What is left for a disappointed Edwards’ Supporter to do? Many of us feel we are left with two very disappointing remaining choices for president, for various reasons. But many of us are also left with the feeling that we must hope and pray that one of these remaining choices wins in November, because the alternative is sheer, continued, disaster for our country - "100 years of War".
Well, one way is to follow the lead of the Edwards this week and start focusing on the down line, and through educating the public about the very nature of the problems they face.
There were five obstacles to the substance of Edwards’ message - of peace and economic justice and leveling of the playing field for average Americans - from being heard during his campaign: Media obstinance, stonewalling, indifference and rejection; Campaign Finance Law; Antiquated, unstandardized and downright arcane election law and procedures; a rusty and intransigent Democratic Party establishment; and a dumbed down - purposefully or otherwise - electorate.
The latter obstacle to ultimately winning campaigns, i.e., the poorly civically educated citizenry, appears to be the obstacle that the Edwards are going to focus on first, and notice: they are doing it for the down line, for senatorial and congressional candidates. The Iraq Campaign 2008 initiative for which they have joined hands is a brilliant initiative to raise public awareness of the connection between the war and their everyday concerns around economic realities and connecting it to Democratic candidates campaigns for the Senate and House of representatives. So educating the public is crucial to winning votes. (Remember Ross Perot, he did a pretty good job of public education and a lot of people actually came to his "classroom" to learn.)
Looks like some Democrats in the Senate are getting some backbone finally to try to make this connection as well, notably Russ Feingold with his bills and Schumer’s hearing tomorrow on the cost of the war.
So, Edwards Democrats, we can once again take the Edwards’ lead and focus on a smart approach to winning over the electorate through education.
Let’s face it, we have to hope that either Obama or Clinton does win in the Fall, and that is not a foregone conclusion that they will. But because many of us believe that they are both flawed and, in their own ways, not strong enough or willing to withstand conservative pressures, we must work to shore up the branch of government that can keep either one of them in the White House from veering off too far or to be more generous to them, to strengthen their hand when in office. If McCain should win, there will be all the more need to have the strongest counter-force, in Congress possible - veto proof, ideally. (This is just tough work, isn’t it! and it never ends!)
The current election year dance of the electorate is an amazing one to behold: on the one hand, the nearly mesmerized attraction to Obama and, on the other hand, the strength in the polls that show an attraction to McCain based on fear and perhaps even terror of terrorists, whipped up or otherwise. One group of dancers are carefree followers who love the messenger (without being too knowledgeable about the content of the message itself) and the other are terrorized and traumatized followers who look to authority and force to allay their fears. And sometimes the same dancers go between these seemingly magnetic forces, revealing something of the traumatized state of the public, still a remnant of 9/11.
But, here, too, public education could help a lot, to bring reason to bear on this whole process. What is strange is how the Democratic Party has not utilized its own resources to bring reason to bear on the problem at hand: Sen. Jack Reed and Sen. Jim Webb, with their military experience and knowledge, yet progressive backgrounds, could have been masterful in educating the public about how to stay strong and progressive at the same time. But apparently, Senator Harry Reid, never saw the opportunity there. With VoteVets part of the Iraq Campaign 2008 initiative announced this Monday in conference call with the Edwards, MoveOn.org, the Service Employees International Union, the Center for American Progress and VoteVets.org, perhaps the combination of reasoned military knowledge and progressive vision can finally be combined for the benefit of the electorates’ greater understanding of how we can resume a truly progressive way of public life for a better future.
The Edwards will have truly advanced this country with their participation in this initiative, and so can we. So let’s stay tuned for the Iraq Initiative 2008. Edwards Democrats can go somewhere - with this intitiative.
P.s. While we are on the subject of public education of the citizenry, don’t you think it is time for us to return to Debate formats moderated by the League of Women Voters, where real issues can be discussed, and we can get away from the debates presented to the public as entertainment.