Topic subject -Edwards: Reclaiming democracy not easy [great post]

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Topic subject Edwards: Reclaiming democracy not easy
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3709718#3709718
3709718, Edwards: Reclaiming democracy not easy
Posted by JohnLocke on Mon Nov-12-07 03:40 AM

Edwards: Reclaiming democracy not easy
By James Q. Lynch--(Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette
Sunday, November 11, 2007
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IOWA CITY — On Veterans Day, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards challenged Corridor audiences to fight as hard to reclaim their democracy as the men and women who served in the armed forces fought to ensure "the idea that was America."

In Iowa City and Cedar Rapids Sunday, Edwards built on ideas he laid out at the Iowa Democratic Party's Jefferson Jackson Day dinner that drew about 9,000 party enthusiasts to Des Moines Saturday night.

The great moral test of this generation, he said at fundraisers for Johnson County Supervisor Terrence Neuzil and Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek and Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, is "to ensure that our children have a better life that we have."

"Especially today, on this important day for all the men and women who wore the uniform of the United States and who met their responsibility to ensure that our children would have a better life, it is important for all of as Americans to recognize that we have to take a stance, we have to be strong, to do what generations before us have done when corruption crept into our government and stepped up and done something about it," Edwards said.

Reclaiming democracy from the "powerful, moneyed interests" that have corrupted government will be hard work, Edwards warned. It's neither just a Republican issue nor just a Democratic issue, he said.

"It's an American issue," Edwards said. "This is about whether we are going to meet the responsibility we have to our children ¿ to say we see this mess, we know it's real, we're not going to turn our back, we're not going to continue to pretend this is OK, because it is not OK.

(...)

However, the Jefferson Jackson dinner and the recent Democratic presidential candidate debate in Philadelphia have made it "clearer and clearer to caucus-goers that they have real choices in this election," Edwards told reporters. "And the choice is between a system that is broken, the status quo, and somebody like me who will fight for real and meaningful change. I think that's what they're beginning to see clearly now."

Also Sunday, Edwards unveiled an 80-page "Plan to Build One America" book laying out his policy proposals on a wide range of issues. Similar to what he did four years ago when he finished second in the Iowa caucuses, Edwards plans to deliver more than 100,000 copies of the book to Iowa caucus-goers. It also is available from the campaign Web site, www.johnedwards.com .

(...)

Edwards' policy proposals focus on four core principles: First, standing up for working and middle class families and passing universal health care; second, restoring America's moral leadership around the world and ending the war in Iraq; third, investing in a better future for our children by improving schools, making college affordable and stopping global warming; and fourth, creating opportunity for all.

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071111/IOWACAUCUS/711110032/1011/IOWACAUCUS