Warren goes beyond economics. She’s taking on all those who abuse their power.

Greg Sargent’s analysis of Elizabeth Warren’s unique place in the primary is very insightful. An excerpt:

“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians,” Warren said, right at the outset. “No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

“Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women and of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop-and-frisk,” Warren continued, adding: “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”

That, of course, is an indictment not just of Bloomberg (who has his own history of demeaning women) but also of Trump: The president is a disgusting misogynist and a racist in his own right, and he’s engaged in nonstop corrupt self-dealing, facilitated by concealed tax returns — and a corrupted system.

Similarly, in another big exchange, Warren cornered Bloomberg by pressing him to release female employees from nondisclosure agreements. But Warren linked this back to the other arrogant billionaire, insisting Democrats can’t beat Trump with a nominee “who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements” hidden away somewhere.

The argument isn’t just that a misogynist billionaire can’t beat Trump. It’s that a misogynist billionaire who conceals misconduct through clever gaming of the system can’t beat Trump.

This is what that adds up to:

The through line here is an indictment of elite corruption — that is, of elites acting with impunity.’

Her focus on Bloomberg’s history of covering up sexual discrimination and misconduct and his own sexist language shows that she’s not just talking about economics. She also talked at length about the challenges people of color face in our system. It’s an indictment of this powerfully corrupt system that disadvantages people for any number of reasons.

I personally find her holistic focus on corruption at all levels and around all the various ways in which our society is unequal to be persuasive. She’s the only one who correctly sees all this as a complex mixture of politics, culture and economics. This is why her scathing attacks on Trump’s disdain for the rule of law and Bloomberg’s elite impunity hit so sharply. They go beyond money.

She interested in abuse of power, writ large, on every dimension.

When she said before that she is the Democratic unity candidate this is what she was getting at. She just needed to demonstrate what she meant by that. I think she did that last night. Whether enough people care remains to be seen.

Update: lol

Like Lenin said, the capitalists will always happily sell the left the rope it will use to hang them. — Richard Yeselson (@yeselson) February 20, 2020

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