Edwards' Lost Message
Why didn't John Edwards' "Two Americas" resonate as he thought it would? Could it be that our values are so twisted from the moral contortions of the Bush administration that we continue to scorn the poor? How Darwinian it is. The least among us no longer garner our sympathy; instead they bear our contempt.
I have never overheard a conversation about the contempt felt for the wealthy CEO whose salary is $30 million annually; but I have heard over and over again the welfare Cadillac-owner story first generated by Ronald Reagan to sew the seeds of class contempt that would become the hallmark of his administration. People no longer needed assistance; they needed only bootstraps and the will to pull themselves up out of their apparently self-inflicted plight. People WANTED to believe the welfare Queen story. They wanted reality blurred. Poverty was a fault that poor people simply did not take the initiative to correct. The victim became the perpetrator. After circulating this meme for decades, our society is now so firmly striated that it is easier to move up in India's Hindu caste system than it is for an American born into poverty to escape to a higher class. Our tax system, our judicial system, our education system; all are geared to keeping each person in their economic class. The poor stay poor and the dying middle class will take their dreams of wealth with them to their graves along with their class.
Before Ronald Reagan, the homeless class did not exist in this country. Before Ronald Reagan, there were no “bag ladies” or veterans sleeping in Oleander bushes, constructing cardboard shelters. Before Ronald Reagan, a person working one job could raise a family, buy a car, own a house. Before Ronald Reagan’s “reforms” there was a burgeoning middle class. Then the “reforms” began. The interest paid on credit card debt was no longer tax deductible. There was no enforcement of the usury laws that should prevented credit card companies from trapping people in a never-ending cycle of debt with ever-increasing interest rates. People were “freed” from mental institutions across the nation, freed to wander the streets and sleep under bushes. The final economic “reform” that created the impassable fissure that is the two Americas, occurred on George W. Bush’s watch. Before Bush, bankruptcy gave people a second chance, especially those whose debt was incurred by loss of employment or medical expenses. But Bush’s bankruptcy law cleverly titled the opposite of what it really is (The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005) ensured that credit card companies would never be abused and no consumer could ever escape debt. All that is missing now is a “Feed Poor Americans Act” that would incarcerate all those who can no longer pay their ever-increasing credit card debts. Corporate America would no longer have to move their factories overseas with the wealth of free labor provided by a “Debtors’ Prison”.
Edwards is aware of the Two Americas and what that portends for this nation, this ailing democracy. He wanted those of us on the other side of that economic chasm to unite behind him and support his crusade to champion the middle and lower classes. The problem is that Edwards’ message was never heard. A carefully controlled media ensured that he received minimal, if any, coverage, regardless of primary results. How many Americans are aware that Edwards earned more delegates in the Iowa primary than Clinton? Headlines should have read “Obama and Edwards Take Iowa”. Instead, they read “Obama Beats Clinton” with no mention of Edwards. The second place showing that should have propelled Edwards as a viable contender was concealed. The media succeeded in manipulating the voters into believing there were only two candidates, Obama and Clinton. Edwards’ message, the message of the two Americas, was successfully stifled. The democratic candidates were media-propagated and media-propelled. And the media is controlled by that other America, the one way over there on the other side of that impassible, cavernous ravine.
I have never overheard a conversation about the contempt felt for the wealthy CEO whose salary is $30 million annually; but I have heard over and over again the welfare Cadillac-owner story first generated by Ronald Reagan to sew the seeds of class contempt that would become the hallmark of his administration. People no longer needed assistance; they needed only bootstraps and the will to pull themselves up out of their apparently self-inflicted plight. People WANTED to believe the welfare Queen story. They wanted reality blurred. Poverty was a fault that poor people simply did not take the initiative to correct. The victim became the perpetrator. After circulating this meme for decades, our society is now so firmly striated that it is easier to move up in India's Hindu caste system than it is for an American born into poverty to escape to a higher class. Our tax system, our judicial system, our education system; all are geared to keeping each person in their economic class. The poor stay poor and the dying middle class will take their dreams of wealth with them to their graves along with their class.
Before Ronald Reagan, the homeless class did not exist in this country. Before Ronald Reagan, there were no “bag ladies” or veterans sleeping in Oleander bushes, constructing cardboard shelters. Before Ronald Reagan, a person working one job could raise a family, buy a car, own a house. Before Ronald Reagan’s “reforms” there was a burgeoning middle class. Then the “reforms” began. The interest paid on credit card debt was no longer tax deductible. There was no enforcement of the usury laws that should prevented credit card companies from trapping people in a never-ending cycle of debt with ever-increasing interest rates. People were “freed” from mental institutions across the nation, freed to wander the streets and sleep under bushes. The final economic “reform” that created the impassable fissure that is the two Americas, occurred on George W. Bush’s watch. Before Bush, bankruptcy gave people a second chance, especially those whose debt was incurred by loss of employment or medical expenses. But Bush’s bankruptcy law cleverly titled the opposite of what it really is (The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005) ensured that credit card companies would never be abused and no consumer could ever escape debt. All that is missing now is a “Feed Poor Americans Act” that would incarcerate all those who can no longer pay their ever-increasing credit card debts. Corporate America would no longer have to move their factories overseas with the wealth of free labor provided by a “Debtors’ Prison”.
Edwards is aware of the Two Americas and what that portends for this nation, this ailing democracy. He wanted those of us on the other side of that economic chasm to unite behind him and support his crusade to champion the middle and lower classes. The problem is that Edwards’ message was never heard. A carefully controlled media ensured that he received minimal, if any, coverage, regardless of primary results. How many Americans are aware that Edwards earned more delegates in the Iowa primary than Clinton? Headlines should have read “Obama and Edwards Take Iowa”. Instead, they read “Obama Beats Clinton” with no mention of Edwards. The second place showing that should have propelled Edwards as a viable contender was concealed. The media succeeded in manipulating the voters into believing there were only two candidates, Obama and Clinton. Edwards’ message, the message of the two Americas, was successfully stifled. The democratic candidates were media-propagated and media-propelled. And the media is controlled by that other America, the one way over there on the other side of that impassible, cavernous ravine.
posted by AlwaysaTruthseeker | 11:55 AM
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