"Two Americas" hypocrisy

John Edwards, who is campaigning to be the Democratic nominee for President in 2008, has been spouting off again about his theory of "Two Americas" - the notion that one part of the country has all of the money and power, and doesn't care one whit about the other part. Here's a direct quote from him:

"You've heard me talk about the Two Americas? One for those families who have everything they need, and then one for everybody else".

Notice he talks about what people need, not what people want, or are capable of working or saving for. What exactly do people need, anyhow? Let's take a look.



Here is an aerial picture of John Edwards's new house, from the Carolina Journal Online website:

You need an aerial shot to see it, because it's located down a private winding drive and behind a bunch of trees. The Edwardses also aren't giving any tours or other information about it either, surprisingly. The house is going to be close to 29,000 square feet when finished, and is expected to be valued at around 4.2 million dollars for tax purposes this year. Does anyone "need" a house like this?

John Edwards came from a modest background (as he continually reminds people) and worked hard for his money, and he can build any kind of house he wants. Hell, I'm jealous, I wish I could have one like that as well. He will have a lot of explaining to do, however, considering he's running on a platform of bashing the rich and well-off, claiming that they don't care enough about other people, despite record giving of time, money and effort for charities. For example:

"The public response to the hurricane devastation on the Gulf Coast is about to become the biggest charitable outpouring in U.S. history, surpassing the relief effort that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.
Private donations total nearly $2.7 billion just 11 weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, according to the Red Cross and Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, which tracks charitable giving."

Yep, sounds like a bunch of real tightwads. Those people didn't just sit around waiting for the Feds to do something, either. They donated time, money, and effort without coercion of any kind, like the coercion that Edwards wants to force on you in terms of tax increases, redistribution of income, more union involvement (that'll cut down on waste, fraud and abuse) and raising of the minimum wage to be a "livable" one. (The minimum wage was never designed to be one that a family could live on. It was designed to give one a temporary starting place, so that one could acquire skills and experience, and turn these into promotions and raises.)

As if all of that weren't enough, the top item on his website is a plug for the National Day of Energy Action, and he encourages his supporters to "pledge to conserve energy in your home and life", and "fight global warming in their communities". It sure looks from that photo that they had to cut down a whole mess of trees to build that house, doesn't it? I wonder how much it's going to cost to power, heat and cool that estate, also? Looks like yet another case of "do as I say, not as I do", comparable to Barbra Streisand lecturing people about energy conservation as she cools each of her many houses to 60 degrees year-round whether she's there or not, one apparently chilled all the way down into the forties just to store her furs. (Source: New York Post, June 24, 2001.)

This man wants to use the force and power of the Federal Government to take away the money that you worked for, in order to redistribute it to others who may or may not deserve it. They know far better than you who needs charity and how much, you'd just screw it up.

I think Mr. Edwards is going to find out very quickly that the house he's going to be living in is really made of glass.