Reposted from ProgressiveLiberal by Frank Whitaker
In the approximately two minutes that Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on All In with Chris Hayes, she articulated the Democratic message that every Democrat running for office must turn into muscle and reactive memory. Sen. Warren was on the show to talk about her new bill, the Equal Employment for All Act that would prevent employers from discriminating against Americans with poor credit ratings. She successfully made the case that employers checking credit ratings of potential employees disproportionately affect the poor and the middle class. It further damages potential employee credit as they are unemployed for a longer time or may have to settle for low wage jobs.
Hayes could not have Sen. Warren on the show without pivoting to her populist propensity. He asked her if there is an Elizabeth Warren wing of the party that she leads. She humbly dismissed the personalization of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. “This isn’t about me,” she said. “This is about the issues about what’s happening to America’s families.”
Sen. Warren went on to say that America’s hardworking families have been hammered on for a generation as a the result of supply side economics. She then enumerated the specific issues they are dealing with like declining wages, core expenses, housing, healthcare, daycare, and college, then tying it to how the middle class has coped so far. Everyone in the household has to work. When that is not enough, they get into debt. And for that debt, they are exploited by a predatory credit industry that make huge profits on their backs. She said no longer can a parent tell their kids they will be better off.
Hayes detailed a sad truth. The middle class decline occurred under both Democratic and Republican rule. This can be attributed to a Democratic party that for all practical purposeshas kept supply side economics in effect. Hayes asked if Democrats had done enough. Sen. Warren demonstrated her political bona fides. She did not address past Democratic middle class failures. Instead, she said Democrats must be forward looking and fight for the middle class.
Please read below the fold for more on Sen. Warren's views.