Elizabeth Warren 2016!

I'm probably crazy to think this, for a variety of reasons (Andrew Cuomo is still the frontrunner, she'd be 67 at the time, best-case-scenario she'd only have been a Senator for four years, etc.) but reading Elizabeth Warren's quote about the philosophical argument behind progressive taxation and hearing all sorts of liberals get really excited about her is making me wonder whether a Warren campaign for President in 2016 would be entirely out of place, or entirely a lost cause. I continue to think that as soon as there is next a viable (a.k.a. electable), reasonably liberal female Democratic presidential candidate, we ought to nominate her. Those of us on the left have been looking for someone to make the case for philosophical liberalism in a strong, charismatic fashion. Anyway, it's just a thought.

If she doesn't run for President, though, I love the idea of getting her into this Senate seat. The way I see it, there are two informally-defined positions that have descended through the ages of American history. One is the Conservative Champion. John Calhoun was the first notable Conservative Champion, but his mantle has subsequently been taken up by people like Strom Thurmond. I'm a little bit uncertain about the intermediate links in that chain, but that's not the case for the other side of the isle, the Liberal Champion. I can see an argument for someone like Jefferson as the progenitor of that role, although since Jefferson was wrong about a lot of things in a kind of conservative fashion I'm a little reluctant to do so. People like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster filled this role in the antebellum era. Most recently this mantle was worn for a very long time by Ted Kennedy. Right now we don't have one, at least not on a higher scale than Dennis Kucinich. Well, not only would Elizabeth Warren be one, but she do it from the very same Senate seat as Clay, Webster, Kennedies Ted and Jack, and Charles Sumner. There have been Liberal Champions who didn't hold that Senate seat, like Bob LaFollette, but Massachusetts' Class 1 Senate seat has been the historical home of the carrier of the liberal torch. It'll be nice to have it filled by another member of that proud tradition, instead of the patheticness that is Scott Brown.