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 He’s the One: A Vote for John Edwards My title, of course, is a reference to Oprah’s Messianic endorsement of Barack Obama at a South Carolina rally. Media politics in its theological phase. Not sure but perhaps she thought she was proclaiming the Second Coming of Jesus and not just another fatally compromised politician. But there is good news of something new under the political sun. John Edwards is the real deal and is saying things no mainline American candidate has said since FDR. Edwards’ evolution is the story of this election—and not surprisingly the one that the mainstream media insist on marginalizing. (Or worse, doing to Edwards what they did to Howard Dean. Good old Novak has even accused Edwards of screaming for class warfare. If the Ned Beatty character from the great film Network were around he’d accuse John of something even worse: “of tampering with the fundamental order of things.” For Edwards is going right for the jugular: the corporate structure in its control of both parties and the media. Obama talks about Hope as if politics is all about getting us all to feel a certain way. His is a purely rhetorical campaign without any content. There was a wonderful Ad many years ago in which a delightful old woman (named Clara Peller) took a bite out of a McDonald’s then said “where’s the Beef?” But that’s why an ideology of something as amorphous as Hope is so Mcsorry. It creates what people come to think are their deepest needs. In our time of course just about everything is about celebrity and feeling good. No wonder Obama has such support among younger voters. They’ve never had anything but a diet of feel good redemption. There is one clear thing about Obama. He’s an enigma. And thus for many a worthwhile gamble. As Obama tells us repeatedly he wants to bring everyone to the table. (Or to translate: corporate amerika please let me have a seat at the table.) Paul Krugman has demonstrated the fallacy of this strategy, but that may be beside the point now. Obama may be unstoppable. If so our task is to win John Edwards a seat at the table and assure that his voice will become Obama’s conscience and keep pressuring him leftward. Obama is extending a warm hand to everyone else: to all the members of the corporate oligarchy. What we must do is secure a place for John Edwards at that table. That is why the Edwards campaign must go on all the way through the entire primary process. After all, it still could happen. Obama could stumble. And John Edwards—well for me it is impossible to listen to him without being moved to tears. I didn’t think someone like John Edwards was possible. He is a remarkable voice. A final contrast that Mr Obama could with benefit ponder. Early in his career Obama worked for an organization in Chicago started by the great community activist Saul Alinsky. “Rub raw the sores of discontent.” That was Alinsky’s rhetorical motto. For ethical reasons: helping people discover the truth about their situation is the basis of all progressive politics. All this hope stuff, in contrast, is the new opiate. John Edwards not Barack Obama is the successor of Alinsky. He knows that what we need is the painful truth. Then action. Hope—that’s what we can feel perhaps way down the line. Or discover that we don’t need such amorphous feelings because we’ve found something far more valuable. To use the term on everyone’s lips (even Huckabee’s), we’ll have found a way to make Change. In that spirit I’m proud finally to have in John Edwards a politician I can support. I urge all of you to do likewise. In every way you can. As you all know, Edwards has refused all money from lobbyists and PACs. That’s another way in which his is a campaign of the people. Tirelessly so. I don’t think the man sleeps. And now every time he opens his mouth he says things that no other politician dares to say. There is indeed something new under the sun. And come to think of it I guess that’s a hopeful thing.
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Tags: Walter A. Davis Walter Davis John Edwards Barack Obama Oprah
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Since you've decided that the Corporate Fascist slip slide this country is on can not be changed, why even bother writing an essay at all? 
