I am frequently asked this sort of question. It is hard to explain to people how much she gets it.
At an Elizabeth Warren campaign house party, I mentioned a video that I have previously posted. I just reviewed that video, before sending the link to the person to whom I promised it.
After my review and after sending off the link, I thought of sending this also to some key people in the Elizabeth Warren campaign. Here is the explanation I sent along with the link:
This post shows the single most effective Elizabeth Warren video that I am aware of. I am totally surprised that this video is not featured on all of Warren’s web sites.
After watching this video again, I can honestly say to any middle-class person who asks me, “Does Elizabeth Warren get it?”, “Not only does she get it, she can explain things about your predicament that you don’t even get. Watching this video will open your eyes to things that are going on in your life that you felt but couldn’t fully explain before.”
How many politicians come by in a lifetime for which you can say that?
John McCain can obfuscate all he wants, but it would be nice if he could eventually just answer the question. The plain truth is that John McCain does support the indefinite detaining of American citizens with no trial and not even any formal charges brought before an impartial judge in a hearing that is open to the public. The open to the public is an essential feature of American jurisprudence so that we don’t have to just rely on the integrity of fallible judges. The public can see for themselves what is going on and can be their own judges as to whether justice is being done.
The irony of John McCain’s justification for his policy is that the policy in question played a major role in the release of terrorist suspects back into the wild so that they could commit more acts of violence against us. If there had been an actual case against these recidivists, then the ability to bring them to trial was ruined by the illegal methods used to capture and detain them. Our methods left us no choice but to release them because we could not face up to international scorn without our giving them a fair trial. Of course, even using the word recidivist presumes without proof that they were terrorists before they were captured and were not turned into terrorists by their experience in captivity.
Some people suffer through horrible experiences and take away the lesson that no human should have to go through that same experience. Others, like John McCain, seem to take the lesson that if it was done to me, I want to be able to do it to someone else that had nothing to do with the incident that involved me.
I pity poor John McCain, but why does he have to thrust his misery on the rest of us? Is this some sort of revenge for what he went through? I suppose I could actually understand, but not condone, that motivation. Understanding such a motive, I can feel guilty for being a citizen of a country that sent John McCain to his fate, and still reject the policy that would allow us to send other people to that same fate. See, lesson learned.
As for Rand Paul (and his father Ron Paul), they do have some philosophical points of view with which I can agree even though they also have points of view that I find to be poorly thought out and ultimately very destructive.
I discovered this video by seeing it on the Google+ page of Jos Duerinck.
I have created a handout that you can use to invite participants to join Sturbridge For Elizabeth Warren. It can either be emailed or it can be printed and handed out.
GMAC Mortgage, the mortgage lender of Ally Financial Inc., is exiting the vast majority of its lending in Massachusetts a day after the state sued it over its foreclosure practices. The nation’s fifth-largest mortgage originator said it “has taken this action because recent developments have led mortgage lending in Massachusetts to no longer be viable,” ratcheting up the high-stakes mortgage fight there.
I guess this is to be expected. What else can GMAC do if it can only make money by cheating its customers? It has to get out because following the laws and paying for its crimes would make the business unprofitable. That should clear the way for honest mortgage lenders to fill the vacuum that GMAC has left. These are the lenders from whom GMAC stole market share by undercutting them through cheating.
It takes strong law enforcement to make it safe for honest business people.
The prize-winning author of The God of Small Things talks about why she is drawn to the Occupy movement and the need to reclaim language and meaning.
AG: At the same, occupying public spaces did capture the public imagination. Why do you think that is?
AR: I think you had a whole subcutaneous discontent that these movements suddenly began to epitomise. The Occupy movement found places where people who were feeling that anger could come and share it – and that is, as we all know, extremely important in any political movement. The Occupy sites became a way you could gauge the levels of anger and discontent.