Did Elizabeth Warren kill the Tea Party?

[DonViejo]

Her victory proved that Democrats can stick to their core values and still win over Independents

BY LAURA GOTTESDIENER, ALTERNET

Yesterday, Massachusetts voters flocked to the polls to cast their ballots for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, and today the state is celebrating once again being a beacon of liberalism.

Warren, who beat out the incumbent Republican Scott Brown in a bitter election, ran a campaign centered on connecting the dots between economic policies and personal values. A Harvard bankruptcy-law professor, Warren trumpeted a platform that called for economic reform, financial regulation and the protection of Social Security, Medicare and other safety-net programs.

“We said this election is about whose side you’re on,” Warren told The Huffington Post . “I think of this as an election where we stuck to our values: Make sure Social Security and Medicare benefits are protected, and millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. To me, that’s the heart of it. That’s really where the basic social contract is reaffirmed.”

This type of populist platform became increasingly risky after Citizens United allowed for the infusion of billions of dollars into state elections. Warren was already well disliked on Wall Street for her role in creating and heading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency that seeks “to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans — whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products.”

Yet, Warren refused to compromise her platform, and now attributes her victory to her unflagging commitment to the social contract throughout her campaign. Last fall, Warren was one of the few politicians to speak positively about Occupy Wall Street, although she was careful to distance her senate race from the trajectory of the grassroots movement.

more:
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/08/did_elizabeth_warren_kill_the_tea_party/

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. No, only the Republicans have that power...

They can chose to refuse to let extremists into their party as Buckley did with the John Birch Society and other extremists back in the 50's. I suspect some will try to do that under the name of Re-branding. We may even see the Tea-Party spun off to become its own brand.

But it isn't dead, though even many Republicans are not very appreciative the good work the tea-party has done at getting Democrats elected.

See this DU thread for Republican repudiation of the teaparty. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=mysubs

[aquart]

2. It proved that independents are not complete idiots.

I'm still trying to take that in.

[katsy]

3. It was her honesty & committment to values.

Values that more of us have in common than not.

Yes. Her character and resolve can unveil the tea party for what it is... racist lunatics.