You won’t be shocked to learn that I’m not a fan of Elizabeth Warren’s politics. And Megan McArdle has raised important questions about Warren’s scholarship, which I hope she’ll discuss in the near future. I will say, however, that The Two-Income Trap, co-authored by Amelia Warren Tyagi, was an important, eye-opening book, though of course I think it was misleading in some important respects. Her decision to enter the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts strikes me as mostly encouraging. The record of intellectuals in legislative politics has been decidedly mixed. For all his prodigious intellect, it is widely acknowledged that Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was once seen as a potential presidential candidate and indeed the great hope of neoconservative Democrats in the late 1970s, had an undistinguished career as a lawmaker. Jim Webb, whom many saw as the kind of unconventional thinker the Senate badly needed, and who was often referred to as the kind of thinker-legislator who could take Moynihan’s place in national intellectual life, has also had a limited impact
Yet I guess I see Warren as the best, most articulate defender of a progressive vision that I don’t share. While perusing her “Priorities” page on her campaign website, I see attractive language that I can imagine using to describe policies diametrically opposed to those she supports, which is to say policies that I support. And so I’m intrigued. Warren is a worthy opponent. What remains to be seen is whether or not Scott Brown has the mettle and the political skill to defeat her in a state that is notoriously difficult for right-of-center candidates, including moderates.