John Edwards - Champion Of The Disadvantaged?
By Peter and Helen Evans (07/12/04)
It was totally predictable that the announcement of John Edwards as John Kerry's running-mate should have included the accolade of his being the "champion of the disadvantaged." After all, his all-American rags-to-riches story only reached the multi-millionaire level because of his success in personal-injury lawsuits against corporate America. And there is precious little else in the man's (short) record that could appear in the credit column of a leadership tally-sheet.
We hope that the publicity of the wealth of the Kerry/Edwards team will stifle (for a while) the Left's hypocritical carping about how "the rich" are the problem with America. That all of the aspirants to the country's highest positions be wealthy, was a condition foreseen as a necessity by the Founders. To look at it another way; how inspiring would we find a candidate for national leadership if he couldn't afford to take time off work to campaign? However, it is important to note that Bush and Cheney made their money in industry, while Edwards made his by suing industry and Kerry didn't make his at all; he married it, twice. The comparison is telling.
What it tells us is that one of the very real choices facing Americans this November will be between supporting the creation of wealth, or supporting the redistribution of wealth. Bush/Cheney support its creation through reducing taxes (across the board, let it be noted) and reducing government restraints on free enterprise. Kerry/Edwards, on the other hand, support the redistribution of wealth through increased taxation on the producers of wealth (especially the most productive, let it be noted) and an increase in the minimum wage. This last sounds compassionate, at first glance, but its almost immediate effect will be a lay-off of many minimum wage earners whose services suddenly (by government fiat) cost more without suddenly being worth more. Increasing the minimum wage will also raise the employability threshold for those seeking entry-level jobs. The net result of this policy will be that a larger part of the population will become "disadvantaged." Aha! A bigger captive constituency for the likes of Kerry/Edwards to "champion."
And how will they champion this growing crop of disadvantaged Americans? Surely not by suing the employers who laid them off? After all, those hard-working entrepreneurs will already be paying higher taxes on their dwindling profits. No, that additional tax revenue (while it lasts) will be channeled into education. Kerry has stated that he would rather be known as an "education president" than as a "war president." So, the government school system, and its enormous unions, will be given yet another financial incentive to keep on doing what it's been doing. What it has been doing is trying hard to maintain its monopoly on the minds of the rising generation, while producing a lower and lower return on the investment of the American society. In a time when technology is getting better and better and cheaper and cheaper, America's government schools are becoming more and more expensive while producing a less and less educated graduate. Well, the silver lining for this particular 'dumb' cloud is, of course, a larger constituency of the institutionally "disadvantaged." However, this particular group will have been conditioned to faithfully vote for their Democrat "champions."
Kerry and Edwards want us to believe that we are all disadvantaged, that we are all victims, and that they will "fight for us." Oh, they'll fight for us, all right. They'll fight to keep us disadvantaged.
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