When will Democrats start advocating an agenda?
I love it when people say Democrats, or in particular my main man John Edwards, don't stand for anything, even though he's been awesome for years now. Here's what he said on poverty as part of an online chat over at DailyKos:
Unfortunately the answer is not simple. We will never eliminate poverty in America unless we do it comprehensively and nationally. This is another place for big ideas in our party -- no more incrementalism.We should start with simple things like raising the minimum wage, strengthening the earned income tax credits, and strengthening the ability of unions to organize their workplace. We should help people create assets by establishing matching savings accounts, and cracking down on predatory and payday lenders. We should radically revamp our national housing system, so that we no longer concentrate poor people in one area. We can do this by transforming HUD and creating a million new housing vouchers, to allow lower income families the ability to move into better neighborhoods. And I've already talked about College for Everyone.
Finally, we have to address the societal and cultural issues surrounding poverty -- particularly teen pregnancy and the plight of young African American men in our inner cities. Our drug laws, particularly crack vs. powder cocaine, are not fair to young African American men, and we don't have a support system (rehabilitation, counseling, retraining, etc) to help in the transition from the prison system back into society. Just building more prisons will never solve this problem. But it is also fair to expect that those we are helping will help themselves, and act responsibly.
I mean, that's our biggest domestic problem both morally and economically, and right there John Edwards has a viable plan to stop it. Edwards/Warner?
Also I think this guy is going places.