Centrist Democrats Riled as
Warren Says Days of 'Lukewarm' Policies Are Over
"The Democratic Party
isn't going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill."
In a wide-ranging and fiery keynote
speech last weekend at the 12th annual Netroots Nation conference in
Atlanta, Georgia, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) relentlessly derided moderate
Democratic pundits calling for the party to move "back
to the center" and declared that Democrats must unequivocally
"fight for progressive solutions to our nation's challenges."
As The Hill's Amie Parnes reported
on Friday, Warren's assertion during the weekend gathering that progressives
are "the heart and soul of today's Democratic Party"—and not merely a
"wing"—raised the ire of so-called "moderate" Democrats,
who have insisted that progressive policies won't sell in swing states.
But recent survey results have
consistently shown that policies like single-payer
healthcare, progressive
taxation, a higher
minimum wage, and tuition-free
public college are extremely
popular among the broader electorate. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—the most
prominent advocate of an ambitious, far-reaching progressive agenda—has consistently
polled as the most popular politician in the country.
For Warren, these are all
indicators that those pining for a rightward shift "back to the
center" are deeply mistaken.
Specifically, Warren took aim
at a recent
New York Times op-ed by Democratic commentators Mark Penn and Andrew Stein,
who argued that Democrats must moderate their positions in order to take back
Congress and, ultimately, the presidency.
Warren ridiculed this argument
as a call for a return to Bill Clinton-era policies that "locked up
non-violent drug offenders and ripped more holes in our economic safety
net."
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