Why do I support John Edwards? There are many reasons, but a key one is summed up in these words by John Edwards yesterday.
"I think some people really believe that all you have to do to succeed in this country is pull yourself up by your bootstraps and work hard.
Well, I can tell you, I have traveled all over this country and I have been in the places where people's bootstraps are worn to a thread from all the pulling they've been doing. Places where all the hard work in the world hasn't helped to pull them out of poverty—because the system discriminates and opportunity isn't equal. But if we come together and are honest about it, we can change that and build an America that gives every American an equal chance.
People's bootstraps are worn to a thread
Should we do something about the Two Americas? Does it matter? More after the fold.
During the 2004 campaign, John Edwards repeatedly spoke of the Two Americas that exist in our country today: one for people at the top who have everything they need and one for everybody else who struggle to get by.
In a July 2006 talk, John Edwards well expressed the choice we face:
What kind of America do we want, not just today, but twenty years from now, and how do we think we can get there from here?
snip
I want to live in an America where we value work as well as wealth, because we understand that we are only strong because our people work hard, that we are made strong by our longshoremen and autoworkers, our computer programmers and janitors, and disrespect to any of them is disrespect to the values that allowed for America's greatness in the first place.
National Press Club Policy Address
How do we get there? A lot of hard work.
Strong unions are the best antipoverty program around and John Edwards is a strong supporter of organized labor. He walks picket lines with union members on strike. They will be with him in this election.
Why? Because John Edwards believes in valuing work and not just wealth.
His plan to eliminate poverty is based on a working society:
Edwards has outlined a Working Society initiative to lift 12 million Americans out of poverty in a decade and beat poverty over the next 30 years. In the Working Society, everyone who is willing to work hard will be expected to work and, in turn, be rewarded for it.
Creating A Working Society
John Edwards wants to lift all who are being left out. This week, John Edwards announced the Rural Recovery Act:
Apr 16, 2007
Nashville, Tennessee – At a press conference today in Nashville, Tennessee, Senator John Edwards will announce his plan to revitalize rural America through a "Rural Recovery Act." Edwards is traveling across the country this week to talk about the challenges facing Americans living in rural communities and to discuss his rural recovery agenda, which would restore economic fairness and create new jobs and businesses in rural America, help struggling counties and towns and protect rural people and their way of life.
"Rural America has been ignored for too long," said Edwards. "Across America, too many small towns have turned into ghost towns. We need to help small towns and rural communities create and keep new businesses and good jobs, and we need a President who will make sure all our communities have good schools, good health care and the support systems they need. As President, I will make sure rural America is never left behind."
Edwards Announces Rural Recovery Act
To me, it comes down to the words written in a 1931 song by the wife of a coal miner who was on strike:
Mrs. Reece wrote from personal experience. Her husband, Sam, was one of the union leaders, and Sheriff J. H. Blair and his men came to her house in search of him when she was alone with her seven children. They ransacked the whole house and then kept watch outside, ready to shoot Sam down if he returned. One day during this tense period Mrs. Reece tore a sheet from a wall calendar and wrote the words to "Which Side Are You On?"
Come all you good workers,
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell.
CHORUS:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My daddy was a miner,
And I'm a miner's son,
And I'll stick with the union
'Til every battle's won.
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.
Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?
Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize.
Which side are you on
I'm for John Edwards. I know which side he is on.
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