While other candidates engage in a battle over semantics, ever playing the gender and race cards, John Edwards remains rock steady in the progressive fight.
Unthwarted by attacks from the corporate elite and an essential MSM blackout, Edwards blazes on in giving voice to the voiceless.
Standing in a hall where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once held meetings at the height of the Civil Rights movement, John Edwards addressed issues of racial inequality to a crowd of South Carolinians who gathered to hear him speak at the Penn Center in St. Helena Island.
"Race plays an enormous role in the economic conditions of Americans," Edwards told the audience. "We can pretend it’s not true but decade after decade of slavery followed by decade after decade of segregation, followed by decade after decade of discrimination has an impact. It has an effect."
The senator recited statistics to illustrate such disparities, saying that blacks "average about ten percent of the net worth of white families."
He then focused his attention on health care problems that are endemic to the black community—such as heart disease and diabetes—and stressed the need for a universal health care plan that covers all Americans.
"You are more likely to have serious health care problems," he said of African Americans, "and less likely to have health care coverage."
Fox News
Edwards has been campaigning in South Carolina this week, championing the progressive causes he's long fought for to Build One America for All of Us.
On day two of his "Bringing It Home" tour, Edwards discusses ambitious plans to create a Working Society and end poverty in America within 30 years
Edwards has spent his life building One America, where every person has the same opportunities to work hard and get ahead. To make sure everyone has the same chances that America has given to him, today Edwards called for:
Ending Poverty within a Generation: Edwards called for a national goal of ending poverty within a generation by cutting poverty by one third within a decade and ending poverty within 30 years.
Rewarding Work: To create more opportunities for work and reward those efforts, Edwards will raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2012, helping the 33,000 South Carolinian workers who earn the minimum wage or less; cut taxes on low income workers; create 1 million Stepping Stone jobs; and strengthen workers' rights.
Overhauling Housing Policy: Edwards will create 1 million new housing vouchers over five years to help low-income families move to better neighborhoods, invest in struggling neighborhoods, and promote state and local efforts to build affordable housing close to good jobs and schools.
Strengthening Schools and Making College Affordable: Edwards will create a universal system of Great Promise early childhood education centers; invest more in teacher pay and professional development; radically overall No Child Left Behind; create Second Chance schools to help high school dropouts; and pay the public college tuition of everyone willing to take a part time job through a new College for Everyone initiative.
Helping Families Save and Get Ahead: Edwards will subsidize bank accounts for the 28 million Americans without them; create new Work Bonds to help low-income workers build up savings accounts; and protect families against abusive financial products, including payday loans, predatory mortgages, and abusive credit card terms.
Supporting Responsible Families: Edwards will encourage and reward responsibility from fathers by helping them find work and requiring the help support their children and discourage teen pregnancy. He will also call on community leaders to recognize that there is only so much that the government can do, and we all share the responsibility of promoting strong families.
At a stop at Clemson University, Edwards told voters he that he believes that "the men and women who worked in the mill with my parents are worth every bit that those who owned that mill are."
Edwards Speaks at Clemson: We have to give voice to those in this country who have no voice"
Edwards isn't just talking about hope and change, he has what it takes to truly bring about change: bold policies, determination and the fight to make it happen. And he's in it for the long haul.
Edwards on Late Edition: 1.13.08: "I'm in it for the long haul"
Beyond the good feelings of "hope," Edwards' committment to bring about transformational change is backed up with bold, progressive plans and a pragmatic understanding that we must "take on the powerful, entrenched interests controlling Washington and help middle class families by making investments to strengthen the faltering job market, creating more middle-class jobs and making middle class necessities, like housing, energy, child care, and college more affordable."
As Edwards said today on Late Edition, he's in it to "become President of the United States" and he's driven by progressive causes.
I'm in this to become President of the United States...
In this campaign, the causes that are driving me have not changed, if anything, they've become more important and stronger.
Edwards is the candidate of hope and change and the candidate who has the resolve, the fight and the determination to really make it happen.
Update 1 More news coming out of Edwards' tour in South Carolina, as lenzy1000 pointed out in the comments:
Edwards in Florence, SC Today: Real Change has never started in Washington
Edwards: The Real "Fairy Tale" is Thinking Change Begins With Washington Politicians
In remarks today at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, John Edwards said that real change begins with leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and with the American people, not with politicians in Washington. Edwards attended the service with Rep. Leon Howard, head of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, and the Rev. James Blassingame. Excerpts of Edwards’ remarks follow:
Excerpts
"I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change came not through the Reverend Martin Luther King, but through a Washington politician. I fundamentally disagree with that. Those who believe that real change starts with Washington politicians have been in Washington too long and are living in a fairy tale.
"Real change has never started in Washington. Real change came from those who fought in the trenches -- those who shed their blood, sweat and tears, and those who suffered broken bones. Real change started in Selma. Real change started with Rosa Parks. Real change started with the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King and the brave men who sat down at a luncheon counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina. Real change started in churches just like this across America and across the South. And real change started not far from here in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
"We are not being true to ourselves or the heroes of Greensboro, Selma, Birmingham and Orangeburg if we do not continue this journey to bring about real change. And you can’t take a single step on this journey unless you stand on the truth. And let me say here, that what I say to you today, I say in front of all audiences, no matter black, white -- including audiences where there is not a single African American.
"The dream is strong and the dream still lives, but we still live in two different Americas. One America for those who are doing extraordinarily well and one for everybody else. We’ve still got two public school systems in America. One for wealthy, affluent suburban areas and one for everybody else. We’ve got two health care systems in America. One for those who can afford the best health care money can buy and one for everybody else. We’ve got two economies in this country. One for those who make millions and millions of dollars every year and one for those who are struggling just to get by and pay the bills.
"You know what I’m talking about. That’s what this election is about and we can do better than this. America can do better than this. We’re better than this as a people and we’re better than this as a nation. We want to live in a country where every single child has the same high quality public school education. We want to live in an America where everybody has health care through a universal health care system for every man, woman and child, not where the wealthy get good health care and everybody else struggles. We want to live in an America where 37 million people don’t wake up every day living in poverty, literally worried about feeding and clothing their children.
"What this election is about—it’s not about me and it’s not about any of the other candidates—what the election is about is building one America."
Update 2
Please see these two diaries for important Action Items on the MSM Blackout:
John Edwards Supporters: Sharpen Your Quills! by Clarity Penn
Unbelievable! CNN narrows the Field of Candidates! by jamess
Speak Out!