Edwards and the “T”-word
In rolling out his campaign for nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards sounds like…well, a Democrat! It’s quite jarring to hear when one has become used to the basically right- and centrist-B.S. that passes for Democratic rhetoric in the wake of Bill Clinton. But the New York Times reports:
Appearing on “Meet the Press” on NBC on Sunday, Mr. Edwards said he would raise taxes on people making more than $200,000 a year to help pay for the [health care] plan, which he estimated could cost up to $120 billion a year.
That’s right, folks: Edwards dropped the “T”-bomb (or is it the “R-T”-bomb): he will campaign for raising taxes. And in particular, he will suggest that it might not be a bad idea to tax the wealthy at a rate a tad higher than the working class. Where’d he come up with this stuff? (Maybe he took a glance at the way the rest of the entire civilized world operates.)
Granted, it’s a bit early to know just what Edwards’ is about. But I confess to being a bit giddy that somebody would roll out their campaign in this climate and unapologetically talk about raising taxes.
What would American politics look like if the working class were no longer duped by the cloak of social conservatism worn by the bourgeoisie, and actually started to vote in their interests?
[As a teaser for you-know-who-you-are: Given that they’re still placing their eggs in the basket of statecraft, I’ll be very interested to see whether Jim Wallis & Co. have the courage to get behind Edwards’ (fairly) strident anti-poverty, anti-war campaign. Or will the rhetoric of “feasability” and “pragmatism”–and just the sheer glow of celebrity–keep them close to people like Obama and Hilary?]
