Elizabeth Warren has been getting a lot of grief in the news media lately. Some of it, no doubt, reflects campaign missteps. But much of it is a sort of visceral negative reaction to her criticisms of the excessive influence of big money in politics – a reaction that actually vindicates her point.
It’s true that earlier in her career Warren, like just about everyone else, did fundraisers with wealthy donors. So? Charges of inconsistency – “you said X, now you say Y” – are all too often a journalistic dodge, a way to avoid dealing with the substance of what a candidate says. Politicians should, after all, change their minds when there’s good reason to do so.
The question should be, was Warren right to announce, back in February, that she would halt high-dollar fundraisers? More broadly, is she right that the wealthy have too much political influence?
And the answer to the second question is surely yes.
The first thing you need to know about the very rich is that they are, politically, different from you and me. Don’t be fooled by the handful of prominent liberal or liberal-ish billionaires; systematic studies of the politics of the ultrawealthy show that they are very conservative, obsessed with tax cuts, opposed to environmental and financial regulation, eager to cut social programs.