Elizabeth Warren, the Woman Awakening the American Left

Has the American left found a new muse in Elizabeth Warren? A “Tupperware party’ video of her has been circulating the blogosphere. In the video, which seems to have been filmed with a cellphone, Elizabeth Warren responds to Republican attacks against a bill aiming to raise taxes on all income exceeding $1 million a year.

What did she say?

“I hear all this, you know, ‘Well this is class warfare, this is whatever. …No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. …Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea — God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

The argument is quite simple. So why is it such a success? It is without a doubt that Warren’s few words were enough to reinvigorate some common sense in the American political debate. Let’s not forget about last June when Democrats gave into Republican blackmail; the Republicans threatened to cause a debt default if tax cuts for the rich weren’t maintained.

Warren, Sworn Enemy of the Financial Sector

A petition has even been circulating on the Web simply to say “thank you” to Warren for defending progressive values.

It must be said that “Liz” Warren has not just come out of nowhere. A professor of contract law at Harvard, coming from a very modest family, she has become the number one target of the financial sector.

In the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, she led the congressional committee responsible for overseeing the proper use of public money in the bank bailout program. She then became known for her heated exchanges with Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury under the Obama administration. At a committee hearing, she asked simply, “AIG has received about $70 billion in TARP money, about $100 billion in loans from the Fed. Do you know where the money went?”

Since 2007, Warren has warned against dangerous financial products, the source of the crisis: “It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street — and the mortgage won’t even carry a disclosure of that fact to the homeowner.”

The Senate, Pigeonholed?

Since then, she has led a fierce battle to establish a protection agency for borrowers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a project that Republicans and financial lobbies have tirelessly tried to torpedo. The Obama administration, seeking a compromise with Republicans, chose not to nominate her as head of the agency.

The agency, which finally opened its doors in July 2011, still has no manager, with Republicans refusing to endorse anyone until the agency drastically reduces its prerogatives. In lieu of taking a position, Democratic Party heavyweights have suggested that Elizabeth Warren mount a bid for the Senate seat in Massachusetts in November 2012. This is a proposal that some commentators see as a way to make this woman exit quietly — the same woman who said in an interview at the time of the confrontation with Republicans over the creation of this agency: “My first choice is a strong consumer agency, my second choice is no agency at all and plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor.”

She embarked on this campaign and seems to be doing well, but many are disappointed to see the poster child of the fight against Wall Street “resigning” to a Senate seat, when a presidential campaign would have given her ideas much more visibility. But maybe she’s thinking of her next move: the United States 2016 presidential election.