The Elizabeth Warren Phenomenon

By Bernie Quigley

For The Hill on 8/13/10

In the scramble to defend against Sarah Palin the Democrats have found that irony is not a strong enough defense. But now they could have found their secret weapon: Elizabeth Warren. The century can now begin.

The professional left is not ready to back an Obama primary challenge quite yet, The Hill reports. But suddenly the Democrats are finding again that amazing grace which arises from the heartland and periodically renews. Forget Keynes, Marx and even Hayek. Forget Greenspan and Bernanke and Summers. The vigorous American life force was built by John Wesley and George Whitefield. Forget Barack and Bill and Hillary with their bribes and lies and squalid celebrity friends and those tired Kennedy look alikes (parking their yachts in Newport, like Jack) and the debilitating leftovers from the Sixties who yearn to bask in the glow of the superrich Martha’s Vineyard. Elizabeth Warren is the antidote. She is the Wesleyan avatar. She comes with a sword and it is the Protestant Ethic. The Democrats should be delighted that it could be offered to them. She could potentially be to Barack Obama what Scott Brown was to Ted Kennedy: The Future.

It is time that they depart in disgrace those who have nothing left. Like New Hampshire Democrat Timothy Horrigan who the Associated Press reports quips on Facebook: “dead Palin wd be even more dangerous than a live one . . . [she] is all about her myth & if she was dead she cdn’t commit any more gaffes.” And New Hampshire Democrat Keith Halloran who likewise commented “Just wish Sarah and Levy were on board,” in reference to the plane crash that killed Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
It is time for the Democrats to leave it behind and join the world. Elizabeth Warren gives them the opportunity.

The renewal spirit on this continent is Dorothy, she arises from the agrarian heartland giving courage to the coward, heart to the timid and brilliance to the dim. She always rises from the heartland. She is Sarah Palin and Jack London. She is Elizabeth Warren and John Wesley.

It is fantasy football right now, but an Elizabeth Warren ticket with someone like businessman-senator from Virginia Mark Warner as VP would give the Democrats a fighting chance to join the century by 2012. Because right now they are on the waterfront with Terry Malloy, facing a one-way ticket to Palookaville.