Sen. Elizabeth Warren was yesterday’s keynote speaker at a Center for American Progress event, and warned the audience that the US is heading in the wrong direction and pushed for Democrats to demand a government that actually fights for working class families, reported The Hill.

“Our country is headed in the wrong direction,” Warren said. “The American dream is slipping out of reach … There is a long way to go before the Democrats can reclaim the right to say we’re working for America’s people … but don’t forget the good news: our agenda is America’s agenda.”

After this month’s election, the GOP controls both chambers of Congress, but Warren called on the Democrats to fight against their failed policies.

“The Republicans have a pretty simple philosophy. They say if those at the top have more, more power for the Wall Street players to do what they want and more money from tax cuts, then somehow they can be counted on to build an economy for everyone else. Well, we tried it for 30 years, and it didn’t work.”

Warren, always the champion for student loan reform, also noted that recent graduates were being weighed down by “a thousand-pound rock of debt on their backs.” She used her own personal climb to the top to show how America used to help out its own.

“I am the daughter of a janitor, and Mom worked a minimum wage job at Sears, and today I’m a United States senator,” said Warren. “Sure, I worked hard, but I succeeded because I grew up in an America that was investing in kids like me.

“I believe that we can build that America for every one of our kids, but I know we’re going to have to fight for it, so we better get ready.”