There's A Brewing Democratic Civil War, And Elizabeth Warren Is Leading The Charge
Last Tuesday, the president and senior vice president of Third Way, a centrist think tank, published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal lambasting Warren's plan to expand Social Security as "Exhibit A" of "populist political and economic fantasy."
Warren's response? On Wednesday, she wrote a suggestive letter to bank CEOs "encouraging" them to voluntarily disclose their donations to think tanks.
"When you use corporate resources to support think tanks, there are only two possible outcomes from public disclosure - those contributions do not influence the work of the think tanks or those contributions do influence the think tanks' research and conclusions," Warren wrote.
"Either way, shareholders have a right to know how corporate resources are spent, and, even more importantly, policymakers and the public should be aware of your contributions and evaluate the work of the think tanks accordingly."
It doesn't yet have the panache and organization of the Republican Party's internal split, but some liberal groups think that the divisions among the Democratic Party - its own "civil war" - will embroil the party through the next two big election cycles in 2014 and 2016.
The divisions have sprang up over a period of several months, dating back to New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's wildly successful run here and the "Rise of the New New Left," as The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart put it in September.
In the Democratic Party, populism is on the rise. Warren's ideas and beliefs - frustration with Wall Street, stagnating middle-class wages, and rising income inequality, among others - are at the forefront of that ideology.
After Third Way's op-ed attacking Warren, groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, saw an opportunity to respond.
"Third Way has always been a below-the-radar creep that gives really bad policy advice to Democrats," Adam Green, the PCCC's co-founder, told Business Insider. "In this case, they attacked the two most popular things in Democratic politics - Elizabeth Warren and Social Security."
Warren's call to expand Social Security - a proposal she laid out near the end of last month - is a stark contrast from the policy Democrats have embraced on the entitlement during the Obama administration. President Barack Obama included "chained CPI" - cutting benefits by changing the way cost-of-living adjustments are calculated - as a main concession to Republicans in his 2014 budget proposal.
Since Third Way's op-ed and the PCCC highlighted the issue, it has pushed some "centrist" Democrats to the more populist left. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) called the op-ed "outrageous" and "strongly disagreed."
Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) also said he "strongly disagrees" with the op-ed. And Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) said he "disagreed" with Third Way's assertion that "economic populism is a dead end."
Schwartz, for one, provides a barometer as to how the divide is already affecting 2014 elections. Her 2014 Pennsylvania gubernatorial Democratic opponent, John Hanger, called on her to resign as Third Way's honorary co-chair. A spokesman said she would not resign, but her denouncement of the op-ed as "outrageous" shows a clear sense of urgency to appeal to the Democratic Party's more liberal wing.
And though Warren said last week, flatly, that she is not running for president, Green expects the debate to continue through the 2016 campaign for president.
"The question is, will Third Way's ideas be repeated, or will Democrats follow the North Star that is Elizabeth Warren?" Green said.
He added: "Every Democrat will face the questions, including Hillary Clinton."