The upcoming announcement of John Edwards’ departure from the race for the Democratic nomination this afternoon leaves me glad that he made the run— and sorry that he won’t still be in the race to keep the frontrunners honest.
Edwards was the first to announce a comprehensive universal health care program. Now both frontrunners have detailed policies to move towards universal coverage. We can thank Edwards for forcing their hands and hope his example will continue to strengthen their proposals in his absence.
Edwards apologized for his 2002 Senate vote in support of the Iraq use of force authorization, admitting that it was a mistake to trust George W. Bush with a free hand. He was likely to use it to bamboozle the public—and did. Nowadays, Hillary Clinton sounds more and more like an opponent of the war she supported throughout its first several years. We can thank Edwards for making it easier for other candidates to do the right thing.
Edwards also addressed global warming as a central issue, proposing a “green jobs” program to begin the enormous task of changing course in the world’s most pressing issue of survival. His plan went beyond the credits and incentives which all Democratic candidates support, and while largely ignored, his proposal provided an example of how economic and environmental change can dovetail for the good of the planet and the economy.
Edwards was in front of all other candidates, possibly alone even, in making poverty an issue that didn’t go away, no matter how hard all the other candidates wanted it to. He announced his candidacy in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and will end it there today, helping to bring the plight of poor people and a desperate lack of affordable housing in America into hard focus for the mainstream media, which hardly ever spends airtime or spills ink on such stories.
Intractable inequalities in our economic system as well as continuing racial stratification in our culture sustain poverty today in the world’s richest country. Edwards makes a huge contribution to America by keeping us from denying this reality with happy talk and blather about change without substance. Let’s hope his contribution sustains some focus going forward on the economic issues that underlie America’s deepest ongoing challenges. A moral imperative exists to address these savage inequalities as we address the world outside our borders. We must right our own house before the world can trust America to effectively support democracy and inclusion abroad.
I’ll miss Edwards’ voice in the debate ahead—and hope the frontrunners do more than grapple glibly for his supporters. The remaining candidates could do worse than to embrace the issues he’s advanced in the discussion and the people he’s brought into the process.
See Memeorandum for discussion
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