# Warren forms Exploratory Committee **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 31, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983 "2018-12-31T14:40:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/261 "2019-01-19T21:52:17Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Something many rich folks don’t seem to realize is that, based on history, if things get bad enough, the poor will kill them. I have tried to explain this to folks for years. Some seem to think that the rich can just hire some poor people to kill other poor people, so surely it will be fine. I do think that studying the history of revolutionary movements changes a worldview. People can be pretty nasty. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/262 "2019-01-19T21:55:03Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > No one’s calling for no taxes. Just taxes that can actually be paid. The actual effective tax rate on the top 1% is 25%. So make the top tax rate on paper what it actually is in reality. This, this is just an old bit of Ronald Reagan sophistry. It’s colossally missing the point of why there are deductions. It’s an argument from the ignorance of the arguer. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/263 "2019-01-19T22:55:48Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > One problem we had post-2008 was the rich just not investing, & not spending much; just waiting for the business cycle to come back around. To be fair, there’s no point in investing if people don’t have money to buy the goods or services your investment will produce. Which gets us back to the maldistribution of wealth as the underlying problem. > [@](#): > > As for AOC, you yourself said taxes on the rich are fine if they build infrastructure. That’s literally what the Green New Deal is. She’s saying she wants to raise taxes to overhaul the USA’s energy infrastructure to something sustainable. That’s an attempt to stop climate change from destroying America’s wealth. \*You \*should be for this. Don’t worry, he’ll come up with some trivial reason why he can’t quite support it. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2019, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/264 "2019-01-26T14:17:16Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > I do think that studying the history of revolutionary movements changes a worldview. People can be pretty nasty. Excepting wars of independence like the American “Revolution”, have their ever been Revolutions in countries where most people are subsisting quite well? I think more Americans today are concerned about the price of iPhones than about the price of bread. > [@adaher](#): > > The poor just don’t have the numbers. Yes. It’s hard to imagine anything but a very gradual revolt against our kleptocrat overlords. [There was a time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly5ZKjjxMNM) of “Solidarity Forever.” But now Millenials ask their parents “What does ‘Labor Union’ mean, Daddy? What was a ‘general strike’?” — Just looking at the meager number of views on those YouTube songs is depressing. When’s the last time you heard [“We shall overcome”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJoWrLQWrEc)? (That 11-year old YouTube has only 143,000 views. [Pete Seeger sings it with only 23,000 views](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGSMxW4Ngtw).) Affluent California consumers [boycotted non-union grapes for five long years in the 1960’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delano_grape_strike) and finally got better working conditions for mostly “brown” farm workers. Can anyone imagine that happening today? With Trump, Lindsay Graham, and all the hateful sycophants practicing Divide and Conquer and trying their darndest to make whites hate browns, browns hate blacks, straights hate gays, and everybody hate the Jews? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/265 "2019-01-26T14:38:31Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > When’s the last time you heard [“We shall overcome”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJoWrLQWrEc)? (That 11-year old YouTube has only 143,000 views. [Pete Seeger sings it with only 23,000 views](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGSMxW4Ngtw).) His version of [L’Internationale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v85NWc0RIKc) has 170k views, if that helps. It certainly helps me. 😃 In solidarity, andros ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/266 "2019-01-26T17:17:52Z")
> [@andros](#): > > His version of [L’Internationale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v85NWc0RIKc) has 170k views, if that helps. It certainly helps me. 😃 Thanks. I’d heard Pete Seeger sing English, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish but this French is a first for me. I guess L’Internationale is a song which is … well, _international_. Here’s [that song in Spanish](https://youtu.be/H7ylKMmvGuU?t=65) from a famous movie. BTW, **andros** , I hope you’re not too bitter about the often-forgotten .sig. Sigs can be made the default only with the SultanBugs option, and that would be a punishment too far! ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/267 "2019-01-26T17:58:42Z")
The sentiments carry in every language. One of my favorite recent versions is Billy Bragg’s in English, but I’m a sucker for that commie bastid. (And while I love seeing my name as much as the next narcissist, seriously don’t sweat it.) ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/268 "2019-01-26T19:08:39Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Thanks. I’d heard Pete Seeger sing English, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish but this French is a first for me. > ! My favorite is “Old time rock and roll”. It’s the song of my generation. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/269 "2019-01-27T00:52:38Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > My favorite is “Old time rock and roll”. It’s the song of my generation. … you, sir, are going to hell. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/270 "2019-02-01T22:47:52Z")
she apologized to the Cherokee tribe over the DNA test > **[Elizabeth Warren apologized to Cherokee Nation over DNA test, tribe says |...](https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/politics/elizabeth-warren-apology-to-cherokee-nation/index.html)** > > Sen. Elizabeth Warren has apologized to Cherokee Nation leaders over her attempt to use a DNA test to confirm her past claims to Native American ancestry, the tribe said. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/271 "2019-02-01T23:47:35Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > The Don is going to personally trash whichever individual the Dems eventually settle on for his opponent. I am concerned that Warren, for whom I generally have a positive regard, will not have the sense of humor to deflect the insults and turn the ridicule back upon the born-to-be-ridiculed current president. > > The double standards involved are pretty irritating. While listening to a little conservative radio talk in my car yesterday, the host gleefully asked, with no apparent self awareness at all, how “anyone could be dumb enough to vote for Warren after the native American kerfluffle.” For people like that, one minor misstep is disqualifying while the number of untruths from his own candidate is in the thousands. I think the humor part would be important to beat Trump. In a situation where you can’t outright punch a bully in the face , making people laugh at him is basically just as effective. As much as this sounds like playground tactics. Keep in mind a lot of the voting public is very very superficial. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/272 "2019-02-02T16:58:24Z")
> [@Littleman](#): > > I think the humor part would be important to beat Trump. > In a situation where you can’t outright punch a bully in the face , making people laugh at him is basically just as effective. > > As much as this sounds like playground tactics. Keep in mind a lot of the voting public is very very superficial. That would also be an effective way to counterpunch his personal attacks. Try to sling insults back and you’ll lose on his turf. Mock him, laugh at him, get the audience laughing along with you, and you have a great shot at reducing him to sputtering, (even more) incoherent rage. He craves respect and adulation and that is the weakness to go for _sans_ mercy. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/273 "2019-02-03T18:52:50Z")
[Harry Reid gives Warren an all-but-endorsement](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/428257-former-senate-leader-says-he-wont-endorse-elizabeth-warren): > [@](#): > > Reid told the Boston Globe that he didn’t discourage Warren from running for president and said he thinks “the world of her.” > > “She’s a good person. I think the world of her. My Nevada politics keep me from publicly endorsing her, which I will not do. But anything I can do to help Elizabeth Warren short of the endorsement, I will do," he said. [Jon Ralston](https://twitter.com/RalstonReports/status/1092119322833506304): > [@](#): > > that ain’t Prince Harry stopping short. That’s an endorsement. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/274 "2019-02-04T02:55:24Z")
My wife and I came to the same conclusion (independently) about Warren. I’m curious if anybody else feels this way. I think “authenticity” is overrated, but both of us are struck by the difference in Warren in interviews and speeches before she announced she would be running (“formed her exploratory committee”) and her appearances since then. Hard to put a finger on exactly, but she strikes each of us as playing a part–as though someone has told her “Go out there and be energetic! Try to pretend you’re pushing 50 or even 40 instead of about to be 70!” Though the senator’s very…bouncy… in the clips we’ve seen, it seems unconvincing, like she’s putting on an act and trying hard to remember her lines. I’m in wait-and-see mode regarding (just about) all the candidates to determine who I’ll support, but it’s fair to say Warren is not tops on my list for various reasons (including her handling of the DNA incident, which I thought showed very poor judgment). On the other hand, my wife likes her quite a bit. and is somewhat disappointed in how warren is coming across (to her at least). Neither of us is going to make any kind of decision based on some perception of “genuineness”–but I’m curious if anyone else has picked up on this, or if it’s specific to the Unwashed household. (“Elizabeth Warren: Appealing to the Washed Among Us Since 2010!”) ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/275 "2019-02-04T05:38:37Z")
I’m pretty much with Arthur Chu on this one - “authenticity” is bullshit. [https://twitter.com/arthur\_affect/status/1088354051324928000?s=19](https://twitter.com/arthur_affect/status/1088354051324928000?s=19) ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/276 "2019-02-04T13:43:31Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > I’m pretty much with Arthur Chu on this one - “authenticity” is bullshit. > > [https://twitter.com/arthur\_affect/status/1088354051324928000?s=19](https://twitter.com/arthur_affect/status/1088354051324928000?s=19) Oh, I wouldn’t disagree (though I probably wouldn’t go that far). But I think it does matter for many voters. I certainly heard and saw a whole bunch of people talking enthusiastically about “authenticity” as a reason to vote for either Trump or Sanders in 2016, for instance. Whether that’s a real reason or something cooked up to justify other positive feelings I couldn’t say. But in Warren’s case, even if it’s not going to affect my vote directly, I’ll admit I find it irritating! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/277 "2019-02-04T13:51:09Z")
I guess because I’m not big on watching speeches and stuff, none of that registers with me. To me she’s ‘authentic’ because she’s been essentially the same person politically for the dozen or so years she’s been publicly active, and I know what her values are and what’s important to her. I know where she stands on the issues, and I trust her to be the same person going forward. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/278 "2019-02-04T16:53:31Z")
Setting aside issues of age and electability, I think that Warren is probably my favorite. Of course, in the real world, you can’t set aside either of those, so I’m still watching other candidates. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/279 "2019-02-04T16:56:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Setting aside issues of age and electability, I think that Warren is probably my favorite. Of course, in the real world, you can’t set aside either of those, so I’m still watching other candidates. This is no election for old men, and it remains to be seen if the same can be said of women. If Warren were twenty years younger, I think she’d be polling a lot better than she is. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983/280 "2019-02-04T17:37:12Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > This is no election for old men, and it remains to be seen if the same can be said of women. If Warren were twenty years younger, I think she’d be polling a lot better than she is. Choosing the candidate who will most remind voters of Hilary through her demographics, education, career track and appearance would show the Democratic party hasn’t really learned from 2016. So it’s very much possible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warren-forms-exploratory-committee/826983.md?page=15)