Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are widely seen as the progressive frontrunners in the Democratic party’s primary election. Currently, their struggle is to position themselves against one another in a battle to be seen as superior. When you take a look at the messages a campaign helps to spread, you can get an impression as to what ideas they hope will define their candidate in the public eye. Many elements of Warren’s public relations suggest her strategy at this time is to convince people that despite policy differences, she’s just like Bernie.

It is regularly mentioned by liberal pundits that Warren will not be taking PAC money or other big dollar donations during this election. It is less often reported (perhaps because it’s obvious) that in 2016, Bernie was the only major presidential candidate in recent history to depend entirely on small donors. As of now, the 2018 Democrat party primary is the only election she will choose to approach this way; She’s never refused big dollar donations in an election before, and Warren has confirmed that this divestment only applies to the primary. The fact that 2019 is the only year Warren won’t take money from the donor class undermines the idea that she depends on individual donors. Further, it undermines the idea that she has eliminated the conflict of interest inherent to our campaign finance system. Regardless, Warren recently posted a barrage of short videos to Twitter that highlight individual donors, stressing the idea that this is a grassroots campaign, dependent on individuals. This idea is also primary to the media’s recent focus on her selfie lines.

Bernie Sanders

Warren’s campaign is currently in the process of unionizing. Until recently, campaign unionization was a credit that uniquely distinguished Sanders from the pack of candidates, and it was often brought up when the twitterverse was asked to find differences between him and Warren. It’s worth asking if Warren’s campaign would have gotten so lucky had this unionization not been such a useful headline.

And then it’s the little things. In recent weeks, Warren has highlighted anti-endorsements from Wall Street and Mark Zuckerberg. Sanders has had an anti-endorsements section on his website for months. The Washington Post tweeted in September that Sanders took “a page from Warren” in proposing a wealth tax (despite him having proposed one first, in 2014). An MSNBC pundit went so far as to say that if you support Sanders over Warren, she can’t imagine any reason for that other than sexism.

Warren’s progressive stripes are not faux. For many years, she’s been one of the most powerful voices speaking up to corrupt individuals near the top of our society. Still, this is an election, and it is important that we are able to make informed decisions based on an honest impression of the candidates. It’s worth noticing if Warren’s team currently believes their best move is to co-opt elements of Bernie’s identity.

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