You know that the Democrats have completely abandoned the political center when Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren starts to look like a moderate compared to the extremists competing with her for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
Warren entered Congress as a hero of the Democratic Party’s far left-wing, and throughout her political career she has been more or less universally recognized as one of the most radical progressive politicians in the country.
Her reputation has reportedly undergone a dramatic transformation of late, however, with the liberal media claiming that Democrat primary voters should start to view her as a potential “compromise nominee” in the crowded field of 2020 presidential candidates.
“There was a time not so long ago when leading Democrats warned that Elizabeth Warren’s ‘fantasy-based blue-state populism’ risked leading the party to ruin,” Politico recently reported, noting that “some unlikely voices in the center of the party” are now giving Warren a second look because all the other candidates have staked out extremist positions that promise to be even more disastrous for Democrats in a general election.
It’s not that Warren has done anything to make herself more palatable to moderate voters, though — her policy proposals are just as radical today as they’ve always been.
“We need structural change,” she declared earlier this year. “That’s why I’m proposing something brand new — an annual tax on the wealth of the richest Americans.”
Warren’s so-called “wealth tax” is standard redistributionist fare that has long been central to the far-left’s goal of stoking class warfare in the United States. That used to be enough to make the rest of her Party sound moderate, but these days Warren’s demand that billionaires “pay their fair share” makes her sound positively milquetoast in comparison to candidates such as Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both of whom argue that the federal government should literally outlaw billionaires.
Warren has also endorsed the “Green New Deal,” a proposal that would dismantle the economy and cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $93 trillion, or $600,000 per household. Yet, that’s only good enough to earn her the #4 spot in Greenpeace’s rankings of the Democratic field.
The liberal Massachusetts senator certainly doesn’t owe her newfound appeal among compromise-minded Democrats to her skill at being relatable to ordinary Americans. If anything, she’s getting a second look despite her obvious inability to master the art of retail politicking.
Warren’s staged attempt to build credibility as a woman of the people by pausing during a live video stream to “get me … uhhh … a beer,” for instance, was even more awkward than the nauseating live feed of Beto O’Rourke’s dental visit.
Her repeated lies about having Native American ancestry based on her grandfather’s “high cheekbones” were equally tone-deaf, and her subsequent decision to take a DNA test in hopes of proving her tribal heritage backfired horrendously, demonstrating that she can be easily manipulated by President Trump.
Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin, Jr. slammed Warren for her stunt at the time, arguing that her actions make “a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven.”
If Elizabeth Warren counts as a “compromise nominee” these days, then the Democratic Party is truly beyond redemption. Warren’s views might pass for centrist among her opponents for the Democratic nomination for president, but they’re still way too extreme for the American people.
Candace Owens is the host of “The Candace Owens Show” and the founder of Blexit, a movement that encourages black Americans to break from the Democratic Party.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.