In Defense of the American Dream: John Edwards 2008

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope." -Robert F. Kennedy

The New Hampshire primary was over, and the scene at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport the next day resembled a modern-day Exodus. Hundreds of battle-weary volunteers and workers for every candidate sat waiting for their flights home, or to another primary state. Tattered stickers from one last GOTV canvass clung to jackets, buttons pinned to lapels in one last show of support. Bouyant Clinton supporters waited near giggly students for Obama, unfazed by second place. A lone Richardson supporter folded up a yard sign to take home. I had some time to reflect on why I had even come to this frigid state for a  candidate that got third place.
I came because it is my hope that the American Dream will never die. The American Dream that attracted millions to our shores, millions who braved rough seas and war at home, the American Dream that brought my parents here. I came because I believed John Edwards embodied the spirit of the American Dream, and of the Democratic Party that once stood up and defended it. The American Dream--that all would have their voice be heard. The American Dream--that all would have the same chance that Senator Edwards had to rise from the bottom with enough hard work. These were the values staunchly defended by the great liberals of the past--and I am not afraid to say liberal--which we have immortalized in the initials we call them by.

Liberals fought for the voiceless. RFK stood side-by-side with Martin Luther King as the segregationists marched, RFK sent the US Marshals to force integration in schools. He went to South Africa in the age of apartheid when no one else dared and called for its end. Liberals understood the true moral responsibility of government, to protect the less fortunate in life. In America, the richest nation in the world, millions go hungry, without health care, homeless, ignored and in the shadows. The Democratic Party once fought for them.

FDR realigned the economy with his New Deal. Before, the top 10% of America earned nearly 50% of the income, after, the percentage fell to 30%. Millions shared in the middle-class prosperity that dominated. Today, the top 10% once again earns nearly 50%, something seen in the Gilded Age, an economic injustice that I will not stand for. The New Deal brought us Social Security, in the belief that no one in the twilight of their life should be left abandoned.  LBJ renewed the commitment of government against poverty with Medicaid and Medicare, in the belief that no one in the shadows of life should be abandoned. The Democratic Party is to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Today, the voiceless are quashed and the economic justice which attracted so many is under attack. Our Constitution lies in tatters as blood lies on American hands in the form of renegade contractors and neverending wars. Americans are wiretapped, the corpse of habeas corpus lies forgotten at the altar of fear. We once fought for the freedom from fear, now we capitulate to terror and shed our liberties. Meanwhile, the middle class is under attack. Health care costs skyrocket as the cost of the education needed to stay prosperous spirals out of control. The progressive tax system which forged opportunity for every American is being chipped away at.

I chose Johnny Reid Edwards because he was the only candidate with a cohesive plan to restore the promise of a progressive America. To not only restore and renew the legacies of the Democrats past by saving Social Security, the progressive tax system, and our commitment to social justice, but carrying the torch by ending poverty in America and giving every American the right to health care. America is at a crossroads, one that America has been at before. Will the Democratic Party stand and fight, like FDR, RFK, and LBJ did, or will the Democratic Party acquiesce to the notion of "centrism"?

I am a product of the progressive legacies of Democrats past, a middle-class American whose parents fled oppressive regimes to chase the American Dream, but there are millions less fortunate. In the richest, most powerful nation on earth, millions go hungry, millions go without health care, veterans sleep homeless. I met an airline pilot making phone calls for JRE next to me because he had been forced out of his job. I met families struggling to get by, forgotten by the America which should be fighting for them. I met the parents of Nataline Sarkisiyan, who died because corporate beancounters wouldn't pay for her liver transplant. Who will stand and fight for those who cannot fight themselves?

I'm sticking with John because I feel that even if he doesn't pull off the nomination, someone needs to remind the Democratic Party of what it once stood for. Now is not the time for unity or post-partisanship, now is the time for another progressive revolution, just like the one that brought us the New Deal. I'm sticking with John because I am not going to let 98% of the country be left without the choices that 2% had.  I have not been convinced that Hillary Clinton has been set free of the corporate culture that has strangled us in Washington, or that either of them has the plan that John Edwards has to restore to the Democratic Party and to America a commitment to social and economic justice. I find Barack Obama's message of fuzzy sunshine unsettlingly vague. Hope for what? Unity for what? It is my hope that 2008 will be like 1932, a realigning year that swept the forces of corporate corruption out in favor of the New Deal which sowed the seeds for the middle-class America we cherish so much. I am not interested in the mushy center--the time is ripe for a realignment, and I see JRE as the leader who best channels the progressive realignments of the past.

Read the plan for One America. No other candidate has so thoroughly worked out a commitment to restore the progressive ideals that built this country. Give JRE a chance to have his voice heard.

We don't just need a Democrat. We need a true progressive, someone who will carry the torch of the New Deal, of the Progressive Era, a commitment to ending injustice in America and around the world. Our forefathers dreamed of an America where everyone was heard and everyone had a chance, a dream for One America. It is my hope that with John Edwards staying in the race that the dream will never die.

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