EENR, a New Beginning.

(Great to see this good work continue, welcome to Docudharma EENR! – promoted by buhdydharma )

(This diary/essay originally was posted on Daily Kos on February 3, 2008.  I am cross posting it here tonight because eenr 4 progress will be posted on Daily Kos and Docudharma every Sunday night from now on.  Ellinorianne cross posted her diary last night here.  Later this week, we will cross post Sarah Lane’s diary from a week ago Sunday.  Then we’ll be caught up.  

Docudharma seems to have some of the best of the Old Daily Kos, when issues used to be discussed and the term “progressive” actually had some content.  So, if buddydharma is cool with it, we’d like to come by here also every Sunday Night.  Hope you enjoy this, the first of what we hope will be years of eenr 4 progress.  TomP.)  

The Edwards Evening News Roundup debuted on April 4, 2007 and ended the night that John Edwards suspended his campaign, January 30, 2008.

Those of us who worked so hard on EENR for all those months have decided to continue on to work on the issues that John Edwards brought to this campaign: economic justice, poverty in America, addressing global warming with more than the hot air of politicians, universal healthcare, ending the phony GWOT, which John Edwards described as a “bumpersticker” and a “sledgehammer to justify the worst abuses and biggest mistakes of his [Bush’s] administration,” an end to the war in Iraq, and so many other issues.

We plan to continue this work.  Come around after the fold for more.    

“One America does the work, while another America reaps the reward,” Edwards said in a speech detailing his efforts to bolster quality of life for middle-class Americans. “One America pays the taxes, while another America gets the tax breaks.”

Edwards on economy: No ‘two Americas’, December 30, 2003

I am disturbed by how little attention the topic of economic justice has received during this campaign. I want to challenge all candidates to follow your lead, and speak up loudly and forcefully on the issue of economic justice in America.

From our conversation yesterday, I know this is personal for you. I know you know what it means to come from nothing. I know you know what it means to get the opportunities you need to build a better life. And, I know you know that injustice is alive and well in America, because millions of people will never get the same opportunities you had.

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My father was not driven by an illusory vision of a perfect society. He was driven by the certain knowledge that when people of good faith and strong principles commit to making things better, we can change hearts, we can change minds, and we can change lives.

Martin Luther King, III Praises Edwards For Leading The Fight For Economic Justice In America, January 21, 2008

Tonight is mostly an introduction to what we will be doing in eenr for progress in the next few years.  This is a long term project and we are in it for the long haul.

Three principles underlie our new project:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from the Birmingham Jail

And we do this — we do this for each other in America. We don’t turn away from a neighbor in their time of need. Because every one of us knows that what — but for the grace of God, there goes us. The American people have never stopped doing this, even when their government walked away, and walked away it has from hardworking people, and, yes, from the poor, those who live in poverty in this country.

For decades, we stopped focusing on those struggles. They didn’t register in political polls, they didn’t get us votes and so we stopped talking about it. I don’t know how it started. I don’t know when our party began to turn away from the cause of working people, from the fathers who were working three jobs literally just to pay the rent, mothers sending their kids to bed wrapped up in their clothes and in coats because they couldn’t afford to pay for heat.

Remarks Of John Edwards In New Orleans, 1/30/08

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

As in EENR, there will be a different diarist each Sunday night and that person will choose the topics for the night.  We hope to cover activist labor issues, like, for example, the Uniform Justice campaign by UNITE HERE and the Teamsters .  We will highlight campaigns by the Friends of the Earth, like the fight against the Lieberman-Warner Polluter Giveaway Bill.  Or maybe the Steelworkers Union’s campaign against UNFAIR TRADE.  We believe in a true Blue/Green Coalition for change between unions and environmentalists.  We applaud the efforts of the Blue Green Alliance between the Steelworkers and the Sierra Club.  We will continue to fight for universal heathcare.

I personally and many of us also support marriage for gays and lesbians.  Many of us agree with Elizabeth Edwards on this.

We also plan to work for progressive populist congressional candidates as hard as we did for John Edwards. Here’s one we all support: Larry Kissell.  There will be others.

This week, Paul Krugman wrote extensively about the effect John Edwards had on this campaign:

But Mr. Edwards, far more than is usual in modern politics, ran a campaign based on ideas. And even as his personal quest for the White House faltered, his ideas triumphed: both candidates left standing are, to a large extent, running on the platform Mr. Edwards built.

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He made a habit of introducing bold policy proposals – and they were met with such enthusiasm among Democrats that his rivals were more or less forced to follow suit.

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Before the Edwards plan was unveiled, advocates of universal health care had difficulty getting traction, in part because they were divided over how to get there.

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With no consensus about how to pursue health reform, and vivid memories of the failure of 1993-1994, Democratic politicians avoided the subject, treating universal care as a vague dream for the distant future.  But the Edwards plan squared the circle, giving people the choice of staying with private insurers, while also giving everyone the option of buying into government-offered, Medicare-type plans – a form of public-private competition that Mr. Edwards made clear might lead to a single-payer system over time. And he also broke the taboo against calling for tax increases to pay for reform.

Suddenly, universal health care became a possible dream for the next administration. In the months that followed, the rival campaigns moved to assure the party’s base that it was a dream they shared, by emulating the Edwards plan. And there’s little question that if the next president really does achieve major health reform, it will transform the political landscape.

Paul Krugman, The Edwards Effect

Will you stand up? (Health Care)

Senator John Edwards speaks at the DNC Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. on February 2, 2007

Remarks on Poverty, Senator John Edwards speaks at the DNC Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. on February 2, 2007

Political activist Madeleine Stowe spoke for all of us this week when she said the following:

As Edwards closed his presidential bid in the place where he began it – New Orleans’ Ninth Ward – he remained the pugilist contained in a good boy’s frame. He’s not backing down. His campaign has given voice to the voiceless, and he’ll be holding Obama and Clinton’s feet to the fire.

“John Edwards, Out but Unbowed,” by Madeleine Stowe

At eenr for Progress, we plan to hold everyone’s feet to the fire as we continue the struggle for justice in America.  I hope you will be with us every week on Sunday night.