Elizabeth Warren: The Change We Need?

Senator Elizabeth Warren is a noteworthy Democrat. The policy changes she’s proposing as a presidential candidate are worth looking over; at the very least, they are different from the status quo, and at the most, they are truly radical. Whether these changes would positively contribute to future of the United States is a hotly debated topic.

Warren is certainly not a stranger to detailed and expansive policy, immediately distinguishing her from her many Democratic competitors. Instead of focusing on attempting to enrapture audiences with a dazzling speech on vague and overly general topics, like unity, Warren, a former Harvard law professor, tends to delve deep into the finer details of policy. While she evades seeming inauthentic, Warren’s sacrifice of splendid oration for meticulous strategies may also cause her to fail to bridge the widening gap between parties.
With her new proposals on labor alone, Senator Warren has certainly made a splash in 2020’s soon-to-be turbulent seas, and she has clearly communicated her intentions regarding the issue. Even the location where she formally announced her presidential candidacy, or Lawrence, Massachusetts, is undeniably symbolic: it is the historic site of the Bread and Roses textile workers’ strike in 1912, one of the most successful and well-known labor movements of the 20th century. Today, Warren claims that the struggle is one against the super-wealthy and gigantic corporations ubiquitous in our lives. Warren refuses to accept donations from these corporations and super PACs, wants to break up tech giants like Facebook, Apple, and Google, and seeks to prohibit the biggest tech companies from both creating and running marketplaces and selling their products in those same marketplaces. She also plans to mandate the separation of these two functions. Another item on her agenda is forbidding companies from sharing user data with third parties (for example, ads based on recent Google searches).
Warren recently released a proposal for universal, high-quality, and affordable child care through the use of centers and homes for family child care and early learning. Families with incomes low enough would be able to use these services for free. The cost for this, estimated to be around $700 billion, would be covered through Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax, which takes an approach reminiscent of that of Bernie Sanders and taxes the top-earning 0.1 percent of Americans. Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman report that altogether, the tax would make ultra-millionaires pay 3.2 percent of their wealth to taxes at all levels of government, with the lower 99.9 percent paying 7.2 percent in taxes. Such “wealth taxes” are anomalies in the world stage; only 11 countries—Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland—have implemented it. However, at least in the United States, such a tax is predicted to raise $2.75 trillion in the next 10 years.

It’s important to note, however, that Warren is not without her political shortcomings. In early February, it was discovered that Warren’s bar registration card had her race falsely listed as “American Indian.” The claim was touted by Harvard, boasting that she was one of their few minority employees; since then, Warren and her campaign have claimed that Warren had no knowledge of the university’s actions. A blood test conducted on Warren revealed that her Native American heritage was almost nonexistent. Warren has apologized for the falsehood and has repeatedly emphasized that she gained nothing from claiming a Native American descent. Recent polls suggest that the fiasco has not changed the public’s opinion of her significantly.

The experienced politician will face a tough and ever-growing field of Democratic opponents who are equally popular as—if not more popular than—her. But her especially progressive policies have the potential to take hold of Democrats across the country, and it’s entirely possible that she may one day be the rallying point for Americans against Donald Trump.