Pithy Progressive #9

I made a comment on the Bill Maher lead article Saturday that I agree the way we are tring to appeal to large groups of voters isn’t working well, but I disagree with what we need to do about it.  My feeling is less exposition and more story is what we need.  This email from Elizabeth Warren perfectly illustrates how powerful story can be.

One of my heroes is running for Congress

Almost 20 years ago — early in the fall term of 1999 — I’d been covering an especially tough topic in my bankruptcy class.

You know that deer-in-the-headlights look on a CEO’s face when they can’t answer a question in a Senate hearing? That was my whole room of students that day.

A few students had looked a little shaken when they left class, so I wasn’t surprised when one of them stopped by my office later in the day. “Hi, I’m Katie Porter. You were really hard on me today.” I thought she was about to start complaining about how tough the work was, but she didn’t pause a beat. Instead, she said, “and I just wanted to come by to say please keep it up. I want to learn this, so don’t let up on me.”

I didn’t let up — and neither did Katie. Katie became an expert in the complex law of bankruptcy, and we worked together for years studying why millions of American families were in so much financial trouble. She became a law professor herself out in California — and in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed her to be California’s top consumer watchdog — fighting to hold the big banks accountable and help Californians who lost their homes.

Several months ago, I had breakfast with Katie. We were all still reeling from the election. After talking about her kids, Katie said, “This is terrible. The banks, they’re gonna let them go at it again. They’ll roll back the regulations on pollution, poison our children.” And then she said, “Elizabeth, I’m thinking about running for office.” And I said exactly one thing in return, “If you run, I will be there every step of the way.”

Katie lives in Orange County, California — in a district that Hillary Clinton won by five points last November. The Republican Congresswoman who holds that seat has voted with Donald Trump 97.8% of the time this year — including votes to repeal health care for millions of Americans, defund Planned Parenthood, and gut the rules on Wall Street.

Sending Katie to Congress in this winnable district would put us one seat closer to taking back the House in 2018. And Katie will give us another powerful voice in Washington who will stand up to the big banks and powerful corporations and fight for women, students, seniors, immigrants, and working people in her district and all across this country.

I’ve seen Katie’s commitment and grit up close and personal. I’ve seen her determination to tell the story of a rigged game. And I’ve seen her put it all on the line to fight for what she believes in.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

Doesn’t this just make you want to run out and vote for Katie?

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.