John Edwards: Champion of the Working Class

[Sapphire Blue]

John Edwards: Champion of the Working Class
by max blunt at 12:50PM (CEST) on June 6, 2007

Among "top-tier" presidential candidates, Edwards is alone in talking about class issues

He criticizes corporate-drafted trade treaties and shows concern about workers' rights, the poor and higher taxes on the rich

The media hate him for it

What's really behind the media animus toward Edwards is his "all-out courting of the liberal left-wing base" (ABC News) or his "looking for some steam from the left" (CNN)

One of the wise men of mainstream punditry, Stuart Rothenberg, said it clearest in a Roll Call column complaining of Edwards' "class warfare message" and his "seeming insatiable desire to run to the left"

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Class Is a Taboo Word in US Politics

This presidential campaign may offer a test of whether 'poverty' can make a comeback as a political issue.

Even the word is at issue. American politicians are fearful of using 'class politics in their campaigns. this means that the exploitation of the proletariat has to be softened and reissued as 'poverty'.

For more than two years, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has persistently focused on the plight of the poor and working class, joining strikers on picket lines, campaigning for an increase in the minimum wage and, before he officially launched his presidential campaign, working part-time at a poverty center he founded.

As a candidate, Edwards unabashedly speaks of poverty as “the great moral issue of our time.” He has committed to a plan that he says will eliminate poverty in 30 years.

The nation’s response to its 37 million poor, he decreed in a speech to the National Press Club last year, “says everything about the character of America.”

“Sen. Edwards was very gutsy to do what he’s done. Certainly, he’s done it against the conventional wisdom of nearly all Democratic strategists,” said Robert Borosage.

(snip)

“Political consultants will tell you that poor people don’t vote and middle class people, when they’re feeling squeezed, aren’t generous.”

(snip)

Edwards’ campaign has resonated with the party activists who dominate the Iowa caucuses, and polls show him leading the field in the important first presidential nominating contest.


http://www.radicalleft.net/blog/_archives/2007/6/6/2999534.html

Transformational Change For America And The World - JOHN EDWARDS for PRESIDENT 2008

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:


"I'm proposing we set a national goal of eliminating poverty in the next 30 years." - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Silence is Betrayal - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Moral Leadership - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Ending Poverty in America

[waiting for hope]

1. "The media hate him for it" ......

They are going to hate him more once he is President, and Silence is Betrayal.

K&R!!! :hi: SB, you are in a roll today!

[Sapphire Blue]

8. Judging from some of the negative replies to the other thread that I posted...

... and the negative replies to threads that you & others have posted in support of Edwards, there are a few others who hate Edwards... and they make sure everyone knows it.

[Brigid]

2. We the working people of this country . . .

have few friends these days. Our jobs are outsourced, aided and abetted by economic policies that actually encourage it; when we job-hunt we're told nothing is available; employers get away with treating workers any way the want because jobs are so scarce; the minimum wage was just raised at the cost of continuing financial support for this immoral and illegal war; and worst of all, our children are manipulated by sugary promises into joining up to fight in the aforementioned war. The powers that be ought to consider themselves lucky that so many are too distracted by Paris Hilton's jail sentence and who won on "American Idol" to be rioting in the streets.

[hfojvt]

5. this realtor gave a talk at my club yesterday

He said, in passing, that there was no unemployment locally. That did not seem right, so I checked. The rate for our county is 5.6%, higher than the state and national average. Still, that is not a bad rate. Back when I was studying and teaching economics, that would have been considered 'full employment'. I don't think that's accurate, but 5.6% would have been considered amazingly low in the 1980s.

I wonder if the growth of the "temp industry" is not responsible for that. I spent 3 years in Iowa before I finally left because I could not find what I considered to be a real job. The unemployment rate when I left was 3.0% for that county. Amazingly low, but my experience was of being unable to find a job?

One thing was that the temp job was better than many of the jobs that I applied for. It paid $8.5 an hour, plus 7 hours of over-time pay in the weeks when they did not steal it. I just saw a full-time, non-temp job in the paper yesterday. It pays $6.50 an hour. That's not nearly as much as my temp job was paying six years ago!

[greenissexy]

3. Interesting

You are correct that he is the best candidate wrt this important issue, but his own personal gluttony detracts from his message. If he was one of us then his message would be more meaningful. Of course, there are none of us in the race so he is the best choice in that regard.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. ..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1053988

[Catchawave]

6. Nice article, thanks SB for

being such an inspiration on DU :hi:

[Sapphire Blue]

7. ..

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

9. ..

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

10. ..

:kick: for the working class!