Rebranding the Democrats: Ditch Obama and get behind Elizabeth Warren.

Late last week Times Picayune pundit Stephanie Grace wrote a column on the call to rebrand the Louisiana democrats who are now on life support giving a local flavor to trend toward the southern states once again chipping in solely with one political party.  I thought of it when I saw the name Elizabeth Warren pop up in the news cycle in the aftermath of President Obama’s online conversation at LinkedIn yesterday.

Anyone that has paid attention to the oversight accorded to George Bush’s last major official act in the financial bailout known as TARP well knows the name Elizabeth Warren.  She was born a southern girl to a middle class family in Oklahoma before making good, landing more recently as the chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Committee for the bailout.  She simply took no prisoners and tackled her job in a nonpartisan way that made her a folks hero of sorts to the ordinary people who paid attention to her work. Following is an exchange with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that illustrates that point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz7ruJw6byQ

I say this because Ms Warren was the logical choice to head the new consumer protection bureau at the Department of Treasury but President Obama was sold out before he arrived in the oval office so that job went to someone else.  I’ve often joked the voters are electing republicans to Congress to send President Obama some much-needed help because he acts mostly like a republican and to a certain extent it is true. Obama had the Bush-era tax cuts expire on his watch and he renewed them almost as a matter of routine before he began to clamor to raise tax rates on the wealthy.  To me it comes across as the height of duplicity.

Nobody wants to pay more in taxes I know I don’t.  But I also understand we’re leaving a legacy of debt for our kids and that debt is not caused by runaway spending beyond 2 wars we have fought on a credit card and a medicare prescription drug benefit that was passed without a mechanism to pay for it.  Balancing the books isn’t hard but wading past the bullshit is evidently beyond the capabilities of a large segment of the populace as the BS takes on a life of its own in the media that too often simply accepts uncritically political propaganda without question passing it off as political news. Thankfully the wealthy actually see it and the dangers of demagoguery as illustrated by Warren Buffet’s New York Times Op-Ed.  You see folks even this country boy understands that when a businessman the caliber of Buffet speaks on economic policy only a fool or a political operative masquerading as a blogger would dismiss it as the uninformed rants of a city boy.

So this morning I was treated to Ms Warren again as she has evidently been on the stump for the US Senate in Massachusetts articulating exactly why the GOP “Class warfare” argument against raising taxes is not only completely bogus but by extension why no one in the country becomes wealthy on their own including selfish assholes like John Fleming that would rather implode the economy to save himself a few bucks than do what is right for the country.  IMHO Elizabeth and her message would play as well in Mississippi as it does in Massachusetts:

And while folks like Warren are trying to save the country, the GOP is stuffing hundred of millions of dollars into the pockets of the Wall Street Wives. I don’t know about you folks but I identify with people who were born into the middle class and who actually know what it is like to struggle financially growing up rather than crooks in Gucci suits like former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack that rob us blind and are completely above the law.

sop