Let’s get one thing straight about Elizabeth Warren’s much-trumpeted Accountable Capitalism Act (ACA): even under a President Warren, nothing like it will ever see the light of day. Like a high-concept couture ensemble, it’s designed to make a statement for the cameras, not to be adopted in the wild. The question for the Left is: what kind of statement is Warren trying to make, and how should we respond?

In the Wall Street Journal op-ed where she lays out her plan, Warren rehearses a familiar story of a kindler, gentler Norman Rockwell capitalism that suddenly curdled, around 1980, into an amoral free-for-all. “What are the obligations of corporate citizenship in the US?,” she asks. “For much of US history, the answers were clear. Corporations sought to succeed in the marketplace, but they also recognized their obligations to employees, customers and the community.”

Then came the regrettable declension: “Late in the twentieth century, the dynamic changed. Building on work by conservative economist Milton Friedman, a new theory emerged that corporate directors had only one obligation: to maximize shareholder returns.” According to Warren, her ACA proposal “restores the idea that giant American corporations should look out for American interests.” Ideologically, the key word here is “restores.”