Budowsky: Elizabeth Warren’s mission

The growing convergence and unity of progressives and Democrats in the presidential and congressional elections is made more dramatic by the increasingly prominent role of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), whose biting criticism of Donald Trump left the presumptive GOP presidential nominee reduced to angry and incoherent insults about Pocahontas — adding Native Americans to the list of Hispanics, blacks, the disabled and women he has insulted, offended and defamed.

When Democrats gather in Philadelphia for their national convention in July, the delegates and Democrats throughout the nation will rise to their feet with a thunderous ovation when the woman who inherited the Senate seat previously held by Edward M. Kennedy issues her call to action for America to elect its first female president, 96 years after the suffragettes were victorious in their quest to achieve the right to vote for women.

{mosads}Perhaps Warren will address the convention in the keynote speech, or place Hillary Clinton’s name in nomination for the presidency, or give an acceptance speech as Clinton’s choice to run for vice president.

Running against a bigot and bully who has humiliated Republican leaders with behavior that is unworthy of the presidency, the former first lady, senator and secretary of State will have few more inspiring and compelling champions than the senior senator from Massachusetts, who proudly carries the legacy of Ted Kennedy, with his famous proclamation that the dream will never die and the cause will always endure.

The originator of the new consumer protection agency will speak with outrage about former customers and employees of Trump University who accuse that greed-soaked venture of fraud. The former Harvard Law School professor and champion of justice will condemn Trump’s scandalous attack against the judge presiding over the case — even Republicans admit his insults are racist.

Warren will be in good company. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus who, as the son of immigrants from Mexico, personifies the American dream, recently scorched Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for criticizing Trump’s bigoted remarks while supporting him for president. Becerra, whom I recently wrote would make an outstanding choice for vice president, represents everything that truly makes America great as a melting pot of diverse people, whereas Trump, who exploits the darker impulses of the human spirit, attacks the core value of the American idea itself.

In her speech, Warren might well ask whether Americans should give the power of the CIA to a man who says he will order troops to commit war crimes that they are bound by law and honor to disobey, or give the power of federal law enforcement and nominating judges to a man who praises the murderous North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, and a fascist named Benito Mussolini whose body was ultimately carved into pieces by the angry people of Italy — a fact probably unknown to the historically ignorant bully-boy authoritarian who is now the public face of the GOP.

Trump is unnerved by the challenge from the powerfully authentic and progressively populist Warren, who fights like hell for working men and women, the middle class and the poor. He knows she is the real deal, while he is a fraud.

In an age of income inequality and economic anxiety, Warren will bring Democrats to their feet with her call for financial fairness and justice and her championing of Clinton and Democrats running for the House and Senate as offering a bold program for forward-looking change, financial reform, a better economic life for all, a Supreme Court that stands for equal justice under law, and a reaffirmation of the American idea that Trump regularly defames with his demented politics of bigotry, venom and hate.

Warren will brilliantly succeed in her mission to remind voters that the party of FDR and JFK is thriving, while the party of Lincoln is dead in the hands of Trump. 

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Contributors blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.