Reply #4: Edwards because [View All]

I think America is having a moment like it did in the 1890s and 1930s, and Edwards speaks best to the issues that are critical.

At both of those times in American history, conservatives tried to create a world which shifted a great deal of wealth from the middle and working class to the wealthy. At the core of every conservative policy was this stealth project to create a world which made the rich richer without having to work hard, and made the poor work harder and harder for less so the rich could take the wealth they were creating. In the 1890s the Democrats ran a candidate who didn't speak specifically to his moment in history. His populism pitted agrararian workers against the factory owners AND their employees. Because the Democratic Party didn't understand the mood of America, Republicans won and were able to, very effectively expand their project of wealth insulation and expansion.

It was a fluke that saved America. Mark Hannah allowed the wrong Republican to sit on a ticket with his Golden Boy, William McKinley. When McKinley was assassinate by an anarchist, crazy TR undermined the Republicans by pushing through anti-monopoly laws and an income tax which created a stronger economy, and spread wealth more fairly and efficiently. (This is what Clinton was talking about when he said the Democratic version of society actually creates more wealth). Well, TR's successes were only temporary, because they created even more wealth for America, which the Republicans coveted even more, so the Republicans got their act together, and got down to ripping off the middle and working class. Then came FDR, who fought hard to protect the working and middle class again.

Since FDR, America has gotten richer, and Republicans are coveting that wealth, and we're backsliding again.

In this year's crop of candidates, I see Democrats who remind me of the 1890s -- they're talking about things that are important. But they're not talking about THE important things. They don't understand the moment in history. They don't understand that this is all about the shifting of wealth to the wealthy. They don't have the right chat to gently nudge people into realizing what they're experiencing.

In this year's crop of candidates, I see one candidate who has exactly the right chat to make issues click in people's heads. It's Edwards. The trajectory of his life -- his biography -- have a coherent logic that captures exactly the reality of the American experience. And everything he proposes fits into that logic and is exactly the right thing to do to get America back on that wealth and happiness creating, wealth sharing trajectory that the two Roosevelts and JFK, Johnson and Clinton pursued.