On Friday, Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren introduced a plan to break up Amazon, Facebook, and Google on the grounds that they are monopolies. It’s only the latest detailed policy proposal (detailed by early-stages-of-a-presidential-primary standards, at least) that she’s released or reintroduced since announcing in January that she was considering a run. Others:
• The creation of a U.S. Office of Public Integrity to enforce new rules against the corrupt lobbying practices that essentially function as a way to bribe members of Congress and the executive branch.
• The creation of a federal system for funding locally run child care providers that would guarantee that no one in the U.S. has to spend more than 7 percent of their household income on child care.
• An annual 2 or 3 percent “wealth tax” on fortunes larger than $50 million.
While obviously not everyone on the left thinks these proposals are perfect, Warren’s plans have generally gotten good reviews from advocates and wonks. She’s also become the first 2020 candidate to declare that, in addition to not accepting corporate donations, she won’t do big-donor fundraisers or private donor-fundraising calls. Unfortunately for her, none of this has helped her position in the polls that much. She’s averaging 7 percent in early surveys, which is good in the sense that it puts her fourth (behind Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Kamala Harris) in a field of like a billion people, but not good in the sense that 7 percent is not a high number of percents, especially for someone who is already fairly well-known as a national figure. Warren has done some well-received events on the ground in Iowa, but she’ll have to continue to work to translate her wonk energy into emotional/narrative/personality-oriented appeal if she’s going to have a chance to win.
In other words, maybe all you slack-jawed dopes could look up from your Instagram Stories about Pete Davidson to listen to Elizabeth Warren for a second, eh?
