Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts speaks
at the “Joyous Persistence” pep rally for progressives
at the Palace of Fine Arts theater in San Francisco.
Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle
President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement was as much about money as the environment, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told a San Francisco audience Thursday.
“This isn’t jobs versus the environment,” as Trump argued in his Rose Garden announcement Thursday, Warren said. “This is a big gift to Republican donors.”
For Warren, a former Harvard University law professor and a leader of theDemocrats’ progressive wing, it’s the money that matters to the GOP majority in Congress.
Congress “used to filter things by asking if it helps working families,” Warren said. But now, with Republicans in charge, “every time it’s how can we help out corporate America.”
The U.S. still has a government that works great, she added, but only for “that thin slice of people at the top.”
There was nothing but cheers and applause from the sold-out crowd at the Palace ofFine Arts Theater for an event billed as “Joyous Persistence,” a daylong political pep rally for anti-Trump activists put together by San Francisco’s Susie Buell, a longtime Democratic donor and activist.
The 45-minute center-stage “conversation” between Warren and MSNBC host and commentator Joy-Ann Reid capped the event. The relaxed format fit Warren perfectly, giving her a chance to connect with the enthusiastic crowd in a way that would have been impossible in a formal speech.
While the talk may have been casual, the subjects were anything but. The country’s in trouble, Warren said, and there are no guarantees about who ultimately will win.
“The key question of today is, Can democracy survive this, can democracy fight back?” Warren said. “Its only chance now is us.”
Time after time, the senator returned to her theme that too many politicians are in the pocket of corporate interests, who use campaign contributions, high-paid lobbyists, shady think tanks and phony experts to push the country in the direction that helps them most.
“In this democracy, government can be seized by a handful of people with money who can get government to tilt in their direction,” Warren said. “Money slithers through Washington like a snake.”
It’s not an accident that one of the first bills passed after Trump’s inauguration lifted a requirement that companies in the “extraction” business report any payments — including bribes — made to foreign entities.
Warren said when she asked Republicans to give her a reason for the bill, she was met with silence.
For Republicans, it’s “we’ve got the votes and we don’t have to engage with you,” she said. As long as they have the numbers in Congress and Trump in the White House, “Republicans are just going to roll this stuff through.”
It won’t be good for the country, she added, because businesses are all about profits, and she pointed to the mortgage meltdown that tipped the country into a deep recession in the late 2000s.
“Banks figured they could boost their profits by selling people mortgages that were hand grenades with their pins pulled out,” Warren said, adding that when disaster struck, those same banks called for a government bailout, arguing that they were too big to fail.
“Those banks are even bigger today,” she warned.
The current probe into links the Trump campaign may have had with Russia is an example of how the bipartisan concern over the direction of the country has changed, Warren added.
“With any other president this (investigation) would not have been partisan. Democrats and Republicans would have been all over it,” she said. “But now we have lots of Republicans not willing to step up to the plate.”
Warren did some ducking of her own when Reid asked whether progressive Democrats — many of them women and backers of Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — should regret not doing more to support Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“There was a lot that went wrong” with the 2016 campaign, Warren said, adding that she wasn’t going to join Republicans in attacking Democrats.
“We’re taking a deep breath and saying that this is way worse than we thought it was going to be,” she said. “But it’s about what we do now and in the future.”
Warren also sidestepped a question about whether she plans to run for president in 2020, as many Democratic progressives have urged.
“No, I’m running for the Senate in 2018,” she said, adding that she announced her re-election bid early so there would be no question about her plans.
But Democrats looking for ways to defeat Trump can’t ignore what happens next year.
“Politics can’t be something that just happens every four years,” Warren said. “I get how important this is, but I get how important today is and how important tomorrow is.
“We’ve got to be fighting every day.”
Warren walked off the stage to cheers and thunderous applause.
“I loved her energy,” said Sheila Nahi of San Francisco. “She’s true to her ideals.”
John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth |