What should we “fight for” in politics? The readily obtainable, the remotely possible, or the obtainable only when the proverbial pig flaps its muddy wings?
You might think this would be a pressing concern for Democrats running to oust Donald Trump from the presidency. You know, practical politics being something established political parties actually do. Yet, in Tuesday’s Democratic candidates’ debate, some of the night’s loudest applause went to Senator Elizabeth Warren, for her response to all the … negativity … from John Delaney.
“You know,” she said sternly, stridently in that tone only some of us find grating, “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.”
Really?
She is not running under the Green or Libertarian Party banners. Green candidates can talk about getting rid of all internal combustion engines, and Libertarians can talk about their opposition to drivers’ licensing.
They have license.
Because flightless pigs give them license.
But Senator Warren has a chance.
At some point, you’d think, she has to take seriously what American voters can tolerate, not just what will make progressive activists in the debate audience “erupt,” as CNN put it. Or what Democratic primary voters will demand.
It is worth noting that Delaney, a former U.S. Representative from Maryland, was mostly concerned about the Sanders-Warren healthcare plan that, he says, would take away from workers benefits they now possess.* The fact that Senator Warren is willing to risk union worker support to play for the utopian vote is … interesting
And Delaney’s right — it has to be good for Trump.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Delaney’s argument that Warren found so offensive: “I think Democrats win when we run on real solutions, not impossible promises, when we run on things that are workable, not fairy tale economics. Look at the story of Detroit, this amazing city that we’re in. This city is turning around because the government and the private sector are working well together. That has to be our model going forward. We need to encourage collaboration between the government, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector, and focus on those kitchen table, pocketbook issues that matter to hard-working Americans: building infrastructure, creating jobs, improving their pay … creating universal health care, and lowering drug prices.”
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
1 reply on “Pigs Flying Too Close to the Sun”
I want to believe in John Delaney, but I’ve been burned too many times by the likes of Carter, Clinton and Obama. I still remember Clinton promising a middle-class tax cut (It’s small consolation, but I didn’t believe him then, either.) and then signing the largest tax increase in American history.
As for the 2020 Democratic debates, why should I care what any of the candidates say? I have no voice in the nomination process for either party, since both races are usually decided long before NJ holds its primary.