John Edwards, Where Are You Now?
    

By Hank Edson

As the number of Americans killed in President Bush’s deceitful war surpasses 4000, this shameful milestone ought to be the Democratic Party’s bully pulpit for a saner, safer, more humane government. On one hand, it ought to be a bully pulpit that speaks for itself. The leadership of the Democratic Party ought to circle the American people around it for a moment of profound and deliberative silence. On the other hand, it ought to be a bully pulpit from which the tragic aftermath of Republican rule of all three branches of government during the majority of Bush’s administration is reviewed with eloquent and angry common sense.

One thing is sure, with 4000 Americans killed by the Republican management of foreign policy, the general election should already be won by the Democratic Party. John McCain’s showing in the polls should be as low as George Bush and Dick Cheney’s approval ratings. He has been their lapdog, after all, throughout their administration. The Democratic Party should be dancing circles around a helpless McCain, giving him a thorough work-over before delivering the knock-out punch. It is March 2008 after more than seven disastrous years of Republican rule. The Democrats should be able to send Dennis Kucinich into the ring and be assured of leaving McCain unconscious on the mat.

To forget this fact for even one second is an injury to the American people. Any talk that proceeds on an assumption that the facts could be otherwise is inexcusable. We voters need to assert our independence on this score. The politicians and the talking-heads have the broadcast strength, but we must remain clear and confident in our own sober conviction that the Republican Party has lost its legitimacy, its honor, and, finally, its cover.

We, the people in the Democratic Party, are the Democratic Party and we are going to register a searing condemnation of Republican rule in the upcoming election. Our elected leaders in the Democratic Party may not have had the integrity to properly condemn such rule through impeachment, but rest assured, whoever the people of the Democratic Party nominate as their champion, he or she is going to kick some ass. I make no excuses here: eloquent and angry common sense, I said, is what this moment calls for.

John Edwards, where are you now?

Copyright © Hank Edson 2008