
I think the writer is criticizing the means or order of operations, not the ends. No one here is defending centrism. The thing that Bernie's campaign fails to recognize is that in order to massively expand government and institutional responsibilities without blowing out all political capital on a single signature issue (the way Obama needed to with the ACA), we would need to shore up public faith in those very levers of power instead of "blowing them up". Identifying grift, corruption and inefficiencies is a critical prerequisite to enacting changes that will last and not seem to so much of the country as something that the "radical left" (and I am one) is shoving down everyone's throats. The goal is for a true and lasting progressive agenda to become the new normal.
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@Serrated Thoughts All that is fine if the majority of Americans read anything or did anything to understand what is going on around them. They don't. That is why Bernie has no chance.
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@Serrated Thoughts
This piece confuses rather than clarifies “socialism.” The basic difference between Warren and Sanders is that Warren is fundamentally a socialist, but she doesn’t wear the label like Sanders.
Let’s be clear about what we mean by “socialism” in 2020 as it is practiced by developed countries around the world. This socialism is first of all democratic. China and Venezuela are socialist dictatorships.
Secondly, modern democratic socialism appreciates capitalism. But it advocates mitigating capitalism’s worst instincts through regulation and strong social safety nets. How these two strategies are implemented varies from country to country.
What’s the difference between “reform” and “revolution”? Not much but the rhetoric. One may sound less harsh to some ears. But no one is advocating overthrowing the government and tearing down society and re-building it.
Wilkerson gets tangled up in the terminology. He calls for “big structural change” – but how is that not revolutionary? He says: “Warrenism may be less ‘revolutionary’ than Mr. Sanders’s socialism, it’s also more threatening to concentrated power.” How is “threatening to concentrated power” not revolutionary?
We can quibble about the terminology, but the bottom line is that both Sanders and Warren opened the door to real progressive ideas and inserted them into the conversation in an unprecedented way. It is unfortunate that their ideas will likely be left to wither in the hands of Joe Biden.
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