Edwards for President

At some point we all have to make a decision. And for quite some time I have sat on the fence in the Democratic race for president. That was largely because even though I like John Edwards, I worried that he and Obama would split the anti-Hillary vote. I was looking for some indication that either Obama or Edwards would solidify their position as the alternative to Hillary. But the longer I waited the more I realized that it was fence-sitters like me who were further delaying this process.

I also believe that in making a choice to support a candidate we must look not only to issues like electability (let's face it, Rove got an inarticulate draft dodger elected twice), but to our passions and our beliefs. And only one candidate moves my emotion meter, and that is John Edwards. I feel that Edwards "gets it" more than the other major candidates. No one else speaks so passionately about poverty and the need for systemic change.

Edwards has said, "We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of the other." He has demonstrated that he understands the nature of the problems we face, and that simply electing any Democrat would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Despite his wealth, Edwards is not a part of the elite class that has steadily increased its influence on the levers of our government for the past few generations to a point where it is now so rigged in their favor as to have established a stranglehold on our society.

John Edwards gives us the best chance to reclaim our democracy from moneyed elites. We will take back our democracy from those who have profited from their influence and status, while the rest of us have been shut out. We will again have an America that all of us can proud of- where hard work is valued over soft money; where the rule of law applies to all, regardless of their connections; where we come together because of our shared humanity, rather than driven apart by petty prejudices and those who exploit them; where our Constitution and Bill of Rights are respected and not made irrelevant by stoking our irrational fears.

In short, John Edwards will return America to her core values of liberty, tolerance, equality and justice.