Democratic Primaries

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(41,153 posts) Tue Dec 31, 2019, 09:48 PM Dec 2019

'Fight Hard & Win': In New Year's Eve Speech, Warren Calls On Voters To Imagine A Better World

'Fight Hard and Win': In New Year's Eve Speech, Warren Calls on Voters to Imagine a Better World. "If you were no longer stretched to make ends meet, who would you be? A coach? A volunteer? A parent?" Warren asked Americans. "And if you could make these changes, what opportunities would it open up, for you?" Common Dreams, Dec. 31, 2019.

Marking the end of the year and the one-year anniversary of the day she began her 2020 presidential campaign, Sen. Elizabeth Warren challenged voters to imagine a country that puts the needs and priorities of working people ahead of corporate profits in an hour-long speech in Boston. The Massachusetts Democrat offered voters a message of optimism as the country heads toward the first Democratic primaries in the coming weeks while conveying the damage done to the country by decades of corruption and by the Republican Party under the Trump administration.

At the historic Old South Meeting House, Warren asked her supporters to imagine the opportunities that could await them in a country without skyrocketing levels of wealth inequality, a $1.5 trillion student debt crisis, and a for-profit healthcare system which bankrupts hundreds of thousands of Americans per year:

If you were no longer tied to your job in order to pay off student loan debt, where would you go? Try a different job? Move back to your hometown? Start your own business? If you were no longer stretched to make ends meet, who would you be? A coach? A volunteer? A parent? And if you could make these changes, what opportunities would it open up, for you? For your children? For your grandchildren?

* Watch the whole speech BELOW: A year ago today, we launched this campaign for big, structural change. In just a few minutes, I'll be speaking live about the optimism I'll be carrying into 2020. #Warren2020 https://t.co/cN5FfQAtUP— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 31, 2019

Warren lambasted congressional Republicans as "fawning, spineless defenders" Trump's crimes, enabling the president's attempt to bribe the Ukrainian government to investigate Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, which led to Trump's impeachment by the House earlier this month..
We fought back against a king and an empire to form a new republic. We fought back against the scourge of slavery even after it was written into our constitution," Warren said. "Those moments in American history define us. And at each one of them, if our leaders had approached the moment thinking small, we would not have made it through."
Warren's call for Americans to look beyond not only the Trump White House but also the claims by her centrist primary opponents—who have called bold policy proposals by Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unrealistic—and imagine a country in which "big, structural change" has taken hold won praise on social media.

The speech overall was "less about the fight alone, more about visualizing life after the fight," tweeted author Anand Giridharadas. This @ewarren speech felt like a revelation and a fresh approach to the progressive cause. With a refrain of “Imagine an America...”, it was less about the fight alone, more about visualizing life after the fight. Candidates at all levels should watch. https://t.co/3V2AEe5GBA -- Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) December 31, 2019

“Who would you be?” may be the most underrated question in American policy debates. Policy is a means. “Who would you be?” is the often-forgotten end. https://t.co/uzj93n3Ln0 https://t.co/ZnJB8dZUub— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) December 31, 2019

More, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/31/fight-hard-and-win-new-years-eve-speech-warren-calls-voters-imagine-better-world