Elizabeth Warren recently restated her case on for whom Washington is working, and for whom it isn’t. This is raw video from the Medford Democratic caucus about a month ago. It’s a good distillation of her stump speech – and, importantly, it links the question of for whom Washington works with her “social contract” argument made famous in the video, shot in Andover during her “listening tour,” that has now been viewed over 850,000 times. Check it out:
And now, you should watch as Ron Paul is asked directly why Warren’s “social contract” argument is wrong. It’s quite amazing: all he can do is blather on about how she’s a socialist and how he favors home schooling and private schools over public schools. He even seems to argue (though he doesn’t quite say it) that the government should never have built the interstate highway system, because surely the private sector would have built something even better. Honestly, it’s sad.
stomv says
Everybody has one. You can either engage with him, or you can just nod and smile, and then politely excuse yourself to go back to watching the football game.
michaelhoran says
“I’m not a socialist. I’m a Texan. I’m proud of the fact that we aren’t socialists. That we rank last when it comes to spending on mental health, children, last in job creation, last in benefits for public employees, last in high school diplomas, fourth in teenage preganacies, and 9th in poverty overall is a testament to the power of the private sector when it isn’t being taxed and regulated to death.”
I WISH Ms Warren were 1/10 the “socialist” they make her out to be. Goes double for Obama. We’ve reached a strange place when teaching kids to read and add is equated with Leninism.
Here’s the problem. I know the Paul contingent is made up to some degree of rabid libertarians–guns in the closet, gold under the mattresses, potable water and canned mackerel piled high in the storage shed. But he’s also gleaning an unwarranted amount of support from young people utterly disenchanted with politics-as-usual who are glomming on to him because of his libertarian views on drugs and and his antiwar/isolationist policies. I’m not in favor of making meth available, nor of simply cutting off all aid to everyone overseas (the good doctor has a very strange view of how the global diplomacy works)–but I AM reminded, watching this, that Ms Warren opposes the legalization of marijuana (about which I suspect she knows very damn little, especially in terms of costs to the state and ruined lives) and opposes closing down overseas military bases.
These kids aren’t supporting Paul because they want privatized interstates; they’re doing so because Democrat and Republicans alike continue to jail people for smoking weed and because they both foster an empire built on endless war (who was the last U.S President not to bomb and/or invade/occupy somebody?). You can call them ignorant, and dupes, but they’re right-on in re these issues.
Meanwhile, Ms Warren’s web site page on national security devotes more space to Israel’s security than to our own. And, speaking of ignorance, contains this whopper:
Really? Not according to the comprehensive report issued by US intelligence agencies. With which Mossad agrees. I do look forward to my next opportunity to ask Ms Warren, publicly, for her source. She clearly knows something the international intelligence doesn’t. Hmm, who does that remind me of?
Paul would, of course, be an unmitigated disaster, and he’ll never score big because the GOP, like the mullahs, may be dumb, but aren’t suicidal. But it’s very hard for me to put any faith in a Democrat running for Senate who simply parrots whatever gibberish is being trotted out by the pro-war forces. Yeah, the woes of the middle-class may be campaign issue #1. But it may well turn out that her votes on this issue are not the most critical she’ll be casting. Her page on national security–tepid everywhere, frighteningly scant, devoid of any interesting ideas whatsoever, and parading inaccurate information–doesn’t inspire much confidence. How different from Senator Brown is she in this area?
I wish some of the good people I know weren’t flocking to Paul’s half-witted campaign. But I wish Democrats would offer them a more inspiring alternative. Yeah, and if wishes were horses…
P.S. Dr Paul, do drop a note to DARPA thanking said agency for this Internet-thing that makes your campaign possible.
JimC says
The contrast is striking.