On Tuesday evening, late night host Jimmy Fallon invited Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to appear on his show. Warren spent much of her time on the show discussing her new book, entitled, This Fight is Our Fight: Everybody's Got to Get Out There, and explaining why everyday Americans need to become activists in order to ensure that the United States, particularly its middle class, is prosperous.
On the show, Warren explained that her book focuses on telling the "long arc story" of how the middle class has become disenfranchised in the United States. Warren asserted that the opportunities and support for the American middle class available when she was growing up do not exist today. She also stated that she hopes to remedy this issue for the sake of all Americans and for the future of the country.
While Warren indicated that there are many systemic reasons why the middle class has been so readily disenfranchised in the United States, she indicated that the overarching question now is "what we are going to do about it."
According to Warren, this is where activism comes in. She cautions that things have fundamentally changed in Washington and that, in a democracy, citizens can no longer afford to be passive if they want to ensure that their rights and interests are protected.
... We've got to be in this fight ... Democracy is not a machine that will go of itself. We can't just say once every four years, okay now it's time to start thinking about a few policies ... No, the world has changed in Washington ... Donald Trump and the Republicans are now poised to deal a blow to the middle class, to working families, from which they will never recover and that mean's we've got to be in this fight.
Warren also explained that everyone can (and should) be an activist and that activism's power lies in that, little by little, concerted advocacy produces very real and big change. She indicated that the biggest hurdle lies in convincing people to actually begin to become advocates; however, once they choose to do so, the effects of that activism are quickly multiplied and also inspire others to become activists themselves. As Warren explained,
We've got to be in this fight ... And we can do it. Because when you get involved, when you get engaged, when you get active ... it's that when you start to do it and you do it a little more and a little more ... that's how we make change, that's how democracy works. This is our time in history.
Warren's appearance on The Tonight Show certainly struck a chord for me. Hopefully her interview and book will inspire all Americans to become activists and make their voices heard for the sake of a more prosperous and secure future for the United States and its citizens.
