This will be long:
About a year ago, as I was thinking about the remarkable field of Democratic candidates for President, @tihanablanc convinced me to give @ewarren a careful look. I read some of her books. Early academic stuff, popular finance stuff, and her campaign book.
About a year ago, as I was thinking about the remarkable field of Democratic candidates for President, @tihanablanc convinced me to give @ewarren a careful look. I read some of her books. Early academic stuff, popular finance stuff, and her campaign book.
It was really, really good. So I asked @sashabaker if I could help out, and she was kind enough to let me along for the ride. I thought maybe I could be a kind of "traffic cop" for all the foreign policy geniuses who were certain to flock to the campaign.
It turned out that was too easy to really be a job, because we got so many of the best foreign policy folks in the business. Smartest, most creative, with the most relevant experience and most incisive analysis of what we need to change.
But also, just "best." Nicest, least turf-y, easiest to work with. What fun is it to be a traffic cop when everyone is an excellent driver?
I'll reflect on this more later, but I think Senator Warren has put out an incredibly ambitious, thoughtful, and detailed agenda about our foreign policy and national security.
She identified corruption as a defining problem for our time, found the ways our financial system is used to import and export corruption, and proposed solutions. She dedicated real focus to how to repair the State Department and our diplomatic institutions.
She focused on the real issue in future trade negotiations -- not tariffs and the traditional mechanics of "free trade," but regulation and the things we really care about. The environment. Good jobs.
She focused on international public health.
She focused on international public health.
She found the strength left in our system of alliances and laid out a plan to put them to work on our current problems rather than our historical ones.
And, urgently, she didn't just talk about ending the wars but was specific about what that means: the dysfunctional politics that have made failed wars too palatable; the prioritization, concessions, and diplomacy we need to do better.
You can read about all that and more in the links in this thread. I hope you will.
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These polices are Warren's genuine insights about what the United States needs in the world and what resources we have to deploy.
They became policy and prose through the efforts of the amazing people I mentioned above.
They became policy and prose through the efforts of the amazing people I mentioned above.
I'll just name a few here. Some, including some of the most important to our effort, cannot be public for various professional reasons. But they have my deepest gratitude and respect.
.@LorenRaeDeJ's defense team are able to provide an education on pretty much anything. @ilangoldenberg had a huge group of middle east experts with wildly diverse points of view and put together what I believe will become the new party consensus.
Senator Warren has a longstanding interest and deep knowledge of nuclear issues, so of course @atomicbell and her team were on board. @mikefuchs, Dave Rank, Joe Yun, @BonnieGlaser and others on Asia have pointed the way forward on our vital relationship with China.
.@maxbergmannand his Europe team have a deep and darkly funny sense of all the damage Trump has done to our alliances and our democracy.
Africa and Latin America, despite their importance and perhaps because of their complexity, can sometimes be forgotten in our politics, but not with @brittanybrown4 and Latin America from @NickZimmerman05 and their teams.
.@shebacrocker knows the UN and multilateral issues inside and out, but she also knows humanitarian and crisis relief and, quite frankly, everything else. @RosenbergEliz is strategic and detail oriented on the tools of economic statecraft.
.@MargLTaylor and @oonahathaway are the kind of lawyers we need in government: learned, principled, hard working, and also completely dedicated to getting an answer that works. @georgelittledc and @StephenTankel are able to think through the hard questions of CT and restraint.
.@ajmount, Oni Blair, @Rosejackson3, Jane Rhee, @BishopGarrison, @danbbaer, @HadyAmr, @fordrs58, @Cirincione, @wjrue, Kate Fernandez, Mark Freedman have all done everything from careful review of things outside their areas to keeping us honest and progressive.
Standouts like @ClemenceLanders, @KenSofer, and @politicalmiller have found a way to get the strangest, hardest things done.
I am deeply in all of their debt, and I'm made optimistic by the vision that they -- along with our friends still working for @BernieSanders and @JoeBiden + teams from @PeteButtigieg, @amyklobuchar, @SenKamalaHarris, @CoryBooker and all the rest -- still have time to fix … this.
One last thing: I was not prepared for that fact that I would not just convinced but inspired by Senator Warren and her campaign. She has changed the country and will keep doing it. She would be a great President. She should be President.
I am a Warren Democrat.
#LFG
I am a Warren Democrat.
#LFG
And of course, @sashanbaker herself. We should all be more like Sasha -- calm, brilliant, informed, productive, precise. I could really keep going here.
