Overrating Warren

David Harsanyi thinks Elizabeth Warren is overrated:

Still, it seems to me that a lot of people are overestimating the appeal, uniqueness and popularity of Warren. Those who believe she has crossover appeal are fooling themselves. What’s most enticing about Warren right now is the perception of her, not the reality.

Once you get past the impassioned sermons, and they can be quite entertaining, the most striking aspect of Warren’s big-message progressivism — the driving principles are laid out in the much-discussed “11 commandments” speech — is how small and ordinary it all is. For starter, while Warren’s critique of capitalism might resonate, most of her agenda items look like everyone else’s agenda items. She might offer Americans more “commandments” than God, but many of her directives can found on the “issues” page of any middling Democratic candidate’s website.

I’m going to disagree a bit with Harsanyi on Warren. Yes, Warren is overrated — and you should read his whole column to learn just why. But the fact that most-if-not-all of her positions are identical to “any middling Democratic candidate” isn’t one of those reasons. I’d argue instead that it’s an indication of just how far to the left the Democrats have moved. A Jack Kennedy, a Lloyd Bentsen, probably even Al Gore v1.0, has little place in today’s party.

The fact the a mediocrity like Warren is the progressive Left’s rising “young” star just proves that the movement has grown just as stale as it has grown powerful.