Speech evolved over a year (Edwards' Two Americas)

[chimpymustgo]

Edwards' standard address fleshes out 'two Americas' idea

By JOHN WAGNER, Washington Correspondent

AIKEN, S.C. --

-snip-


When Edwards started running, he talked much about his family's humble origins and other parts of his biography. The North Carolina Democrat still reminds audiences that he is the son of a millworker, but his speeches are now heavier on policy proposals that he has unveiled as the race unfolded.

He routinely touts plans to expand access to college, to help families buy homes and to forge a new global nuclear compact.

From the early days, Edwards talked about how America has, in effect, two school systems -- no longer based on race but on economic conditions.

In December, it dawned on him that that trope could be expanded to describe other disparities he sees in the tax system, health-care system and government.

The rhetoric of "two Americas" -- now the catchphrase of Edwards' campaign -- debuted in a Des Moines, Iowa, policy speech Dec. 29.

"Today, under George W. Bush, there are two Americas, not one," he told about 100 people at a community outreach center. Edwards said that Bush had produced "one America that is struggling every day to get by and another America that can buy anything it wants, including the Congress and the White House."

-snip-

http://www.newsobserver.com/edwards/coverage/story/3294103p-2940980c.html

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James Carville, having heard this stump speech, said Edwards is even better than Clinton on the stump. Article gives analysis into how the speech developed.

[mtlipsc]

1. "Two Americas" theme not original with Edwards

I hate to tell you, but Edwards undoubtedly got his "Two Americas" theme from a book, The Two Americas : Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It, by Stanley B. Greenberg.

Greenberg is a pollster who was part of Bill Clinton's victorious "war room" team. The book is fairly newly out, but it's been in the works conceptually for some time.

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312318383/002-2111262-5653656?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 for details. Looks like a good book, but not in paperback yet.

[chimpymustgo]

2. Edwards has turned that theme into a rallying cry that resonates.

I don't doubt that he is familiar with Greenberg's work. This issue is close to his heart and at the center of Edwards' campaign. He has honed the message into a potent force that will hopefully change America.

[spooky3]

5. Greenberg's use of "Two Americas" is a bit different--he refers to

Dem "loyalists" vs. Rep "loyalists" rather than 2 economic systems or the powerless vs. powerful themes.

It also reminds me of the economics institutionalists' writings (Doeringer & Piore, 1971, for example) about two different labor markets--one low wage, low benefits, competitive, no opportunity to advance, vs. internal labor markets where people get more training and advance to higher paid, powerful jobs in the firm.

[Eric J in MN]

3. Journalist Naomi Klein used the phrase in 2000

http://www.commondreams.org/views/081600-105.htm

Published on Wednesday, August 16, 2000 in the Toronto Globe & Mail

Clinton's Two Americas Came Crashing Together Outside The Democratic National Convention

by Naomi Klein


Bill Clinton's true legacy is that he was president of two Americas.

One of his Americas has enjoyed soaring profits and wages, while the other -- where one-third of the population lives and works -- has seen its standard of living stagnant. He is president of one nation that is revelling in the dot-com gold rush and of another that works in the growing number of sweatshops in New York and Los Angeles. He is president of an America that promises to deliver freedom to every country in the world, and of a country that has more people per capita behind bars than any other, including China.

It seems only fitting that on Monday, the night of his big finale, Bill Clinton's two Americas came crashing together outside the Democratic National Convention.

Steps away from the convention centre, at the very moment that Mr. Clinton was delivering his "swan song" address, a sea of LAPD riot cops began shooting rubber bullets into the backs of thousands of social justice activists leaving a legal rally.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Mark Twain also used the phrase "Two Americas"

There must be two Americas: one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive's new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land - Mark Twain


Mark Twain may be speaking about justice vs. injustice rather than rich vs. poor.