Warren takes political turn for better
To the aliens who have kidnapped Sen. Elizabeth Warren and replaced her with a pod person, I have a message:
Don’t give her back. Not long ago I wrote about Warren’s sudden shift on the issue of casino gambling. The confirmed Nanny Stater had long opposed gaming — the principled position of every true Lefty — because it preys on the poor and poorly educated. It’s no coincidence that there are more places to buy lottery tickets on a single street corner in Dorchester than in the entire city of Weston.
I assumed that Sen. Warren’s decision to make nice with the Mashpee Indians and their troubled casino project was part of her wellpublicized push to undo the self-inflicted damage from her bogus claims of Native American heritage. Or maybe the millions pouring into the tribe’s coffers from a sketchy Malaysian investment group. Or — because this is Massachusetts — both.
But now I have a new theory: “Liz Warren, Pro-Pot Pod Person.”
What else to conclude now that the most big-government, pro-centralized-power senator not named “Palpatine” is pushing personal freedom when it comes to pot?
Sen. Warren has joined with Colorado Republican Cory Gardner to sponsor the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act. Warren wants to “let states, territories and tribes decide for themselves how best to regulate marijuana — without federal interference,” she said.
Wait — what? Ms. Massachusetts Liberal has come out in favor of … states’ rights? That’s not Liz Warren, that’s John C. Calhoun in a pantsuit!
I’m not the only one to notice the irony. As Ira Stoll of the libertarian magazine Reason writes:
“Senator Warren hasn’t exactly established a reputation for deferring to the states. The federal Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection that she championed arguably duplicates the work of state attorneys general. The Obamacare law she defends is a case of Washington imposing its will on state health insurance markets.”
The entire Elizabeth Warren ethos is built around the notion of collectivism. “You didn’t build that,” she tells entrepreneurs who risked a lifetime of savings to start their own businesses. No, it was all of us — which is why “We” (always the royal “We” with Warren) have the right to tell you how much to pay your employees, how much paid time off they get, whether you can allow smoking at your workplace (don’t even think about it), etc. etc.
And smaller, regional banks have been begging for relief from federal regulations that, they say, are making it harder for them to compete with the big, national banks. But when Congress rolled back those regulations last month, Liz Warren called her fellow Democrats who backed it “gutless.”
The same with social issues. The 10th Amendment way to handle samesex marriage, for example, would be to do what Warren wants to do with weed and let the voters of each state govern themselves. Gun laws banning so-called “assault weapons” should be passed by state capitols, not Washington.
But now she’s invoking the 10th Amendment to limit federal regs? She wants Washington to leave the states alone to craft their own laws, even laws she doesn’t like? She’s ready to leave the issues of pot and video poker to personal choice?
Who is this person and what have you done with our senator?!
Whatever it is, please don’t stop. Thank you.