Dear John,
I was your supporter in 2004, and I remember you coming to Georgia with a couple of Hootie and the Blowfish band members just before you dropped out of the race with Kerry–the comet’s tail still barely burning in your inspirational candidacy. I remember how impressed I was and how moved I was when I heard you speak frankly about the history of race in the South and your participation in that history. I had never heard a candidate speak so authoritatively and so honestly about the problem and politics of the racial divide in America, and you did it in the heart of Georgia! You were the only candidate in 2004 to directly address the problem of funding schools through the property tax, and you were the only candidate to go to the South to directly challenge all of us on race. You were my candidate in 2004. You were courageous and you were honest and you were hopeful (except, sadly, on the war).
And John, you were my candidate in 2008. I was intrigued by and attracted to Obama when he entered the race, but I loved your full-throated, unabashedly progressive embrace of issues surrounding poverty in this country, and I remember frequently agreeing with TomP and others on Dailykos who were revved up about Edwards ‘08. I liked you better in ‘08 than I did in ‘04, John. I’m the husband of a breast cancer survivor (inflammatory breast cancer–the kind that took Molly Ivins), and I liked that Elizabeth kept working through difficult times, just like my wife did, and I liked the obvious love and respect you two felt for each other as you faced this difficult time together. I liked that you (and Elizabeth) didn’t hold back on policies and issues, and I didn’t like that Obama frequently steered toward the middle of debates, shunning left and right in a rhetorical move designed to please all-comers, spinning a kind of cotton-candy tulle about all of us. Still, I have to admit, I was torn between Obama’s freshness and your frankness.
After Iowa, I realized that you couldn’t make it. And though my support for Obama has been steadfast since Iowa, and though I’ve been moved by his Iowa and New Hampshire speeches, he still hasn’t impressed me with the toughness of Edwards circa ‘08. He has tread carefully at times (more like you did in ‘04 on some issues), and though I understand careful politicians, I don’t necessarily trust them fully. With every victory in his string of victories up until Ohio, I saw a candidate playing it safely and effectively, telling us he’d be unafraid to tell us what we need to hear, but mostly telling us in event after event what we wanted to hear. I liked him and I donated to his campaign, but I didn’t quite fully feel like I knew what he was made of.
But today I saw a different candidate. Today I saw a candidate who was courageous, who was honest, and who was hopeful. Today I saw a tough candidate who went even farther than you did in telling us about a history that we never want to address in this nation, with an honesty, a frankness that didn’t cloud the hope for a better future, but that did tell us that future wouldn’t come easily, wouldn't come without our hard work. Today I saw a candidate who was knocked off his message into something harder, something more honest, something more powerful than the uplifting message of change that he had been delivering.
Today I was returned to the Macon Centreplex in 2004, when I cheered you on in your effort to save the Democratic party and inspire a nation. And today I thought to myself: isn’t it time for these two remarkable people, these two men who have so much to say about our history of racism and our potential future of healing, about class and the potential for new alliances for progress–isn’t it time, finally, for these two people who have tried to wake a nation to appear on stage together?
Isn’t it time, John, for you to stand by Barack Obama and lift his hand in brotherhood and fellowship as a progressive who loves this country enough to want to change it?
It’s time, John.
Come to Pennsylvania. And change the world.
Oh, and be sure to bring Elizabeth. . . though I’ve the feeling that she’ll be leading the way North, ready for a new fight.