A dream over

John Edwards dropped out of the race for the White House. The candidate, with the most compassionate policies for America, for working Americans, and for the least among us, has ended his campaign. I really feel like he is the only one willing to tell the truth about how the government has abandoned the promise, how Americans are not taking care of each other, and how our hyper-capitalism allows MILLIONS of people to slip through the cracks. Economic Justice is no different from any other right, freedom, or liberty. Here is that Sen. Edwards said that really got to me:

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We sat with poultry workers in Mississippi, janitors in Florida, nurses in California.

We listened as child after child told us about their worry about whether we would preserve the planet.

We listened to worker after worker say "the economy is tearing my family apart."

We walked the streets of Cleveland, where house after house was in foreclosure.

And we said, "We're better than this. And economic justice in America is our cause."

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How much more clear can a politician be? This is a moral cause. And he has given us the moral clarity to understand it as such. Someone else said it better. Maybe it was Sen. Obama. He said something like that the Democratic party needs to say, "No, I AM my brother's keeper." Our individualist nature as Americans is tearing this country apart. We need to have more concern for the least among us and we need an America that works for everyone, not just the wealthy or the gifted or the entrepreneurs. Isn't starting a family being an entrepreneur? We never reward them with free money to locate in our community or offer them low interest start up loans.

Every person who works 40 hours a week should have health insurance, from day one in their job. Our economic policies should restrain the crazy boom in housing prices that prevent young people from buying their first house so they can start a family. Our government should stop subsidizing ethanol just because the election season always starts in Iowa, and start subsidizing the green power industry that will create jobs all over America, not just in the corn belt. It shouldn't be easier for a business to declare bankruptcy than for a real person to do so. We should reward labor as much as we reward capital. Our American prosperity shouldn't be wasted fighting a war that didn't have to happen.

So many things to do towards economic justice, and now the most clear voice has called it quits. If the Democrats really wanted a candidate to beat McCain, they just missed the boat. All of this "oh, all three are really good candidates" business is fine and good when we think we are only going to have to beat a Giulliani or a Romney. When McCain bounced back Democrats should have stopped and thought a little harder about whether they want to make a statement and history with their nominee, or make the choice to put Democratic values and policies in place by electing a Democrat to office.

For America's sake, I hope the nominee has the brains to pick Edwards as Vice President, and that Edwards has the humility to accept.