Politics
Democrats were able to protect the Affordable Care Act, block nominations, and create a ‘blue wave’ to topple the trifecta during Trump’s first term, Warren recalled.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who just won her third six-year term, is outlining a plan of hope to combat President-Elect Donald Trump’s agenda and likely-Republican control of Congress.
“We have two tasks ahead,” she wrote in a letter published in TIME Magazine. “First, try to learn from what happened. And then, make a plan.”
Warren writes to voters who feel “like their heart has been ripped out of their chest” that Democrats can “fight every fight” in Congress, challenge Trump through litigation, return to grassroots movements, and act quickly before inauguration day.
Warren: Economy is ‘rigged against working-class families’
In the piece, Warren recalled Trump’s first term, including the Republican trifecta through 2018. Democrats were able to protect the Affordable Care Act, block some Trump nominations, and create a “blue wave” to topple the trifecta, Warren said.
“The political position we’re in is not permanent, and we have the power to make change if we fight for it,” she wrote.
While Warren staved off her own Republican challenger last week, the Democratic Party suffered a landslide defeat. Vice President Kamala Harris lost both the Electoral College and popular vote to Trump.
All of Massachusetts’s 11 electoral votes went to Harris Tuesday night. More than 2 million Massachusetts voters cast their ballot for Harris, while about 1.2 million chose Trump, according to the Associated Press. Fewer than 100,000 voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein and other candidates.
Unlike some critics, Warren didn’t blame Harris’s loss on her economic plan. Instead, Warren said the entire system is “rigged against working-class families.”
“Vice President Harris deserves credit for running an inspiring campaign under unprecedented circumstances,” Warren wrote. “But if Democrats want to earn back the trust of working people and govern again, we need to convince voters we can—and will—unrig the economy.”
Dem leaders should confirm federal judges during lame duck era, Warren says
Warren called on Democratic leaders like Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to confirm federal judges and “key regulators” who can’t be removed by the next president. She also asked Pentagon leaders to clarify that their oath is “to the Constitution.”
Liberal activists have already called on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, to resign ahead of Trump’s second term, but Sotomayor has said she plans to stay. Warren didn’t mention Sotomayor but said the court is “stocked with MAGA loyalists.”
“Every step toward progress in American history came after the darkness of defeat,” Warren finished. “Abolitionists, suffragettes, Dreamers, and marchers for civil rights and marriage equality all faced impossible odds, but they persisted. Now it is our turn to pull up our socks and get back in the fight.”
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