I think I’m in love. It’s one of those instantly recognizable feelings, and this is The Real Deal – that feeling in the pit of my stomach, the smile every time I see her face.
Bummer, though; she’s married. Her name’s Elizabeth Warren, and she’s running for United States Senate.
I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I can find plenty to agree with both parties about – I just hate when they can’t agree on anything.
I think a lot of independents might think the same way I do, but I have an easy way to find the right candidate to support in individual elections – I vote not for party, but for person. I look at political positions, certainly, but there’s something deeper that’s more important.
It’s almost a psychological test – honestly, I look for the person most like myself. If someone’s walked in my shoes, I’m comfortable that they understand where I’m coming from and that they can be trusted to act in my best interests. It’s why I like Rick Santorum more than Mitt Romney.
Never have I seen someone with a more similar backstory to my own than Warren. This quality and others have led me to make up my mind early on in this year’s Senate race.
Warren was born into a blue collar family (same here) in Oklahoma, and was the first member of her family to attend college (me too) at the University of Houston (a public school, like mine).
Like me, her father was also a maintenance man. When she was 12, her father had a heart attack and medical bills added up quickly, putting a financial strain on their family. I was 10 when my mother’s health problems forced her into the hospital for over a month. She nearly died, but thankfully she survived after a yearlong recovery, and fortunately insurance paid her medical bills.
After college, Warren went to law school – another item on my to-do list – and ended up becoming a professor at her alma mater, Rutgers School of Law. She’s taught at several prestigious law schools around the country since then, most recently at Harvard Law School since 1992.
She’s authored academic articles and books focusing mostly on helping working class and middle-income families defend themselves from the trappings of predatory lending, credit card debt, and bankruptcy due to powerful interests taking advantage of them through a rigged system. In other words, this prominent lawyer – who could’ve been raking in plenty of cash in commercial law, working for banks and big companies to screw people over – never forgot her roots and decided she would help average people instead. So Warren is, obviously, pretty awesome.
After helping to start the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with President Barack Obama, she was going to lead it until Wall Street individuals decided this lady was way too scary for big businesses. She actually cared about the little guy, so she certainly couldn’t be allowed to have any power.
She returned to Cambridge a defeated woman. Just kidding – as soon as she got back, Warren figured, “Hey, I’ll run against Scott Brown.” And Massachusetts breathed a collective sigh of relief.
That’s not to rag on Brown; I probably agree with him on 80 percent of the issues. He’s a pretty good guy, and he tries to seem like a regular Joe – e.g., driving a certain pickup truck (it was a brand new truck, which always puzzled me).
Unlike Warren, he didn’t go to public school – more of a Tufts undergrad, Boston College Law kind of guy (but hey, who isn’t?). And he tries to paint Warren as some Harvard snob – even though she went to public schools far more modest than Brown’s institutions of higher education.
But that’s beside the point. He’s worked hard on behalf of working families. According to OnTheIssues.org, he’s voted against the current welfare system – as am I – except he’s said on multiple occasions that he grew up receiving welfare benefits. Warren’s mother held a job at Sears and Warren started waitressing in her mid-teens.
I like when someone started from humble beginnings and achieved great things. This is evident with both our Senate candidates, and it’s inspiring because theirs are uniquely American tales of possibility.
But it just seems like Warren worked harder and did the most good with her time. She hasn’t been about making money, she has instead been teaching future lawyers for decades to work ethically, and along the way she’s led by admirable example. Her tireless work for working families is a testament to her working-class upbringing and her deep compassion for people of modest circumstances.
Warren is just a regular person who worked her way through life, despite many obstacles, and has truly been able to make an impactful difference in the lives of others. I hope I can be half as successful in endeavoring to do the same in my own life.
Liz (can I call you Liz?), you’ve got my vote. You’re a real person, and I can appreciate that. I think most people in Massachusetts can.
Jon Carvalho is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Brendan • Feb 24, 2012 at 5:36 pm
I don’t care if she’s a Harvard professor, and I don’t care what her annual salary is. If you make a lot of money, but you’re smart enough to admit that you should be taxed at a higher rate, then you have my vote.
So it’s detractors think only poor people are allowed to think the rich should be taxed ore? That’s ridiculous. Scott Brown went to Tufts and BC. Should we start calling him an elitest?
David A • Feb 22, 2012 at 9:38 pm
Liz Warren is an overpaid celebrity professor who teaches one class a term for 350K per year. She had done very well for herself working for a so-called non-profit institution.
Bill Lancaster • Feb 22, 2012 at 3:59 pm
@VersaS…try reading the article again…the author did NOT say he likes Santorum…he said “It’s why I like Rick Santorum more than Mitt Romney.” That’s akin to saying I like steak more than meatloaf, but I’m a vegetarian. Just what part of the author’s article touched you as being non-liberal?
Vera S. • Feb 22, 2012 at 11:59 am
I think the writer just means they both come from humble backgrounds… she accomplished everything on her own… I’m sure the writer tends to be the same. Also… liberal? He said he likes Santorum…. not very Liberal.
Bill Lancaster • Feb 21, 2012 at 3:50 pm
“In other words, this prominent lawyer – who could’ve been raking in plenty of cash in commercial law, working for banks and big companies to screw people over – never forgot her roots and decided she would help average people instead.”
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I feel sorry for writers like this who hide behind the disguise of being an independent when their tone is liberal from top to bottom, and, more importantly, fail to vet their candidate.
A writer with even a cursory sense of fairness would do themselves a big favor and research Lizzie before anointing her Queen. To wit:
– Politico, clearly a left leaning think tank, noted that Warren’s rhetoric about government transparency didn’t extend to her own tenure as chair for the TARP-overseeing (Congressional Oversight Panel). Turns out that “Warren opposed GOP efforts to draft a budget for the bipartisan oversight panel, despite telling The Associated Press in 2008 that she wouldn’t buy a winter coat without a spending plan.
-A total of $10.5 million was spent by the COP over two years ($8.3 million under Warren’s oversight), and we don’t actually have a line-by-line breakdown of what that money was spent on. However, $8.7 million went to salaries. Warren’s pay during that time period? According to her campaign staff’s original disclosure? $64,289 for 2009 and 2010. Later, Warren’s campaign confessed that she “had been paid $192,722 for serving as chairman of a congressional committee that monitored the 2008 federal bank bailout, three times as much as had originally been acknowledged.” How this makes her a maverick for the people, I do not know.
– Warren may have helped Travelers Insurance cheat asbestos victims out of compensation. One of Warren’s many well-compensated part-time gigs included consulting for Travelers Insurance. So what did Lizzy do to earn $44,000 in compensation from the insurance company? She made it harder for claimants to collect. Warren helped establish the bankruptcy strategy for companies to avoid crushing lawsuits.
-Warren has REFUSED to swear off Wall Street money, instead claiming that any money she gets from deep-pocketed financiers is coming from those who “want reform.” Yeah, right.
-Warren, who made over $700,000 in two years yet rails against the rich for being greedy. This is the same person who claimed that “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own,” denouncing anyone who used public roads or publicly educated employes to make money, completely misunderstanding that businesses and entrepreneurs put in more money through taxes and their businesses than anyone else in the country. Those are the people paying for public schools and roads and are more than deserving to make a profit.
-The Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is helping the Harvard Professor, has taken over $40 million from Wall Street during the last 7 years according to records from OpenSecrets.org. In fact, Wall Street is the biggest contributors to them. They beat lawyers and labor union.
-Then there’s Warren’s husband, another Harvard Law School professor. His name is Bruce Mann. If possible, he’s even further to the left than his lovely bride. Over the years he’s given $9,700 to Obama, $2,000 to John “Liveshot” Kerry and in 2007 he chipped in $2,300 to the now-indicted ambulance-chasing ex-senator from North Carolina, John Edwards. Mann is also a big contributor ($20,000) to the Progressive Patriots [team stats] Fund, which appears to be a creation of ex-Sen. Russ Feingold, who retired from politics last year due to ill health. The voters of Wisconsin got sick of him. Elizabeth Warren also dug Russ Feingold, to the tune of $3,000. But here’s the most interesting thing about Mann – he’s a fat cat contributor to MoveOn.org. Remember that lefty outfit, the moving on they first wanted to do was from Bill Clinton’s perjury and sex scandal. Prof. Mann gave more than $10,000 to Feingold, and he also contributed to Teddy Kennedy and Sen. Barbara Mikulski. On the local level, he gave $500 to Robert Reich and chipped in $400 to the drunkard ex-Sen. Anthony Galluccio, who spent most of the winter drying out at the Billerica House of Correction.
Yep, I’m sure she’s just like the writer.
BME • Feb 21, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Magyart…She doesn’t support the mandate; there is a compromise that says insurance providers will cover BC, thereby allowing religious organizations an exemption.
Engineer • Feb 21, 2012 at 12:25 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/elizabeth-warren-wealth-income_n_1237607.html
magyart • Feb 21, 2012 at 12:19 pm
It sounds like she’s a pretty good person. Although, I disagree with support of the President’s unconstitutional mandate, which forces religious organizations to finance BC and abortion.
Doreen Nicastro • Feb 21, 2012 at 11:19 am
It’s articles like this which will help educate Massachusetts voters to the person who should represent our state. She is an amazing role model for young people from humble beginnings who are disenfranchised and without hope. Elizabeth Warren is a remarkable American whose values are deeply rooted in the American dream, important and symbolic; we need her in Washington to fight for middle and working class families.