Elizabeth Warren is not just our Senator, she’s our champion. And since the American people have resoundingly elected Democrats to the White House and Senate (though gerrymandering has helped the GOP hold the House for now), it is time for the Senate to adopt rules that benefit, not hinder, progress.
We need economic growth. We need progress against the tide of inequality in our economy. To these ends, the President must fill the Federal Reserve and National Labor Relations Board with progressives. The right wing has held up the nomination process with Senate rules in the recent past and they will do it again, much to the detriment of the economy and economic fairness.
America is comfortable with marriage equality. Gay rights are human rights, and that is the mainstream belief of American voters. Yet we will need the courts to institutionalize this mainstream view and strike down the unjust state laws that enforce discrimination. In many cases, the Federal judiciary will decide on this issue, and the President nominates new judges & Justices. The right wing exercised tremendous power in the Senate in the past–remember that even Clinton’s pick of Ruth Bader Ginsburg came from a list provided by Orrin Hatch, and now they will no doubt try to block even moderate nominees.
The Senate has to get rid of holds and drastically curtail the overused filibuster. Let our new Senator carry this message to Harry Reid and all the majority Senators: we need a Senate that brings progress! Their first votes should be to reform the Senate rules, so the Senate works for all Americans!
