In the midst of his praise of the GI Bill, public universities, and Bruce Springsteen songs, New Jersey governor and designated Republican Party bully among bullies Chris Christie attacked unions, predictably enough. You know the story: Those greedy teachers and other public sector union members won't sacrifice their pensions to give giant corporations the tax breaks they so badly need, blah blah blah.
Many Democratic politicians would let that sort of thing slide. Not Elizabeth Warren. In an email to supporters, Warren took up Tuesday's Republican National Convention theme of "we built that," but emphasizing the "we" part, the part that Republicans want us to forget even as they chant it. "Coming out of the Great Depression," Warren's email says:
We made a decision together as a country: To invest in ourselves, in our kids, and in our future. For nearly half a century, that's just what we did.
And it worked. For nearly 50 years, as our country got richer, our families got richer—and as our families got richer, our country got richer.
And then about 30 years ago, our country moved in a different direction. New leadership attacked wages. They attacked pensions. They attacked health care. They attacked unions. And now we find ourselves in a very different world from the one our parents and grandparents built. We are now in a world in which the rich skim more off the top in taxes and special deals, and they leave less and less for our schools, for roads and bridges, for medical and scientific research—less to build a future.
Tonight, Chris Christie and the Republicans told the American people that we're to blame for our broken economy. He told families to tighten their belts. He told seniors to live on less. He told teachers to stop fighting for fair pay.
He never, ever mentioned how much more the richest have taken, and he had no mention that those who broke our economy still haven't been held accountable.
"We built America together, and that's what makes America great," the email concludes.
Scott Brown's campaign relies on getting a significant number of Massachusetts voters to forget that he's from the party of Chris Christie and Paul Ryan and, yes, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He's working overtime to be seen as a nice guy, the Red Sox fan next door—to disguise the fact that he's a member of the same political party, with the same values system, as Chris Christie.
Elizabeth Warren is a crucial voice in our national political debate, a champion of the idea that the "we" in "we built that" matters, a woman with an astonishing success story who understands that her success was not purely individual but made possible by the government's and society's investment in people like her. We need her in the Senate, not just for her vote but for her voice.
Please give $3 to put Elizabeth Warren in the Senate.