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10 Reasons to Vote for Edwards by david mizner, Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 03:55:46 PM EST
Supporters of John Edwards--and those people thinking of becoming supporters--might be wondering why they should the candidate deemed doomed by the MSM. Here's why.By Voting for Edwards, you...
Reward and advance progressivism.We can argue about candidates' voting records and try to gauge their instincts, but there's no question that Edwards has run the most progressive campaign. The proof is plentiful. He's embraced unions, the blogosphere, and the progressive movement as a whole. The stated and demonstrated rationale is to fight economic injustice; rhetorically and substantively, he's run the most populist presidential campaign in years. On every major issue--taxes, climate change, health care, foreign policy, trade, you name it--he's embraced policies more progressive than his rivals. He alone rejects nuclear power and the Global War on Terror frame. He alone opposes expanding the NAFTA model to South America. He alone has called on the Democratic Party to do what he's done his entire career: say no to K-Street cash. The better a progressive campaign does, the stronger progressivism becomes. To vote for Edwards is to increase the chance that progressivism becomes dominant in the party and the country.
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Reject the self-fulfilling nominating system driven by polls, pundits, and money.There's something disturbing, Orwellian, and tautological about the notion that Edwards can't win because pundits say he can't win. A relative few have voted. Until someone wins anyone can win. Do you want to uphold such an regressive system that effectively lets the media and the establishment choose our choices. Do you want to be another brick in the wall or part of the bulldozer the knocks the wall down? Over at Daily Kos, Bruce McF has been doing a great job making the philosophical and political case for supporting Edwards. Our current system of picking out leaders is self-fulfilling, but so is populism.
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Piss off the establishment.Pundits and the party power structure want Edwards to go away, not least because he's John Edwards. You have a great chance to piss them off; what else, really, do you need to know?
Do something good for your soul.If you take to his message of economic justice and enlightened populism, maybe you should say so with a vote. Maybe if you're inclined to support him you should vote for him precisely because you're inclined to do so.
Maybe there's something healthy and soul-enriching about voting for the candidate you like the most. Maybe it's better, cleaner, to vote affirmatively rather than strategically. Come Up with Your Own Reason (I ran out of time but didn't want to change the title)
more at:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/1/29/155546/479
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