John Edwards has been fearless in his attacks of the entrenched interests in Washington and he's not bothered to stop and worry about the how's per se. I'm not saying he hasn't thought about his plans, Edwards has been leading on every issue, from health care to the environment and he's been building a great deal of momentum by using such great ideas and phrases such as these:
"I think our voices together are more powerful than our voices alone."
"Today, too many Americans are separated from the opportunities of our country because of where they live,"
"This is our time now. It falls to use to redeem our democracy, reclaim our government and relight the promise of America for our children."
"I have learned there are much more important things in life than winning elections at the cost of selling your soul."
"I don't believe open government means popular answers in public and honest candor in private."
But the how I'm talking about is how he will take on these interests. I believe Edwards is doing what many innovators have done in the past, they've had a vision, they've had a path but they didn't have all the answers, but they knew they'd get there somehow, right now he needs us to help him there.
There have been many concerns about John Edwards and some of his stances that have been argued from the Daily Kos to the Washington Post. One of those concerns was in a recent diary that made perfect sense to me and got me thinking after reading so many, "he can't do that", "it's not constitutional!" (not just this thread but in many others), "it's not ethical!" "Edwards would be abusing his power!" The first time he said it, it was not taken seriously, but since then he has not hesitated or wavered on how he will get Universal Health Care passed in Congress.
NBC/NJ's Tricia Miller was with Edwards in Iowa yesterday. At one event, following a question on immigration, a man near the back of the gathering told the former senator that he wanted to support a credible candidate, and asked whether his promise to withdraw members of Congress’ health care if they don’t pass universal health care was credible.
"Hundred percent credible," Edwards replied. "The president has veto authority over the budget, number one. Number two, the president has the bully pulpit... If the president of the United States submits legislation to the Congress saying if you have not passed universal health care by July of 2009 that the politicians lose their healthcare, think about this with me: First of all, every Democrat is for it because they’re for universal health care, so we’re talking about the Republicans. I want to see a Republican senator or congressman who takes the position that they’re going to defend their health care and vote against health care for their constituents, because I will go to their congressional district as president, and I will go to their state if they’re a senator and make sure that every voter in their state knows they’re protecting themselves against the people they represent."
MSNBC
Edwards is not asking permission and he's not treading lightly. Why? Because he knows he has the moral high ground and you know what? That's not such a bad place to be standing. Just because Bush has abused his powers does not make all use of Executive powers unethical. Polls have shown that most Americans are for universal health care or that at the least the system needs to be fixed. And even though this is the will of the people, the Government has done very little to get us there.
This is where President Edwards would step in and use his power to push an agenda that is supported by the people. We aren't talking about votes that will protect just a few or vetoes that would deny health care for children in the name of protecting an outdated lie about health care, we are talking about making the Government work for us, not against us. This is the ethical use of checks and balances.
Democrats must take stands and must show how their interests are not about making the The Democratic Party the only party, but making the Democratic Party, the Party of change, of hope and of convictions, that puts people before profits and that works for it's people, not against them. These stands don't just benefit Democrats either, it is in the best interest of every American, regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender. And that's why we have to fight to take the Government back by showing Republicans that we have OPINIONS, those are not bad things. I'd much rather lose by having strong opinions than lose by having luke warm stands that can't be offensive to anyone, because you know what? That doesn't excite people, it doesn't get them to vote and it doesn't show them how the Government can work in their favor.
"There's a wall around Washington and we need to take it down. The American people are on the outside. And on the other side, on the inside, are the powerful, the well-connected and the very wealthy. That wall didn't build itself or appear overnight. For decades, politicians without convictions and powerful interests gathered their bricks and their stones and their mortar, and they went to work. They went to work to protect their interests, to block the voice of the American people, and to stop our country's progress. They went to work to protect, defend, and maintain the status quo.
"That wall around Washington, it protects a system that's rigged and guess who struggles as a result? Every single day, working men and women see that wall when they have to split their bills into two piles pay-now and pay-later; when they watch the factory door shut for the last time; when they see the disappointment on their son or daughter's face when there's no money to pay for college. Every single day they see that wall when they have to use the emergency room as a doctor's office for their son because they can't afford to pay for health care. This is not okay. That wall has to come down.
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"That's why America needs a fighter, Democrats. We need one to break down that wall so that we can see Our America—imagine Our America—and build one America.
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"This is bigger than politics. Bigger than any candidate or political party. Because the truth is that it's not just Republicans who built this wall. Democrats helped too. Too many politicians from both parties are choosing self-preservation over principle, compromise over convictions.
"You have a choice in this election. You have to decide what kind of person you want as your next president. Do you want someone who is going to pretend that wall around Washington isn't there, or defend the people who helped build it? Or do you want someone who is going to lead with conviction and tell you the truth, and have a little backbone? Do you want someone who is going to hope that the people who spent millions of dollars and decades building that wall, and have billions more invested in keeping it up, are going to be willing to compromise, to take it down voluntarily? Or do you want someone who is going to stand up to those people and fight for your interests, when the chips are down, when your backs are against the wall, every single day?
"We have a choice in this election. We can keep trying to shout over that wall. We can keep trying to knock out a chink here and there, to punch little holes in it and hope our voices get through. We can settle for baby steps, half-measures and incremental change, and try to inch our way over that wall and toward a better future. Or we can be bold and knock it down. ...
"This is going to be the fight of our lives. I know because I've spent my whole life fighting the powerful on behalf of hard-working people, and I can tell you this: they are not going to give up their power easily. But I can also tell you this: if you fight them – and you are right – you can win.
That's right, John Edwards is asking us to fight with him. He's talking about you, not just what he's going to do as President, but what he's going to do for US as President. And yes, I do realize that much of this has been spoken of, but I wanted to put some of the recent things he's said and done into a context and show the pattern that's evolving here. It's an amazing thing, it's about a man with a vision for an America that can benefit us all.
Restoring the American Dream
The American middle class is struggling. Wages are stagnant even though the economy is growing while the cost of middle-class essentials like health care and child care continues to grow. Forty percent of economic growth over the past 20 years went to the top 1 percent of households. Families work 10 more hours a week than they did 20 years ago. The basic American bargain – that anyone willing to work hard can build a better life – is breaking down. Today, John Edwards outlined his plan to restore the American dream and meet the moral test passed by 20 generations before us: to leave a better future to our children than we inherited. [EPI, 2006; Census, 2007; DOL, 2007]
Universal Health Care
Forty-seven million Americans live without health insurance. All of us struggle with the skyrocketing costs and inconsistent quality of care in our health care system – a system that fails to ensure that even insured Americans get the care they need. Edwards will create a true universal health care system that covers everyone in America, brings down costs, and creates more choices and security.
Good Jobs
Approximately 25 million jobs are at risk of moving offshore within the next decades, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Edwards will invest in the good jobs of the future by creating a new energy economy based on clean, renewable energy, rejecting failed trade deals in favor of new smarter trade policies, and eliminating tax incentives for corporations to invest overseas.
Excellent Schools
America still has two school systems that are separate and unequal. Every year 200,000 qualified students cannot afford college. Edwards will invest in teachers with higher pay and a new National Teachers University, overhaul No Child Left Behind, and invest more to turn around struggling schools. His College for Everyone initiative will let everyone work their way through college.
Affordable Housing
Affordable housing in safe neighborhoods near good schools and good jobs is a key to opportunity. Homeownership is a cornerstone of the American Dream and helps families build wealth and security. Edwards will help families save for a downpayment with a new Get Ahead tax credit, create 1 million housing vouchers to let families live where they choose, build more economically integrated housing.
Strong Families
Two-third of mothers now work, but American workplace policies are badly outdated. The U.S. is one of only five countries in the world without paid maternity leave. Edwards will work with states to offer eight weeks of paid leave to new parents and workers with serious illnesses in the family. He will also create a universal Great Promise program of early childhood education and more than double the child care tax credit.
But not only does he want to restore the American dream, he wants to make the American dream blind to socio-economics. He's also put this plan out this week.
"Today, too many Americans are separated from the opportunities of our country because of where they live," said Edwards. "Many cities are dealing with struggling schools, high-poverty neighborhoods and increasing violence. Urban families are often cut off from good jobs, good schools and opportunities to get ahead.
Many urban areas just as rural areas have been forgotten and pushed aside by the Government. Another innovative plan that is aimed at helping every parent realize the dream of giving their children a better life than what they've had. I'm just going to high light one part of his plan because it's the most ambitious and the cornerstone of his life long battle to end poverty as we know it.
Ending Poverty in a Generation
More than 37 million Americans live in poverty. Poverty rates are increasing in nearly half of large cities, a higher share than in suburbs, and child poverty is rising even more quickly in these areas. Edwards has outlined a Working Society initiative to lift 12 million Americans out of poverty in a decade and end poverty within a generation. [Census Bureau, 2007; Berube and Kneebone, 2006]
* Create 1 Million Stepping Stone Jobs: Every American should have the chance to work their way out of poverty, but some willing workers cannot find jobs because of where they live, a lack of experience or skills, or other obstacles, like a criminal record. Edwards will create a million short-term jobs to help individuals move into permanent work.
* Make Work Pay: Edwards will increase the reward for working by raising the minimum wage to at least $9.50 an hour by 2012 and setting it to rise over time. In 2001, a $1 increase in the minimum wage alone would have lifted an estimated 900,000 people out of poverty. He will triple the Earned Income Tax Credit for adults without children and cut its marriage penalty for couples. The EITC is particularly important to urban areas – it delivers over $8 billion to large cities – and is used primarily for purposes like buying clothes, repairing furniture and appliances, and other activities that create a positive ripple effect through the economy. [Berube 2006; Sawhill and Thomas, 2001]
* Help Working Families Save: Edwards proposed a new tax credit to help low-income, working Americans save for the future. The credit would match savings up to $500 per year. As many as 28 million Americans don't have bank accounts. Edwards will subsidize bank accounts for working families. [Federal Reserve, 2007]
* Support Responsible Families: Welfare reform required mothers to work and helped them find jobs, but it failed to do the same for fathers. Edwards will help fathers find work, require them to help support their children, and increase child support collections by more than $8 billion over the next decade and use those payments to benefit children. The U.S. has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the industrialized world. Edwards believes we should have more support for teenagers struggling to beat the odds.
But how? How can he enact so much change? How can he take on the large corporations and the politicians that help them on his own? That's just it, he's not saying he's going to do it alone. This is something we can do "Together".
There is nothing we can't do if we do it together.
It's empowering, it's about working together and it's about time. I love this ad, which just came out this week, another example of how Edwards is asking for us to help him change things.
John Edwards said, "I think our voices together are more powerful than our voices alone." on Saturday night during the Brown and Black Forum, but he wasn't answering a question, he was asking a question. This was the "twist" to this forum, each candidate has an opportunity to ask one other candidate a question. Here was John's:
"The cause of ending poverty in America is a cause that's very central to what I want to do as president, and central to my life. ... And there is at least one other candidate on this stage who has also spoken, strongly and eloquently, about doing something about poverty in America, and it's Sen. [Barack] Obama [of Illinois], and I applaud him for having done that: I think our voices together are more powerful than our voices alone," he said.
snip
Saturday night, Edwards used his question time to give Obama the floor, asking whether Obama would commit to raising the minimum wage to $9.50, indexed to rise with inflation.
NPR
This is another reason why I believe he is an innovator, a visionary, he's not in it to win for himself, he's in it to win for us. Yes, I do realize how corny it is, but others have noticed this. And many Edwards supporters have been scratching their heads when they read about Edwards being perceived as 'angry'. I usually wonder, why aren't more people angry? But I find that it's easy to concentrate on his anger rather than attacking his message of working together to take down this wall, to change the system and to make things better for everyone. I mean, how can you turn that positive into a negative? It's easier to just say he's angry. I loved how Arianna Huffington put it:
According to the Times, Obama's "aides said that they had been struggling for weeks for a balance between offering a contrast with Mrs. Clinton and avoiding the anger that they said had marked Mr. Edwards's candidacy." Why? Given the current state of affairs in America -- and in Iraq -- what's wrong with expressing a little anger?
I think this is an extremely valid question, "What's wrong with expressing a little anager?" Collective anger with the right plans can bring about real change and it can help the American people feel less helpless to stop the insanity. Empower the people, invite them to the table and use them to push an agenda that benefits most of the people, not just the richest of us. There is nothing we can't do if we do it together.
UPDATE: I usually don't like to do this, but I think it's important. There are many who do not believe John Edwards has changed, but I personally believe that he has changed, his message from conservative and incremental change to tear down these walls kind of change is possible because he's done it himself. John Edwards is his own best example of what change can do to a politics. And I don't mean that he's changed fundamentally as a person, he still puts poverty at the top of his agenda, I think he's changed from being politically cautious to throwing that caution to the wind. He's had the courage to look in the mirror and say :
"By the way, I said this in the debate, and I stand by it: I don't mean to sound holier than thou. I myself have turned my head when I shouldn't have."
http://abcnews.go.com/...
"No, I’ve never said that,’’ said Edwards, saying that "very good people get pulled into’’ the influence-peddling culture of Washington. "I myself am guilty... I’ve turned my head myself,’’ he said. But "I do believe that we have to weed that corruption out of the system and make it work for the majority of Americans.’’
On Face the Nation, Edwards spoke of the money of the pharmaceutical companies in campaigns, and Schieffer asked: What’s the difference between taking money from drug companies and from trial lawyers – as Edwards, who made his wealth as a trial lawyer, does.
"I don’t claim purity. And I don’t claim holier than thou,’’ Edwards said. "I’ve raised over $30 million in this campaign.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/...
I was wrong.
Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told -- and what many of us believed and argued -- was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda.
It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...