Lessons From Elizabeth Warren

Which lesson will Obama take from sweeping midterm losses? The mantra from the media is move right, conciliate, bridge build. But that’s the rotten road that brought the Democrats this far. There are other voices to listen to.

Robert Reich, who was part of the Clinton administration during the Gingrich Revolution of ‘94, says the media’s wrong about Clinton’s reelection. Clinton was reelected then because the economy was booming, says Reich, not because he caved in to Gingrich – although he did, to devastating effect on the Democratic base.

The relevant lesson for Obama isn’t ’96, says Reich, it’s 1936. When FDR, in the middle of a Great Depression, retooled and came out swinging – against speculators, monopolies and the men he called “the reckless Banksters of finance.”

Obama thus far has prioritized protecting bankers. He even told them, memorably, in March 2009, “My administration is the only thing between you and pitchforks.”

Having soaked up the government’s largesse, the banksters repaid him by pouring millions of anonymous dollars into defeating Democrats. As Simon Johnson of MIT points out, a blueprint for a way forward would be to follow the lead of —Elizabeth Warren, interim director of the consumer protection agency.

Warren’s a real consumer protector who could put the faux populists to shame. It’s his very last chance. Obama better let her, for our sake, as much as his own.

LAURA FLANDERS hosts the excellent daily GritTV

Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including The New York Times best-seller, BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species.  She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women’s and girls’ visibility in media and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org