As a supporter and contributor to Elizabeth Warren's campaign, I was both gratified and somewhat puzzled by her performance in Tuesday night's debate. As the frontrunner, she was the target of virtually everyone on the stage and for the most part she met the attacks with the insouciant confidence which inspires my support.
However, on one issue that may be a harbinger she chose to deflect instead of clarify. When asked by one of the moderators in typical "gotcha" type format whether she intends to raise taxes on the middle class in order to pay for her version of Medicare for All, she demurred and stated that costs would go up for the wealthy and corporations, but not for the middle class. You can call this disingenuous or a polite answer to a loaded question, but I think in the long run, Warren will have to give explicit answers to this and other questions which will frame her candidacy.
Yes, taxes will go up for many in the putative middle class, especially those with gold plated health care plans they obtain through their employers. The flip side of this is that many more will see their out of pocket expenses and premiums go down. The hard truth is in order to cover all Americans with decent health care, a significant percentage of us will pay more.
Ms. Warren needs to tell us exactly how her plan will work for all of us in such a manner we will be inspired by the access we will all have to quality care. The republican tactic will be to divide us on the basis of who will assume an extra burden in order to guarantee access for the less fortunate among us, much as they did when Bill and Hillary Clinton tried to reform the system in 1992-93. I think there is a hunger in America for a populism which lifts and unites us instead of Cheetolini's version which encourages division. Liz owes it to all of us to trust our better angels.
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