‘The game is rigged’: Elizabeth Warren explains why political parties are changing in the US

martin

8 years ago

elizabeth warren Screenshot via CNN/YouTube

The concept of political parties is changing in the US, and grassroots progressives are leading the charge. That’s according to Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts who has been an unabashed critic of President Donald Trump.

Sen. Warren said in an interview on CNN Monday night that “the notion of parties and party identification” in the US is beginning to shift, and people have lost faith in the political status quo. America’s energy, Warren said, is shifting to “progressive grassroots” politics.

“It’s saying, ‘Look, we get it. The game is rigged. It’s rigged in favor of those at the top and rigged against the rest of us,” Warren said. “And we want some accountability on that.”

The senator, who endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, adopted some of the language on which Sen. Bernie Sanders built his own grassroots progressive movement during a fierce Democratic primary one year ago.

“We want to see a government that works for the rest of us,” she added.

The Democratic Party descended into civil war after Clinton’s unexpected loss to Trump in November. And though the Democratic National Committee has chosen new leadership since then, it still struggles to deliver a unified message as it looks to mobilize voters for crucial midterm elections in 2018.

Returning from his “unity tour” with DNC chairman Tom Perez, Sen. Sanders said, “I think what is clear to anyone who looks at where the Democratic Party today is, that the model of the Democratic Party is failing,”

CNN host Jake Tapper pointed out a Washington Post/ABC poll during his interview with Sen. Warren Monday night, which found 67% of respondents believed the Democratic Party was out of touch with much of the US.

Sen. Warren asserted that, despite the party’s stumbles and its congressional minority, Democrats will eventually find their way — perhaps with Trump’s help:

“He’s a man who ran for office promising he was going to be there to help working people. That was going to be his number one, number two, number ten goal, right, all the way through. And so, what has he done? Well, first, he assembles a team of billionaires and bankers and hands the keys over to them, says to Goldman Sachs, figure out how to deregulate the economy. I mean, what could go wrong?”