dupe

[malaise]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/opinion/elizabeth-warrens-appeal.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
<snip>
For a few years now, politicians straining against all of the antigovernment demagogy have been searching for a way to energize public interest and remind voters of the essential government services and protections they rely on and all too often take for granted.

While most other Democrats are afraid to talk about the need for higher taxes and are running away from the problem, Elizabeth Warren, the leading Democratic candidate for a Senate seat in Massachusetts, has engaged the fight and is beginning to rally supporters.

Ms. Warren talks about the nation’s growing income inequality in a way that channels the force of the Occupy Wall Street movement but makes it palatable and understandable to a far wider swath of voters. She is provocative and assertive in her critique of corporate power and the well-paid lobbyists who protect it in Washington, and eloquent in her defense of an eroding middle class.

Her larger appeal, though, comes from her ability to shred Republican arguments that rebalancing the tax burden constitutes class warfare. In a living-room speech that went viral on YouTube last month, she pointed out that people in this country don’t get rich entirely by themselves — everyone benefits from roads, public safety agencies and an education system paid for by taxes. And those who have benefited the most, she says, need to give back more.
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You go girl

[Casandia]

1. I love the last paragraph

and I especially like the advice given in the last sentence:

<snip>

Democrats should not be cowed by conservative taunts that the
speech advocated “collectivism,” and use this argument to push
back against the Republicans’ refusal to raise the taxes of
people who make more than a million dollars a year — sometimes
far more. Senate Democratic leaders say they plan to employ
poll-tested phrases like “Tea Party economics” and “Tea Party
gridlock” in their campaign for a jobs bill and beyond. They
would be better off listening to Elizabeth Warren.