"I wanna see my party get a little backbone and spine!" Edwards told the teachers who jumped to their feet in applause. "We used to be the party of big ideas. We're better than this. I wanna see a party take on the great moral issues of our time."
He delivered a veiled dig at the middling Democratic Leadership Council whose prominent adherents include Hillary Clinton and Tom Vilsack. "Incrementalism is not about leading, it's about following," Edwards said.
The great moral issues as he sees them are:
• Ending poverty within 30 years.
• Providing universal health care for every American.
• Providing free college to any student who will work 10 hours per week.
He says the funds are available if the government quits subsidizing oil companies and worldwide military forays.
"Thirty-seven million people wake up every day in America worrying about what they will eat or what they will wear," Edwards said. "They're terrified of when the next hammer will fall, about when they will go in the ditch again.
"I'm here preaching the gospel of doing something. We have to inspire this country again. We need to lift people up again."
"The world does not see your character. They don't know what you're made of," Edwards said. "Where is America, the America we all believe in? ... There is a genocide happening right now in Sudan. After Rwanda we said never again. We're better than this."
Edwards also spoke of the poverty of New Orleans exposed by Hurricane Katrina. It is a poverty not unique to cities in America, he said. He talked about economic and social segregation that keeps the poor down.
"Do we actually believe in a country where everyone is of equal worth? I believe that's what it is to be American. I believe that in my soul. When are we going to start living it?"
Tags: John Edwards, 2008
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