by Paul R. Hollrah
As George W. Bush stood on the platform high above the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, taking the Oath of Office for his second term in the White House, former senator and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards was on the phone with his travel agent. Edwards was making reservations for his first campaign foray of the 2008 presidential campaign.
Although the former senator with the Pepsodent smile, the Donald Trump hairdo, and the trial lawyer slickness may be short on gravitas and short on good old fashioned integrity, no politician in recent memory has been quite as long on political ambition. In the overall scheme of things his run for the presidency in 2003-04 was merely a trial run, a campaign intended only to gain the name I.D. necessary for a “full court press” in 2008.
So what is Edwards up to now? According to the New York Times, the University of North Carolina announced recently that Edwards would head a new “poverty center,” to be affiliated with the UNC School of Law. A “poverty center” affiliated with a law school? Now there’s an idea to stir the hearts of Democrats. One wonders what budding young lawyers might learn in classes taught at a “poverty center.” How to create poverty by bankrupting corporations who must then lay off all their workers?
In case anyone has forgotten, Edwards made his millions using “junk science” and courtroom dramatics to loot doctors and hospitals – all under the guise of “protecting the interests of the ‘little guy.’ ”
The Times reports that Edwards arrived in New Hampshire on Saturday, February 5, the day after the UNC announcement, with poverty on his mind, and later that day he spoke before a crowd of New Hampshire Democrats, telling them that poverty is “one of the great moral issues of our time.”
Poverty, a moral issue? Since when? If poverty equates to immorality, where is the immorality? Is a poor man immoral because he’s poor? Is it immoral to be rich, or even middle class, when a neighbor happens to be poor? Either way, it is a silly notion, at best. Yes, poverty is a political and/or cultural issue in many nations of the world, in some cases it may even be a moral issue, but not in America. America is the Land of Opportunity where poverty is a purely economic issue.
What Edwards tends to ignore is that in a free society such as ours, the degree to which we reap success or failure is determined, almost without exception, by the choices we make. If we choose not to attend classes regularly, if we choose not to do our homework, if we choose not to develop a skill or a profession that is in demand, if we choose not to be a loyal and hardworking employee, then we will ultimately be called upon to live with the consequences of those choices. It’s all about choices. It’s has nothing to do with morality or immorality.
But no sooner had he spoken those incomprehensible words – words taken straight out of the chapter on Class Warfare in the Democratic playbook – than a very strange thing happened. Edwards began speaking as if his speech had been written by a Republican. He said, “It may seem like an impossible goal to end poverty, but that’s what the skeptics said about all our other challenges. If we can put a man on the moon, conquer polio, and put libraries of information on a (computer) chip, then we can end poverty for those who want to work for a better life (emphasis added).”
In just ten short words, Edwards turned his back on more than seventy years of Democratic orthodoxy. Rarely have Democrats shown concern for those who “want to work for a better life.” They can take care of themselves. All they want is for government to stay off their backs and for politicians to get out of their way. What the Democratic Party has stood for is the redistribution of wealth, the proposition that those of us who work and provide for our families have an obligation to also provide a better life for those who’ve made bad choices in their lives.
Edwards concluded by saying, “Don’t tell me Democrats don’t stand for anything. We do. We stand for work and opportunity. We know when something’s right. And we know when something’s wrong.”
“Work and opportunity?” “Right and wrong?” The crowd cheered and applauded and filed out of the auditorium. And as they made their way through the cold, snow-packed streets of Manchester they all went home thinking it was the finest Republican speech they’d ever heard.
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