Wall Street and the Democratic Establishment are Learning to Love Liz Warren

Surprisingly, Democratic leaders, fundraisers, strategists, and even Wall Street are learning to love Liz Warren. In fact, the far-left US Senator from Massachusetts could be the Democratic establishment’s favored presidential candidate.

Dramatically, Bloomberg Opinion ran a favorable column about how “Wall Street banks will thrive” under a Warren administration on 19 July. To elaborate, writer Conor Sen thinks banks will make more money because of Warren’s plans to “strengthen the middle class.”

Meanwhile, many in the Democratic establishment see Warren as an acceptable candidate, Politico reports. Notably, Jim Kessler who co-wrote a widely circulated anti-Warren editorial in 2013 is now Tweeting the Senator’s praises, Politico notes.

“People are taking a second look at her and saying, ‘Hmm. Some of her policies are good,” self-described moderate Democratic political consultant Reagan Gray tells Politico. “Maybe she isn’t like Bernie;’” US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), a self-proclaimed socialist.

Why is the Establishment Warming to Warren?

I think fear rather than love is the motivation the Democratic and business establishments’ newfound interest in Warren.

There are several reasons Warren is looking appealing to moderate and establishment Democrats and their paymasters on Wall Street. Reasons Democrats are learning to love Warren include:

• Moderates realize their favored candidates; like former Vice President Joe Biden (D-Delaware) and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-Indiana), are probably unelectable. Emerson Polling estimates that Biden dropped 4% in the polls between June and July 2019. Meanwhile, Buttigieg was receiving 5% of the support of Democratic voters in the July 6 to July 8, 2019, polling.

• Notably, Buttigieg fell to 4% in a 22 July 2019 Democracy for America straw poll of “progressive activists,” Politico reports. Meanwhile, Bernie leads, Warren is in second place, and Harris is in third place, ahead of Biden in the same ranking.

• Under these circumstances I think neither Biden nor Buttigieg could win the primary, or defeat Donald J. Trump (R-New York) in November 2020.

• Warren is gaining ground fast in important states. For instance, Quinnipiac estimates Warren’s California support went from 7% in April to 16% in July 2019, CNN Politics reports.

• Warren is white, even though she claims to be part Cherokee. There is a popular; and I think wrong theory, that a nonwhite candidate cannot win the Presidency. Those who buy into this theory need to look at a picture of former President Barack Obama (D-Illinois) and reconsider their views.

• Warren is not as far left as the most popular insurgent candidate US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). Unlike Sanders, Warren does not claim to be a socialist, although she advances many socialist policies. In addition, Warren occasionally says good things about capitalism.

• Warren has been willing to work within the Democratic Party in the past. She was willing to serve in President Obama’s administration, for instance.

• Consequently, the establishment might have some influence over a Warren administration. Some influence is always better than no influence.

• Wall Street has decided it could live with a Warren administration. Wall Street knows it cannot live with President Sanders. Moreover, Wall Street is  skeptical of the tough prosecutor US Senator Kamala Harris (D-California).

•  We can safely consider Warren part of the Northeastern Liberal Establishment. Even though she was born and raised in Oklahoma, Warren is a former Harvard Professor and she lives in Massachusetts. Harris is from California, and she grew up in gasp; Berkley. Harris’s father was even a professor at yikes: Stanford!! Three strikes against her in a New York liberal’s sick mind.

• Democrats do not want to lose in 2020. In 2016, when Democrats went with the safe middle of the road establishment candidate they suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a man, many of them consider an amateur Donald J. Trump.

• In particular, many Democrats think they will need a populist like Warren to beat the populist Trump.

• Democrats are afraid of ending up like Republicans who did not stop a radical insurgent and ended up with the insurgent as party leader in 2016. Establishment Democrats, see the damage Trump is doing to the Grand Old Party and are looking for ways to avoid creating their own Trump. Hint: those Democrats spell Trump: B-E-R-N-I-E.

Finally, Democrats are afraid of losing the support of voters. They see how appealing Warren’s brand of activist government and radical economic populism is to their rank and file. Therefore, they want to influence and hopefully moderate that populism.

In the final analysis, Warren’s success proves centrism is dead in America. Those who want to win elections had better adapt to that reality fast.

Only time will tell if the Democrat establishment’s love will be a help or a hindrance to Liz Warren’s presidential hopes.