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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Wednesday, January 02, 2008 :::
"This corporate greed is killing the middle class, killing American jobs and it is stealing your children's future," Edwards tells a rapt crowd of a couple hundred people in the lobby of a high school here.
The reason we don't have universal health coverage, according to Edwards, is "very simple" — the drug companies and insurance companies oppose it. In fact, everything is "very simple" to him. In his down-home Manichaean vision, dark corporate forces are responsible for everything he doesn't like. How dumb are Iowa Democrats? I wouldn't want to bet. Rich Lowry continues:This is a worldview that doesn't allow for legitimate differences of opinion. On the one side is "the glorification of corporate greed," and on the other are the people willing to fight it — everyone in between is either a tool or a coward. Battle lines drawn, Edwards's vision bristles with evocations of power. The people will have to wield the "sovereign power" of the country against corporations that will only "give their power away when we take their power away from them."
The traction he's been getting is a sign that Iowans weary of the lover Obama, have been drawn to the hater Edwards. They both speak in pablum, but I prefer Obama's optimistic monochotomies to Edwards's adversarial dichotomies. Besides which, I understand that Obama has more serious substance behind the campaign tripe than Edwards does.
UPDATE:"We have a fight on our hands -- not with politicians; people misunderstand me sometimes, the last thing I'm interested in is a fight with a bunch of politicians Well of course not - who could object to politicians? -- but I am talking about a fight with these moneyed, entrenched interests that are keeping you from getting the country that you deserve," he says. One wonders what to make of this. How exactly does one fight against the entrenched interests but not fight with politicians? Edwards was notorious for his absenteeism in the Senate; apparently he wasn't there enough to learn that the political process involves elected officials.
UPDATE: Replaced "unichotomies" with "monochotomies". The Greek prefix seems more appropriate than the Latin.
::: posted by Steven at 8:10 PM
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