Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren leave the Senate Democrats' policy luncheon on Tuesday, May 12, 2015. (photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc)
20 June 15
lizabeth
Warren's rallying cry is simple: If we fight for our values, we will
win. And the question she's asked supporters is this: Are you ready to
fight?
It was that fearless, fighting spirit that inspired us
to start Ready for Warren more than a year ago to draft Elizabeth
Warren to run for president. We believe the movement to draft Warren
fundamentally changed the terms of the 2016 debate, and these days, just
about every Democrat running for president seems to sound a lot like
Warren. Few people have ever played as large a role in a Democratic
presidential primary without even entering the race.
But having demonstrated how much support Elizabeth
Warren has, we've spent the past few weeks listening to our grassroots
supporters and the progressive community about what they want to do
next. And one thing we heard time and again is that they're ready to
play a big role in 2016, fighting alongside Warren on issues like
trade, student debt, and reining in Wall Street.
They are also ready to back "Warren Wing" candidates
who embody Warren's fearless brand of progressive populism. And although
it isn't just about the presidency, 56% of supporters have urged us to
back Bernie Sanders as the candidate currently running for president who
best embodies the values that Warren champions.
That's why on Friday, Ready for Warren is launching a
new grassroots initiative called Ready to Fight -- and Ready to Fight is
endorsing Bernie Sanders as its candidate for president.
Why?
Because while Warren is the champion who inspired this
movement, the draft effort was never just about her -- it's about her
message and the values she represents.
Bernie Sanders has caught fire in
a way that's reminiscent of the draft Warren movement itself -- from
the Internet to town halls in Iowa, Sanders has captured the imagination
and support of people looking for a real progressive challenger in the
2016 Democratic primary.
One reason we're witnessing such a surge of support
for politicians like Sanders and Warren is that they have given voice to
Americans' deeply-felt frustration that the game is rigged against
working people and stacked in favor of corporations and the very
wealthy. For example, Robert Reich, citing a Pew report, notes
that "the percentage of Americans who believe most people who want to
get ahead can do so through hard work has plummeted 14 points since
2000."
While it's harder and harder for working people to get
ahead or even get by, their voices are being drowned out by corporate
influence and a flood of money in politics -- some $3.7 billion in last year's election cycle alone.
Indeed, a 2014 Princeton study of more than 1,800 policy initiatives concluded that,
over the past two decades, the United States has transformed from a
representative democracy to a country where the elites hold power and
shape policy, regardless of the will of the majority of voters. We've
seen this imbalance play out with the outsize influence of corporations
in the fight over the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership. About 500 corporate trade "advisers"
have access and input into the details of the trade deal, while the
text has been kept secret from representatives from labor and
environmental groups, as well as the media and voters.
As the gap in priorities between policy makers in D.C.
and people across America widens, the voices of progressive populists
like Warren and Sanders are growing louder and louder. But to be
successful, they need the power of the people behind them -- people who
are willing to stand up and fight.
The launch of Ready to Fight doesn't mean the movement
to draft Warren is over. Organizations don't create movements, and they
can't end them. There is still a real and widespread desire to see
Elizabeth Warren run for president, and Ready for Warren is continuing
to organize in order to make the case to Warren, and the country, that
she should be a candidate in the 2016 race. We're a long way from Iowa,
and no one knows what the future holds.
But this effort has always been a bottom-up movement.
It's an expression of a deep and broadly felt desire for leaders who are
willing to stand up to powerful interests and fight for working
families. The Warren Wing is on the rise -- you can see it in everything
from the fight against TPP to the growing momentum around Bernie
Sanders, and in the way Hillary Clinton and even Republican candidates
are echoing Warren's themes on income inequality.
We're ready to fight -- standing with Elizabeth Warren
and Bernie Sanders to make sure the values we share are represented in
next year's presidential election.
Comments
+23
#
2015-06-20 08:58
A new dream team -
Sanders and Warren - for President and Vice-President. Or, vice versa.
It's becoming one of those rare moments in American History when certain
candidates are indispensable. The enormous gains of the New Deal are
now in jeopardy. Progressives to the front.
+13
#
2015-06-20 12:04
Senator Sanders is
going to need innovative techniques to fight the big moneyed machines of
Clinton and Bush should Sanders face him in a general election. On
Monday morning, we're announcing such a campaign on the Revolt Against
Plutocracy Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/CitizensAgainstPlutocracy
https://www.facebook.com/CitizensAgainstPlutocracy
+7
#
2015-06-20 12:11
I'd prefer Warren in
the Pres. spot, but we have to take what we can get and the two of them
on the same ticket would definitely fire up the base.
+1
#
2015-06-21 06:50
While many presidents
relegate their VPs to back-burner roles, it is the prerogative of any
prez to share more power and duties. In this age of super-complexity,
the office of president is almost too big for one person to fill, and
thus we could take a lesson from the 1000-year empire of Ancient Rome
with its governance by two Co-Consuls, one for war/foreign affairs and
the other for domestic governance.
I have mentioned the awesome Jessica Tuchman Mathews, daughter of my favorite historian Barbara Tuchman (her books examined we men's intransigent and problematic "wooden-headedn ess"), as a possible active VP or SecState for Bernie, and will do so again. She is a real Washington insider and a masterful foreign affairs expert who could make Bernie's task a LOT easier by greasing the skids for him. Jimmy Carter made the huge mistake of thinking his "Georgia Mafia" could drive the Washington Machine, and he was sadly mistaken. To imagine that the Machine can be ignored is sheer political suicide.
Barak is a control freak and was also mistaken in thinking he alone had the genius to operate the Machine, and ended up being OWNED by Wall Street and the Pentagon. If a new administration had 3-4 truly powerful independent thinkers, it would be much harder to buy off that admin, eh? Sanders, Warren and Mathews to share the load?
Wiki bio of Jessica Tuchman Mathews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Mathews
I have mentioned the awesome Jessica Tuchman Mathews, daughter of my favorite historian Barbara Tuchman (her books examined we men's intransigent and problematic "wooden-headedn ess"), as a possible active VP or SecState for Bernie, and will do so again. She is a real Washington insider and a masterful foreign affairs expert who could make Bernie's task a LOT easier by greasing the skids for him. Jimmy Carter made the huge mistake of thinking his "Georgia Mafia" could drive the Washington Machine, and he was sadly mistaken. To imagine that the Machine can be ignored is sheer political suicide.
Barak is a control freak and was also mistaken in thinking he alone had the genius to operate the Machine, and ended up being OWNED by Wall Street and the Pentagon. If a new administration had 3-4 truly powerful independent thinkers, it would be much harder to buy off that admin, eh? Sanders, Warren and Mathews to share the load?
Wiki bio of Jessica Tuchman Mathews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Mathews
+21
#
2015-06-20 09:05
"Ready for Warren"
endorsing Bernie Sanders is a superb example of true statesmanship! Liz
has made it super clear that she is not running for prez, and Democratic
Socialist Bernie is clearly the real deal, not some fast-talking
wannabe. With 16 years in Congress and 7 in the Senate, he is no
neophyte and knows where all the Washington bodies are buried, so to
speak.
Here is a list of states with recent and current efforts for seceding from the USA, which IMHO, is a sign of political health and vigor. Vermont is here, and paradoxically my Rust Belt Jobs Overseas state of Ohio, where 53% of voters in my hometown of Dayton voted for the Socialist Party of America in 1905, is not... WTF?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States#State_secession
Here is a list of states with recent and current efforts for seceding from the USA, which IMHO, is a sign of political health and vigor. Vermont is here, and paradoxically my Rust Belt Jobs Overseas state of Ohio, where 53% of voters in my hometown of Dayton voted for the Socialist Party of America in 1905, is not... WTF?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States#State_secession
+11
#
2015-06-20 09:45
I am thrilled that
Ready for Warren is endorsing Bernie. The two are really on the same
page on almost every issue. I do have a concern, however, that the
endorsement will still have illusions of a candidate pairing of the two
for President/Vice President. I think that kind of pairing would kill
the populist efforts for two reasons: one, it would be heartily
dismissed as the Socialist Party by the Republicans, who would use it in
every negative way possible to derail the entire populist movement; and
two, it would go against what has always been considered smart
politics--geogr aphically
they are too close, enabling them to probably win their own two states,
but denying them the opportunity to gain another state with more
electoral votes.
