Why Warren for President?

To my bay area upper middle-class immigrant voter friends

Let's face it. Most of the country forms the exhausted majority that is neither far right nor far left. I’m left leaning myself, but not 100% left. I am both pro-choice and pro-life . Don’t ask me how you can be both, more on that another time! I believe in tighter immigration laws but do not believe in separating families. A better, faster path to citizenship is  long overdue which sadly no one candidate has undertaken, so certain countries like India have a worst case wait time of 151 years for a green card! I  do not believe in big government.

But I still support Warren as a strong candidate for the US 2020 presidency. Here’s why-

I have been following Warren since 2017, when the Republican senate silenced her objection of the Supreme Court judge confirmation hearing of Jeff Sessions. She was subject to mansplaining and was interrupted by the republican senate. "Nevertheless, she persisted". I got her bumper sticker back then and it became my mantra for a strong female lead!

Later in 2017, she brought to light the fraud and crimes of the then  Wells Fargo CEO. "You should be fired", she said. He was fired, as the fraud came to light.

We need her passion and persistence to put right the policies of the Trump era. Policies on trade, climate change, income inequality, healthcare, judicial independence. She will end the corruption in Washington the way she handled financial institutions in the 2008 crisis. She will put Trump in his place, just like the way she handled Bloomberg in the Nevada debate.

She is head-on against income inequality with her “ultra-millionaire's tax” which is misunderstood by my bay area techie friends. 

Thanks to the house prices in the bay area, many of the techies are in the upper middle class and are millionaires if they just own a house.  In 2019, I was on the fence about the wealth tax myself as I read about how it tanked in the Nordic countries in Europe. But this is tax on wealth above $50 million and not tax on income. It does not penalize "a rich retired widow with an inheritance but without the cash flow of a steady income", the way it did in the Nordic countries. Nor is it meant to penalize high income techies. Did the Trump tax cuts benefit you ? Go back and look at your Alternate Minimum Tax and see if it made a significant difference. It most probably didn't.

Income inequality hurts everyone, not just the lower middle class or those below the poverty line. To the upper middle class, it determines if you can safely walk the streets or go out at night . It determines if your neighbor is happy for your new Tesla and cares enough to trim his tree branches from falling over it . It determines the overall happiness and peace of a society by fixing the flat middle class wages  since Reagan's time. It is fair so Warren Buffet can no longer say that he pays taxes at a rate lower than his secretary!

Warren has a plan for everything. But she is criticized for her Medicare for all policy and the media is dinging her on how she will pay for it without raising taxes for the middle class. No one asks Pete Buttigieg or Bernie Sanders to detail all their plans, so why only her? She anyway did, check out her calculator. I am still skeptical about Medicare for all as it has long wait times for simple procedures in the U.K. and the Nordic countries. I am also skeptical about free college tuition for all. May be we should take a leaf or two out of Finland's book as they have one of the best education systems in the world.  These are huge policy changes that require bipartisan congressional approval , just like the Affordable Health Care Act and I support that in general. I trust her to do the right thing.

Warren is a team player unlike Bernie Sanders. Per NYTimes.com, Sanders boasts that compromise is anathema to him. In fact he voted against bipartisan bills like the USMCA which Warren voted yes. Warren is a woman of action, but is not a radical leftist. She is not in the sidelines with moderate policies that marginally improve the conditions of the Trump era, the ones vouched for by Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden. So, if you want a strong candidate who will take Trump head-on, Warren is your person.

Okay, she's good. So what ?

Do you think that we will split the delegates without a clear winner.? The media is focused on her recent polls and performance in Iowa and New Hampshire and is unfairly dinging her on it. Do not be swayed by the media's flavor of the day approach!

The delegate math is more complicated but with recent changes to the super delegates rule, I hope it gets better. Also, delegates are not winner take-all until the democratic convention, so one candidate does not accumulate everything in a primary election. California has 415 delegates , about 9% of the total and there's enough at stake. As an immigrant, it took me a while to understand this, I am not sure I fully understand still, but for now I think it is anyone's game and I will not vote for someone else just because they are popular after Iowa, New Hampshire or that they can buy more television ads like Bloomberg.

Lastly, we've had 44 white male US presidents and one black male president. How many more years would we talk about a woman's likeability and electability whereas these are not attributes that we judge a male candidate by? 

It IS really time for a woman president. Diversity is good, not just for the sake of diversity, but for the inherent benefits it brings. It is really time to break the glass ceiling, this time for good. Give her the chance. 

Get out and vote for Warren!