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They protected Wall Street. Not families who were losing their homes. Not people who lost their jobs. And it happened over and over and over

"There has not been nearly enough change," she tells Salon, taking on Obama failures, lobbyists, tuition. So 2016?

By Thomas Frank

Progressive America Rising via Salon

Oct. 12, 2014 - Senator Elizabeth Warren scarcely requires an introduction. She is the single most exciting Democrat currently on the national stage.

Her differentness from the rest of the political profession is stark and obvious. It extends from her straightforward clarity on economic issues to the energetic way she talks. I met her several years ago when she was taking time out from her job teaching at Harvard to run the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was charged with supervising how the bank bailout money was spent. I discovered on that occasion not only that we agreed on many points of policy, but that she came originally from Oklahoma, the state immediately south of the one where I grew up, and also that high school debate had been as important for her as it had been for me.

In the years since then, Professor Warren helped to launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which will probably be remembered as one of the few lasting achievements of the Obama Administration); she wrote a memoir, A Fighting Chance; and she was elected to the United States Senate from Massachusetts.

This interview was condensed and lightly edited.

I want to start by talking about a line that youre famous for, from your speech at the Democratic National Convention two years ago: The system is rigged. You said exactly what was on millions of peoples minds. I wonder, now that youre in D.C. and youre in the Senate, and you have a chance to see things close up, do you still feel that way? And: Is there a way to fix the system without getting the Supreme Court to overturn Citizens United or some huge structural change like that? How can we fix it?

Thats the question that lies at the heart of whether our democracy will survive. The system is rigged. And now that Ive been in Washington and seen it up close and personal, I just see new ways in which that happens. But we have to stop and back up, and you have to kind of get the right diagnosis of the problem, to see how it is thatit goes well beyond campaign contributions. Thats a huge part of it. But its more than that. Its the armies of lobbyists and lawyers who are always at the table, who are always there to make sure that in every decision that gets made, their clients tender fannies are well protected. And when that happens not just once, not just twice, but thousands of times a week the system just gradually tilts further and further. There is no one at the tableI shouldnt say theres no one. I dont want to overstate. You dont have to go into hyperbole. But there are very few people at the decision-making table to argue for minimum-wage workers. Very few people.

Read the rest here:
Progressives for Obama - Progressive America Rising