Why should we trust the systems and structures that oppress us to reveal who will save us?

Elizabeth Warren

In recent weeks, Elizabeth Warren has become the sweetheart of legacy media. CNN, MSNBC, and The Washington Post have rallied around her as the smartest and most likable candidate, also suggesting that she has the best plans. The front page of Reddit hasn’t been without a positive piece about her in weeks. SNL has done two segments in the past two weeks where a Warren character spends at least a minute talking about calling all of her grassroots donors. Celebrities like Jonathan Van Ness, Roxane Gay, and Scarlett Johansson are lining up to endorse her.

As this is happening, Bernie Sanders is breaking records: He is the fastest candidate in history to reach 1 million unique donors, and in the past week his disproportionately large volunteer base has called well over 1 million potential voters. He raised the most money of all the Democrats in Q3, and he continues to draw the biggest crowds.

Elizabeth Warren endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2016

Legacy media is trying to prop up Warren as a more electable substitute to Bernie Sanders. They praise her college debt forgiveness plan while ignoring that Bernie’s does significantly more. They highlight her grassroots appeal despite her plans to take corporate and PAC money in the general election. They give her credit for ideas like a wealth tax, which Bernie did first.

It is worth wondering why legacy media is so in love with what they proclaim to be a progressive candidate when in 2016, the progressive candidate was ridiculed by them as a crazy socialist with pie-in-the-sky plans.

In August, The New York Times reported that Warren is quietly campaigning “to show party officials she is aligned with them.” She has clarified to The Young Turks that her divestment from large donors only applies to the primary. She’s had at least one secret meeting recently with Hillary Clinton, who in 2016 toed the line for the establishment, proclaiming that single-payer healthcare would “never, ever” happen.

It should not be hard to imagine why legacy media, controlled by the same oligarchs threatened by ideas like universal healthcare and debt forgiveness, would rally around a candidate co-opting Sanders’ progressive optics without also co-opting his plans and passion.

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