The insurance companies hate him, the Iraq War defense contractors hate him, the ivory tower Democratic establishment hates him. That's why I like him. 
The Democratic Establishment Can't Stand John Edwards
If we are to believe Chuck Todd, which I certainly do, I think this little moment of candor, uttered late at night after the one of the recent Democratic debates, speaks volumes about the state of the Democratic party. What kind of people "can't stand" John Edwards? The same kind of people who stood with AT&T and Verizon against the American people. The same kind of people who are benefiting from the way our corrupt Washington culture operates, and so therefore feel threatened by any upstarts coming along trying to change things.
The same kind of people who bow at the feet of radical right-winger, disciple of Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan. When Ayn Rand, whose philosophy of sociopathic individualism, and an enemy of everything Franklin D. Roosevelt stood for, infiltrates the ideological center of Democratic power in Washington, you can pretty much pronounce our party dead. And now that Alan Greenspan has revealed he can't stand Edwards too, watch the jackals howl with delight.
The fundamental issue facing our nation is as old as dirt. And it is the issue from which almost all other issues derive - monied interests versus the public interests. You can call it Wall Street vs. Main Street. And Franklin Roosevelt, a child of the monied establishment himself, became a champion of the public interests. He understood full well that the inevitable tendency of capitalism to concentrate wealth and power into the hands of the few was a threat to our democracy and our way of life. And so he fought through measures that helped reign in capital power and ensured a more equitable distribution of wealth. He demonstrated that democratic government can be an agent of common good, and exemplified our commitment, not just to ourselves, but to society as a whole.
And the jackals have been chipping away at it ever since. I think we can safely say, in the year 2007, that FDR's social compact is dead, Ayn Rand's dream of social and economic Darwinism has been made real under the auspices of the "free market", and the party of the people has been overthrown by its traditional enemies.
Big money never liked the New Deal and its interventions on business. But it wasn't until the 70s that they decided to get nasty. As Markos points out in Crashing the Gate, the infamous Powell Memo was a call to arms and inspired the launch of a massive political campaign by a coalition of business interests to influence politics and policy. But what few know is how that campaign, led by a newly formed lobby group called the Business Roundtable, resulted in one of the greatest political realignments in American history and, eventually, resulted in the rise of the Democratic Leadership Council.
It wasn't just the Powell memo. As Clawson, Neustadtl, and Weller write in their book 'Dollars and Votes - How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy':
So what did big business do? They retaliated.
Continued...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/21/15416/155/830/425311
The Democratic Establishment Can't Stand John Edwards
If we are to believe Chuck Todd, which I certainly do, I think this little moment of candor, uttered late at night after the one of the recent Democratic debates, speaks volumes about the state of the Democratic party. What kind of people "can't stand" John Edwards? The same kind of people who stood with AT&T and Verizon against the American people. The same kind of people who are benefiting from the way our corrupt Washington culture operates, and so therefore feel threatened by any upstarts coming along trying to change things.
The same kind of people who bow at the feet of radical right-winger, disciple of Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan. When Ayn Rand, whose philosophy of sociopathic individualism, and an enemy of everything Franklin D. Roosevelt stood for, infiltrates the ideological center of Democratic power in Washington, you can pretty much pronounce our party dead. And now that Alan Greenspan has revealed he can't stand Edwards too, watch the jackals howl with delight.
The fundamental issue facing our nation is as old as dirt. And it is the issue from which almost all other issues derive - monied interests versus the public interests. You can call it Wall Street vs. Main Street. And Franklin Roosevelt, a child of the monied establishment himself, became a champion of the public interests. He understood full well that the inevitable tendency of capitalism to concentrate wealth and power into the hands of the few was a threat to our democracy and our way of life. And so he fought through measures that helped reign in capital power and ensured a more equitable distribution of wealth. He demonstrated that democratic government can be an agent of common good, and exemplified our commitment, not just to ourselves, but to society as a whole.
And the jackals have been chipping away at it ever since. I think we can safely say, in the year 2007, that FDR's social compact is dead, Ayn Rand's dream of social and economic Darwinism has been made real under the auspices of the "free market", and the party of the people has been overthrown by its traditional enemies.
Big money never liked the New Deal and its interventions on business. But it wasn't until the 70s that they decided to get nasty. As Markos points out in Crashing the Gate, the infamous Powell Memo was a call to arms and inspired the launch of a massive political campaign by a coalition of business interests to influence politics and policy. But what few know is how that campaign, led by a newly formed lobby group called the Business Roundtable, resulted in one of the greatest political realignments in American history and, eventually, resulted in the rise of the Democratic Leadership Council.
It wasn't just the Powell memo. As Clawson, Neustadtl, and Weller write in their book 'Dollars and Votes - How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy':
So what did big business do? They retaliated.
Continued...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/21/15416/155/830/425311
