A Rousing Evening with Warren

Johnny: What’s your real name, Baby?

Baby: Frances, for the first woman in the Cabinet.

Johnny: Well, that’s a real grownup name.

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As I stood in a crowd of 20,000-plus at Washington Square Park in New York City last night, I thought of this scene from Dirty Dancing. Stay with me.

We were there to hear 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren speak. After she swept in to the strains of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 — “There’s a better life, and you dream about it, don’t you? It’s a rich man’s game no matter what they call it, and you spend your life puttin’ money in his wallet …” — Warren began with a geographically, historically, and politically apt anecdote.

She told the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which 146 workers, mostly women, were killed in 1911. It had happened not far from where she was standing at a time when workers had been fighting for better conditions, but on that day died mostly because they were locked in and couldn’t escape the fast-moving flames. Warren went on to describe them jumping from high floors, their blood running into the gutters.

“The owners worked their political connections,” Warren said of the lead-up to the fire. “They made campaign contributions and talked with friends in the…