Elizabeth Warren fires back at centrist Democrats
Updated by Jeff Stein Aug 12, 2017, 11:56am EDT
ATLANTA — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took aim at centrist Democrats on Saturday in front of the one of the largest annual gatherings of progressives in the country.
Two days after a new Democratic-aligned superPAC called New Democracy formed to push back against the party’s ascendant left wing, Warren argued that Democrats would not be “going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill.”
“We’re not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice,” Warren told a crowd of about 3,000 people at Netroots Nation. “We’re not going back to the days when universal health care was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail, but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected.”
Warren cited, and then mocked, a column by former Hillary Clinton adviser Mark Penn in the New York Times arguing that Democrats should “move back to the center.”
Centrist want Democrats to “Give up, keep your heads down, be realistic, act like a grown-up, keep doing the same old same old,” Warren said. But, she added, “we’re not going back to the days when a Democrat who wanted to run for a seat in Washington first had to grovel on Wall Street.”
Below is a transcript of Warren’s prepared remarks, sent in advance by her staff.
Before I begin, I would like to say a word about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – DACA – that was just discussed.
The fights that we fight for – they matter. In 2012 - because of persistence of many of you in this room – 800,000 young men and women were protected from deportation.
Because of DACA, DREAMers, who are as American as you and me, were promised a chance. The chance to work. The chance to live without the fear of being ripped away from the only home most of them have ever known. The chance to build a future.
Now, President Trump will make a decision on DACA. DREAMers’ future hangs in the balance. This Tuesday, August 15, people are mobilizing to protect DREAMers. Let’s not sit back. Let’s stand together to say: President Trump, let DREAMers stay. They are our friends, our family, our future. Give DREAMers the chance to build their dreams.
These fights matter. These fights matter, and that’s why it’s good to be back at Netroots Nation!
Thank you Mary, thank you Eric, thank you Arshad, and thank you to the entire Netroots Nation team for bringing us together again. And what a treat it is to be here in Atlanta – the hometown of a man who has taught us the importance of necessary trouble, my friend and hero John Lewis.
I look out here and see 3000 progressives, people of every race, gender, religion, and color, all committed to building a better future. I look out here and I see Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.
Yes, Trump’s worst nightmare, but also a big threat to everyone who kind of likes things the way they work now. A few weeks ago, I saw an op-ed in the New York Times from a so-called Democratic strategist titled, “Back to the Center, Democrats.”
It was all about how we have to stop caring about, quote, “identity politics” and stop waging, quote, “class warfare.” Apparently, the path forward is to go back to locking up non-violent drug offenders and ripping more holes in our economic safety net.
I even got a shoutout! Apparently, I’m the face of the problem. So is Bernie. But let’s be really clear here – the real power, the real threat, is not me—it’s you, all of you. It’s your energy, your passion, and your commitment to our values that threaten the bland, business-as-usual establishment.
We’ve been warned off before. Give up, keep your heads down, be realistic, act like a grown-up, keep doing the same old same old.
But here’s what’s interesting: instead of lots of lots of ferocious back-and-forth and piling on, this time, no one cared. Big yawn. Why? Because the Democratic Party isn’t going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill. It is NOT going to happen.
We’re not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice.
We’re not going back to the days when universal health care was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected.
And we’re not going back to the days when a Democrat who wanted to run for a seat in Washington first had to grovel on Wall Street.
Democrats are heading forward. We are looking ahead – and we will not, we shall not, we must not allow anyone to turn back the clock.
A lot of you have been coming since the very first YearlyKos in 2006. That feels like a long, long time ago. Way back in 2006 and still when I first started coming in 2010, a big part of what we were trying to do was to “crash the gate” and get the Democratic Party to listen to us.
We wanted a party led by people who weren’t afraid to call themselves progressives.
We wanted a party that would defend progressive values.
We wanted a chance to fight for progressive solutions to our nation’s challenges.
We wanted a movement. And now, look around. We got the progressive movement, and we gather here every year to organize, to energize, and to sing karaoke.
And now?
We are not the gate crashers of today’s Democratic Party.
We are not a wing of today’s Democratic Party.
We are the heart and soul of today’s Democratic Party.
But, boy, we’ve inherited a hell of a challenge, haven’t we?
We’re gathering here in Atlanta in a moment of crisis for our country. And I’m not just talking about Donald Trump and his Twitter account. More and more working families today are hanging on by their fingernails in a country with an economy and a government that works only for those at the very top.
This crisis didn’t start when Donald Trump walked into the Oval Office. And it won’t just magically disappear the day he walks out of it.
Me, I’ve been shouting about this crisis from every rooftop I could find for years – talking about how our middle class was squeezed to the breaking point, how chances to move up in this economy were disappearing, and warning that, if we weren’t careful, the very promise of this nation—the commitment to expand opportunities—would be lost.
That’s the fight that got me into politics. That’s the fight that brought me to my very first Netroots all those years ago.
How about you? By applause: Who got into the fight because they were passionate about economic justice? Who came to fight for reproductive rights? How about clean air and clean water? How about immigration? Civil rights? Human rights? Anti-war? Campaign finance reform? Net neutrality? Any other bankruptcy nerds in the house?
That’s one of the things I love about coming to Netroots. We all came to this fight from different experiences. We all get fired up about different issues.
But if we’re going to be the people who lead the Democratic Party back from the wilderness and lead our country out of this dark time, then we can’t waste energy arguing about whose issue matters most or who in our alliance should be voted off the island.
We need to see each other’s fights as our own. And I believe we can.
In the wake of the last election, I’ve heard people say we need to decide whether we’re the party of the white working class or the party of Black Lives Matter.
I say we can care about a dad who’s worried that his kid will have to move away from their factory town to find good work – and we can care about a mom who’s worried that her kid will get shot during a traffic stop.
The way I see it, those two parents have something deep down in common—the system is rigged against both of them—and against their kids.
Over the last generation, the most powerful people in this country have gotten way more powerful. Corporate profits and CEO pay are near record highs. But workers’ wages haven’t budged, and, one after another, workers’ rights are getting wiped away. Unions are under attack. Millions of people are struggling to piece together two, three, or four jobs just to pay the rent.
Updated by Jeff Stein Aug 12, 2017, 11:56am EDT
ATLANTA — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took aim at centrist Democrats on Saturday in front of the one of the largest annual gatherings of progressives in the country.
Two days after a new Democratic-aligned superPAC called New Democracy formed to push back against the party’s ascendant left wing, Warren argued that Democrats would not be “going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill.”
“We’re not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice,” Warren told a crowd of about 3,000 people at Netroots Nation. “We’re not going back to the days when universal health care was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail, but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected.”
Warren cited, and then mocked, a column by former Hillary Clinton adviser Mark Penn in the New York Times arguing that Democrats should “move back to the center.”
Centrist want Democrats to “Give up, keep your heads down, be realistic, act like a grown-up, keep doing the same old same old,” Warren said. But, she added, “we’re not going back to the days when a Democrat who wanted to run for a seat in Washington first had to grovel on Wall Street.”
Below is a transcript of Warren’s prepared remarks, sent in advance by her staff.
Before I begin, I would like to say a word about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – DACA – that was just discussed.
The fights that we fight for – they matter. In 2012 - because of persistence of many of you in this room – 800,000 young men and women were protected from deportation.
Because of DACA, DREAMers, who are as American as you and me, were promised a chance. The chance to work. The chance to live without the fear of being ripped away from the only home most of them have ever known. The chance to build a future.
Now, President Trump will make a decision on DACA. DREAMers’ future hangs in the balance. This Tuesday, August 15, people are mobilizing to protect DREAMers. Let’s not sit back. Let’s stand together to say: President Trump, let DREAMers stay. They are our friends, our family, our future. Give DREAMers the chance to build their dreams.
These fights matter. These fights matter, and that’s why it’s good to be back at Netroots Nation!
Thank you Mary, thank you Eric, thank you Arshad, and thank you to the entire Netroots Nation team for bringing us together again. And what a treat it is to be here in Atlanta – the hometown of a man who has taught us the importance of necessary trouble, my friend and hero John Lewis.
I look out here and see 3000 progressives, people of every race, gender, religion, and color, all committed to building a better future. I look out here and I see Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.
Yes, Trump’s worst nightmare, but also a big threat to everyone who kind of likes things the way they work now. A few weeks ago, I saw an op-ed in the New York Times from a so-called Democratic strategist titled, “Back to the Center, Democrats.”
It was all about how we have to stop caring about, quote, “identity politics” and stop waging, quote, “class warfare.” Apparently, the path forward is to go back to locking up non-violent drug offenders and ripping more holes in our economic safety net.
I even got a shoutout! Apparently, I’m the face of the problem. So is Bernie. But let’s be really clear here – the real power, the real threat, is not me—it’s you, all of you. It’s your energy, your passion, and your commitment to our values that threaten the bland, business-as-usual establishment.
We’ve been warned off before. Give up, keep your heads down, be realistic, act like a grown-up, keep doing the same old same old.
But here’s what’s interesting: instead of lots of lots of ferocious back-and-forth and piling on, this time, no one cared. Big yawn. Why? Because the Democratic Party isn’t going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill. It is NOT going to happen.
We’re not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice.
We’re not going back to the days when universal health care was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected.
And we’re not going back to the days when a Democrat who wanted to run for a seat in Washington first had to grovel on Wall Street.
Democrats are heading forward. We are looking ahead – and we will not, we shall not, we must not allow anyone to turn back the clock.
A lot of you have been coming since the very first YearlyKos in 2006. That feels like a long, long time ago. Way back in 2006 and still when I first started coming in 2010, a big part of what we were trying to do was to “crash the gate” and get the Democratic Party to listen to us.
We wanted a party led by people who weren’t afraid to call themselves progressives.
We wanted a party that would defend progressive values.
We wanted a chance to fight for progressive solutions to our nation’s challenges.
We wanted a movement. And now, look around. We got the progressive movement, and we gather here every year to organize, to energize, and to sing karaoke.
And now?
We are not the gate crashers of today’s Democratic Party.
We are not a wing of today’s Democratic Party.
We are the heart and soul of today’s Democratic Party.
But, boy, we’ve inherited a hell of a challenge, haven’t we?
We’re gathering here in Atlanta in a moment of crisis for our country. And I’m not just talking about Donald Trump and his Twitter account. More and more working families today are hanging on by their fingernails in a country with an economy and a government that works only for those at the very top.
This crisis didn’t start when Donald Trump walked into the Oval Office. And it won’t just magically disappear the day he walks out of it.
Me, I’ve been shouting about this crisis from every rooftop I could find for years – talking about how our middle class was squeezed to the breaking point, how chances to move up in this economy were disappearing, and warning that, if we weren’t careful, the very promise of this nation—the commitment to expand opportunities—would be lost.
That’s the fight that got me into politics. That’s the fight that brought me to my very first Netroots all those years ago.
How about you? By applause: Who got into the fight because they were passionate about economic justice? Who came to fight for reproductive rights? How about clean air and clean water? How about immigration? Civil rights? Human rights? Anti-war? Campaign finance reform? Net neutrality? Any other bankruptcy nerds in the house?
That’s one of the things I love about coming to Netroots. We all came to this fight from different experiences. We all get fired up about different issues.
But if we’re going to be the people who lead the Democratic Party back from the wilderness and lead our country out of this dark time, then we can’t waste energy arguing about whose issue matters most or who in our alliance should be voted off the island.
We need to see each other’s fights as our own. And I believe we can.
In the wake of the last election, I’ve heard people say we need to decide whether we’re the party of the white working class or the party of Black Lives Matter.
I say we can care about a dad who’s worried that his kid will have to move away from their factory town to find good work – and we can care about a mom who’s worried that her kid will get shot during a traffic stop.
The way I see it, those two parents have something deep down in common—the system is rigged against both of them—and against their kids.
Over the last generation, the most powerful people in this country have gotten way more powerful. Corporate profits and CEO pay are near record highs. But workers’ wages haven’t budged, and, one after another, workers’ rights are getting wiped away. Unions are under attack. Millions of people are struggling to piece together two, three, or four jobs just to pay the rent.