Original version posted at Truth Dig as a comment.
Elizabeth Warren reminds me of Florence Nightingale
What Florence faced back then, Elizabeth now confronts, a phalanx of bureaucrats. For every opponent that falters, one of a thousand will step into the breach. * Ms. Nightingale fought for every inch of ground, she had to educate people, and even become a vanguard for a new idea – the graphic representation of information.
Everyone who has entered a hospital since that time owes Florence a debt of gratitude. She lowered the rate of death in hospitals by 76%. ALL BEFORE WOMEN COULD VOTE!
When things are tough I think of Florence Nightingale. I don’t think of the Spartan King Leonidas. Yes he was brave and faced 500,000 men (+ or -) in battle with only 300. He had no choice. It was either fight or become subjected.
Florence in her era and Elizabeth now voluntarily faced off with entrenched interests; bureaucratic slaves of habit that resist change. The fight goes beyond the profiteers that make big money. The peon administrators are addicted to doing similar things everyday. It allows them to surrender themselves to an imagination that has been freed by relegating work to habit. Why effort when you can become and automaton and day-dream? “We always did it this way!” The battle cry of the mediocre.
Warren deserves our support in every way possible because these interests will resist in every way imaginable. The style in which Elizabeth fights with may not be pleasant. She will certainly make mistakes. But just look at the foe she faces and try to understand.
* Paraphrase of Litton Strachy, Eminent Victorians – Florence Nightingale