Elizabeth Warren's 2020 Platform? Netroots Speech Touts Bolder Democratic Party
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., may have slyly outlined her 2020 presidential campaign platform Saturday at an Atlanta conference. During a speech, Warren pushed the Democratic party to move left and abandon Bill Clinton-era policies.
Warren spoke at the liberal activist annual gathering, Netroots Nation, to around 1,000 people according to the New York Times Sunday. The conference began in 2006 by the liberal news site the Daily Kos, and grew to incorporate a larger spectrum of progressives.
READ: Elizabeth Warren Talks Possible Donald Trump Impeachment, Supports Single-Payer Healthcare
Warren, long a prospective Democratic presidential candidate, took aim at some of the policies of her predecessors.
“The Democratic Party isn’t going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill,” said Warren, condemning policies pursued by Clinton.
Warren touted the ascendance of a more liberal wing of the Democratic party. In the past, after losing presidential elections, the Democratic party has tended to shift more moderate.
“We're not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice … We’re not going back to the days when universal health care was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected,” said Warren. “We don't have to tip-toe anymore. We don't have to hedge our bets.”
Warren also advocated for Medicaid for all, tuition free college or technical school, $15 an hour minimum wage and universal preschool.
Warren also committed to accelerating women into positions of power.
“We're going to fight to put more women in positions of power, from committee rooms to boardrooms to that really nice oval-shaped room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” said Warren.
The Bay State Senator has emerged as a leading voice of the more progressive-wing of the Democratic party. Democrats saw divisions during and after the 2016 presidential election, a proxy-war was fought between liberal and more moderate Democrats in presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
Warren, like Sanders, has been critical of establishment politics and centrist influences on the Democratic party. Warren tried to quash a debate, during her speech, on who the party was trying to serve.
“In the wake of the last election, I've heard people say we need to decide whether we're the party of the white working class or the party of Black Lives Matter," Warren said. “I say we can care about a dad who's worried that his kid will have to move away from their factory town to find good work and we can care about a mom who's worried that her kid will get shot during a traffic stop.”
“The way I see it, those two parents have something deep down in common: the system is rigged against both of them, and against their kids,” said the senator.
The crowd cheered “Warren 2020,” at points during the speech, according to CNN Sunday. Warren hasn’t officially declared one way or the other whether she will run for president.
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