My intention was to wait another year or so before calling a press conference and formally endorsing a candidate for president, but, when I saw this thread of comments today from Senator Elizabeth Warren about why she wouldn’t be following the lead of other Democratic candidates and appearing on FOX News, I decided that I’ve waited long enough. Warren, as we’ve discussed here before, continues to lead the pack on the policy front, constantly sharing new, ambitious plans on everything from how to make capitalism more accountable to how we address the student debt crisis, and I don’t see reason to hold off making an endorsement. No one else in the field, from my perspective, is even remotely close. I may not agree with her on every issue, but I love that she’s not willing to equivocate when it comes to stating her beliefs. And I admire her willingness to go absolutely anywhere (except FOX News) to talk about these big, bold, unabashedly progressive ideas of hers. She’s bright, authentic, thoughtful and driven. And we’d be lucky to have her as our president.
While a lot of people on the Democratic side are qualified for the job, Warren, I think, is uniquely positioned for the task right now, as America confronts the ramifications of unchecked corporate power and money in politics. I know there are other huge issues that we face as a country, but I can’t help but think that the biggest root cause — when you look at all of the problems that we’re facing, from rapidly increasing income inequality, to our inability to act on global warming — is the corporate stranglehold over Washington. And I don’t see anyone better equipped to take that on than Warren. She knows what needs to be done, and she knows how to talk about these issues in a way that regular Americans understand, tying everything back to the fact that an overwhelming percentage of us want the same exact things — access to quality health care, decent educations for our children, and good, middle class jobs. No one speaks to those core issues like Elizabeth Warren, and I intend to do whatever I can to make sure that more people hear what she has to say.
Now, with all of that said, here’s her Twitter thread that made me get off the sidelines.
I’m sure some of you might be thinking, “But, Mark, Donald Trump has an effective nickname for her. She can never win.” Well, to that I say, “I don’t give a fuck.” I’m not going to walk away from the best candidate in the field because a racist old man on Twitter has convinced some portion of the electorate that she’s unfit for office because, one time, decades ago, she wrote “American Indian” on a registration card for the Texas bar. [By the way, no one, to my knowledge, has been able to demonstrate that she ever sought any kind of advantage by indicating her heritage.] And, I reckon, if we could elect a president who bragged on tape about grabbing women “by the pussy” without their consent, and had unprotected anal sex with a porn star while his wife was was home with their newborn son, then maybe a women who believed members of her family in Oklahoma when they told her that they were descendants of Native American ancestors might have a fighting chance. [For what it’s worth, it did turn out that she had Native American ancestry. It just wasn’t as recent as she’d been led to believe. As I recall, her DNA test showed that she had a Native American ancestor about 7 or 8 generations back, which, as coincidence would have it, is about how far back my Native American ancestor apparently was. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that, but it was the one interesting revelation my DNA test came back with a few years ago.]
I suppose it’s possible that another candidate could come along and inspire me the way that Warren does… I’ve seen flashes of it here and there from people like Kamala Harris… And if someone else wins the nomination, I’ll fight like hell for them. But, as of right now, I’m all in for Warren, and I feel really good about the decision.
