What Elizabeth Warren’s Critics Don’t Understand
A response to Lauren Martinchek.
As the 2020 Democratic primary season has moved along, the field of candidates has begun getting smaller and smaller.
It started in September, where the elevated requirements to make that month’s debate cut the 20 candidate field in half. Then, the October debates came and they firmly established who had a chance and who didn’t.
Low tier candidates candidates like Tim Ryan and Kirsten Gillibrand failed to make a real impression, middle tier candidates like Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang saw moderate success, but also began to decline, and the field was mostly winnowed down to the top three: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.
For the party’s left wing, they have been behind Bernie Sanders the entire way. They think he was cheated out of the nomination in 2016, and now he’s back to push bold progressive policy and put the country in the right direction.
He also has an actual chance of winning now. Unlike in 2016, where he was a longshot contender who mainly just stirred up dissent surrounding the party’s frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, he started the 2020 primary with solid name recognition, good polling numbers, and extremely encouraging fundraising results.
Progressives saw Sanders as their chance to put one of them on the Democratic ticket — to finally claim their rightful place as a force in the Democratic Party, and they thought all that stood in their way was Joe Biden.
And then, Elizabeth Warren showed up.
During the first three debates, Warren acted a bit like Sanders’ sidekick. She supported most of the left wing policies he did, and she walked in lockstep with him while letting him stand as the progressive sweetheart.
People expected the field to eventually winnow to Biden and Sanders, with Sanders drawing Warren voters and beating Biden out to win the nomination, but instead, Warren began to replace Sanders.
Starting in early September, Sanders’ polling number began to fall while Warren’s began to climb. On September 17th, she officially overtook him in polling, and by early October she was neck and neck with Biden, even overtaking him briefly, while Sanders was fading.
At this point, some have begun to count Sanders out of the contest as well, and say the nomination is now Biden vs. Warren.
There are many progressives, however, who have now changed aim. They’ve realized that Biden isn’t the threat to Sanders, but instead it’s Warren. The de facto truce between the two campaigns, created due to their ideological similarities and their common enemy of Joe Biden, has now been broken, and Sanders supporters are trying to put Warren down and give Sanders another chance in the race.
A prime example of one of these people is Lauren Martinchek, Medium’s resident leftist.
She recently wrote an article explaining why she and other progressives don’t support Warren, and her reasoning was pretty straightforward. She said that Warren is too vague on some of her positions, such as her wealth taxes, and she’s also not a bold enough progressive. She’s talked about major structural change, but she’s still standing in between the center and the left, leaving Sanders as the candidate to push for stronger, left-wing proposals.
These criticisms of Warren are valid. She has been a bit vague on policy, and she has dodged some questions Sanders has answered, like if she would raise taxes on the middle class to fund Medicare for All. It is also undoubtedly true that Sanders is more left-wing than her, as he’s openly called himself a democratic socialist, and he’s moved to overhaul many parts of American society, while Warren has pushed for smaller — although still substantial — reforms.
However, progressives need to face one important fact: Sanders’ brand of far left progressiveness isn’t popular enough for him to get elected.
Sanders has solid support, of course, but many of the policies he’s championed, like forgiving all student loan debt, don’t enjoy majority support from voters. Sanders is offering sweeping changes to American society, and while this appeases progressives, it makes moderate progressives and centrists more nervous.
A lot of people just can’t get on board with everything Sanders stands for, and to them, Warren offers an alternative. She seems a bit like Sanders-lite, offering progressive change while not pushing too far.
Martinchek actually summarized this idea perfectly, writing “To her credit, Elizabeth Warren is incredibly skilled at advocating for solid changes, without ruffling too many feathers.”
Warren is able to be a bit of a catch-all candidate. She can get moderate voters who want someone more interesting than Joe Biden, she’s able to offer experience and order to independent voters who are fed up with Trump, and she’s still progressive enough that we can be promised significant changes under her presidency.
There are many progressives who don’t feel like Warren is enough, and that’s fair. When you have the choice of Bernie Sanders, no one else will feel like they’re living up to the standard, but that needs to be put aside.
While it’s difficult to leave Sanders behind, and to give up all the reforms he promises, progressives need to understand that Warren is their best shot. She actually has a chance of winning against Trump, and while she may not offer everything they wanted, she is still a bold leader with progressive plans.
