The Speech I Gave Tonight in Support of JOHN EDWARDS

Krashkopf

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Fri Jan-11-08 12:39 AM
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The Speech I Gave Tonight in Support of JOHN EDWARDS

Edited on Fri Jan-11-08 01:11 AM by Krashkopf

I was honored to be asked to give a 10 minute speech tonight in support of John Edwards at my local (State House District level) Democratic party meeting. They had asked each candidate to send an official representative to speak, but, since Edwards does not have a formal campaign here in Colorado, the local party asked me to speak because I am a pretty vocal supporter. It was exciting. I shared the stage with a local city counsel person who spoke for Clinton, and the 2004 Democratic Candidate for Congress who spoke for Obama.

Thanks to all of the DU bloggers who's ideas have made their way into my remarks. Special thanks go out to jsamuel who I stole "Kumbaya" from. It got a big laugh!

Here are my prepared remarks for anyone who wants to read them:

In his excellent book, The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman says that a Liberal is someone who believes in institutions that limit inequality and injustice in society. In that sense, I�m sure that all of us in this room are proud liberals.

But Krugman also says that a Progressive is someone who participates in a political coalition that defends and tries to enlarge those institutions.

I am supporting John Edwards, because he is both a liberal and a progressive.

And more than that, I think he is the most liberal, and the most progressive, of the three top tier candidates.

And that is important to me because, after the restoration of the Constitution, I think that the "Corporatization of America" � and the gross inequalities of wealth and political power that go along with it � are THE most important issues facing us, as a Nation - bar none.

We are, truly, in an existential crisis in this country. It is no longer �over the top rhetoric� to say that America has been taken over by a small, very rich, Corporate elite. It�s simply stating the obvious.

With all due respect to Hillary Clinton, and Barrack Obama, I am afraid that both of them have taken too much campaign money FROM the Corporatocracy to bring about the changes necessary to take the Government back from the Corporatocracy and FOR the American People.

And, as much as I like Barack, who is my second choice, NOW is NOT the time to try to build a "Purple America" were Democrats and Republicans work together to find "common ground" on issues.

Today's Republican Party is SO FAR to the radical right wing (having been thoroughly taken over by the "neo-cons and the movement conservatives"), that there is NO WAY to find "common ground" with the GOP without "selling out" MAINSTREAM Democratic principles . . . both �BIG D� Democratic principles and �small d� democratic principles.

As John Edwards said �There IS no common ground between US, and people who would allow a teenage girl to die, because they put insurance company profits OVER her need for a life saving liver transplant.�

The Republicans have tried to strangle Medicare, and to rip down the social safety net that has kept middle class America safe since FDR and the New Deal.

It�s foolishly naive to believe that, come January 2009, we are going to be able to find �common ground� with those Republicans on important progressive social issues like Universal Health Care.

The Republicans are going to fight us, tooth and nail, when we try to implement a truly Progressive agenda. Just yesterday, the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pledged millions of dollars from Corporate America to defeat populist candidates, and progressive programs.

That is what we are fighting against. There is no way to compromise with that. Not now. Not in 2009.

I know that we�re all tired of the political partisanship that has divided America since Ronald Reagan was elected, but what America NEEDS now is NOT to reach out to Republicans and have a �Kumbaya� moment.

What America NEEDS is an AGGRESSIVE PROGRESSIVE President who is going to fight back against big business interests to restore the fundemental balance to the American political scene.

What America NEEDS now is an AGGRESSIVE PROGRESSIVE President who is going to fight hard for a truly progressive political agenda that benefits the poor and the middle class, NOT Corporate America, and not the ultra rich.

As a Personal Injury Attorney, John Edwards made a career out of fighting FOR his clients AGAINST large powerful Corporations which were seeking to avoid responsibility for their actions. He fought those fights, and he WON.

John Edwards will continue to fight those same battles for us as President.

Those are battles that are currently being fought against us.

Those are battles that need to be fought by us, and for us.

And those are battles that AMERICA needs to WIN.

And that is why America NEEDS John Edwards as President.