It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to John Edwards' candidacy.
I certainly can't say I didn't see it coming, but I now have to forego the luxury of feeling excited about the candidate I support.
Up until the last minute I held out hope for an Al Gore candidacy, but I had to let that go. Kucinich, who best represents my values, was kicked to the curb as a viable candidate early on. But Edwards' strength encouraged me. I have always liked him - I liked him in 2004 and I liked him better this time around. I think he would have made a great President. He is the candidate that talked about the elephant in the living room - the corporatocracy which is driving us towards feudalism and has turned the middle class into the working poor and the working poor into the indigent. He is a fighter who has taken on the big corporations and won. As I have said before, he's not perfect; but the perfect candidate for me could not get elected county dogcatcher - our sorry electoral system makes sure of that. Chris Dodd earned my respect by standing up for the rule of law - in the middle of his Presidential campaign! - enough to get some of my hard-earned money.
Yes, the mainstream media has done what it set out to do - they got their "Thrilla In Manila" on Pay-Per-View. By insisting that Edwards was a loser with no chance, and leaving him out of the discussion except to mention that he was not part of the 'historic' Steel-Cage Death Match, they made it happen. Bravo, fellas.
But the party's over for me. Now it's just a matter of doing what it takes to get a Democrat into the White House - more to keep the Repubs from adding any more right-wing fanatics to the Supreme Court than anything else. Emotion about politics is a luxury. When you can be enthusiastic about a candidate, it feels good and energizes you to work for them. Nothing wrong with being jazzed about your guy or gal, if I may be so bold. But it's not a necessity. And if it weren't for the justices and other appointments that are made by a President, I might not even care. Let the Repubs lie in the bed they made. Let them take on the disaster that the Boy King has saddled us with.
However, I can't go there. I have to work for a Democratic candidate. I can't sit back and leave my daughter with a Supreme Court that will take away her privacy and control of her own body. I can't sit back and leave my sons with the possibility of being drafted when we run out of volunteer cannon fodder (or my daughter, for that matter.) I have to stand up for Democratic values and hope that our nominee will stand up for them, too. All I can do is pressure them within the party structure to move towards our real American values - liberal values.
Hillary? Barack? Who knows? Who cares? It's back to business as usual.
3 comments:
You make a good point and Edwards certainly had a moderating impact upon the nominating process.
And yes, his leaving the race gives the MSM the narrative it wants to hype and utilize to otherwise exploit the situation to suit its own ends.
From what I have seen in the grassroots left, viewpoints like yours are widespread. There's an incredible amount of cynicism floating around that I do understand. However, unlike you and so many, I did not see Edwards as possessing some sort of redeeming purity. Though his populist rhetoric underscored the immense pool of frothing anger at the status quo, wealthy, and privileged--that sort of attitude isolates rather than unites.
It takes money and status to win elections and it's always been that way. Edwards undoing was that he did not expand his overall message and he did not, for whatever reason, inspire voters to turn out for him. Perhaps his voice got lost in the Obama versus Clinton beatdown but until three months ago, conventional wisdom believed Clinton had the nomination sewn up and that Obama was the Great Not Black Enough hype.
That Obama had the ability to step up and step up in a big way is a credit to him as a candidate and whomever is advising him. The media has a big role in public perception but just media spin cannot explain why John Edwards was not more forceful, persuasive, or able to sell his campaign more effectively.
I also wanted Edwards to win but money and stardom, coupled with the media anointing Hillary was overwhelming.
Now we have to hope for Obama or we will be stuck with forever wars from anyone left.
The MSM played a shameful part in deciding who the winning candidates should be. But you are right, we have to fight for the Democrat, whichever one wins, no matter what. I support Obama and hope he will live up to the hope he inspires in many of us.
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