"Like a beacon, America can once again provide a clear light for the world dissolving the fog of injustice, illuminating the path to a new century. We need a strong military for a new century, and we need one based on hope, not fear. As Robert F. Kennedy once wrote, 'Our answer is the world's hope.' Our answer is the world’s hope. We will need imagination and courage to imagine great possibilities, to create a world where terrorism belongs to the past. We must, at the same time, rely on our heritage: a time when we were admired by the world, where we shared, with generosity and good faith, our ideals of truth, justice, and equality. Building One America will take strong, bold steps, not incremental steps and half measures.” Edwards has proposed detailed plans to put Washington back on the side of regular families.
In John Edwards’s campaign, his ultimate proposal detailed “plans to put Washington back on the side of regular families.” As elaborate as that sounds, I really don’t understand Edwards’s use of imagery on the statement. It simply sounds like a lot of fluff that is supposed to sound important and motivational. John Edwards uses cliché metaphors to describe a safer America. "Like a beacon, America can once again provide a clear light for the world dissolving the fog of injustice, illuminating the path to a new century. We need a strong military for a new century, and we need one based on hope, not fear.” He even quotes former President Robert Kennedy saying, “Our answer is the world's hope.” He uses the metaphor to provide a mental image and alludes to a beloved President for emotional appeal. Edwards view on our current military is “weak from the Bush years “and needs rebuilding. His primary goals for national security is to build a strong military that can quickly respond to those who wish to do us harm, ensure that the problems of weak and failing states do not create dangers for the United States and maintain our strategic advantage against major competitor states that could do us harm and otherwise threaten our interests.” As President he does the “heroic” action to pull the troops out of Iraq and bring our soldiers home and start focusing on “protecting Americans from 21st century threats.” He makes blatant references to our current President saying, “We need to recognize that we have far more powerful weapons available to us than just bombs, and we need to bring them to bear. We need to reengage the world with the full weight of our moral leadership." He suggests a new “pathway to provide a clear light” but lacks to actual state what his plan is, and brings me to question, “What weapon is more powerful than a bomb that can eliminate our enemies?” (As he did say, “we need to recognize there are more powerful weapons than just bombs.)” Referencing Bush again, he says, “What we need is not more slogans but a comprehensive strategy to deal with the complex challenge of both delivering justice and being just. Not hard power. Not soft power. Smart power." Ironically, that statement alone could be campaigned as a slogan. Again, Edwards tries to make an impact with his words, but fails. “Smart power” does not inspire or deliver a strong influence to his campaign.
In John Edwards’s campaign, his ultimate proposal detailed “plans to put Washington back on the side of regular families.” As elaborate as that sounds, I really don’t understand Edwards’s use of imagery on the statement. It simply sounds like a lot of fluff that is supposed to sound important and motivational. John Edwards uses cliché metaphors to describe a safer America. "Like a beacon, America can once again provide a clear light for the world dissolving the fog of injustice, illuminating the path to a new century. We need a strong military for a new century, and we need one based on hope, not fear.” He even quotes former President Robert Kennedy saying, “Our answer is the world's hope.” He uses the metaphor to provide a mental image and alludes to a beloved President for emotional appeal. Edwards view on our current military is “weak from the Bush years “and needs rebuilding. His primary goals for national security is to build a strong military that can quickly respond to those who wish to do us harm, ensure that the problems of weak and failing states do not create dangers for the United States and maintain our strategic advantage against major competitor states that could do us harm and otherwise threaten our interests.” As President he does the “heroic” action to pull the troops out of Iraq and bring our soldiers home and start focusing on “protecting Americans from 21st century threats.” He makes blatant references to our current President saying, “We need to recognize that we have far more powerful weapons available to us than just bombs, and we need to bring them to bear. We need to reengage the world with the full weight of our moral leadership." He suggests a new “pathway to provide a clear light” but lacks to actual state what his plan is, and brings me to question, “What weapon is more powerful than a bomb that can eliminate our enemies?” (As he did say, “we need to recognize there are more powerful weapons than just bombs.)” Referencing Bush again, he says, “What we need is not more slogans but a comprehensive strategy to deal with the complex challenge of both delivering justice and being just. Not hard power. Not soft power. Smart power." Ironically, that statement alone could be campaigned as a slogan. Again, Edwards tries to make an impact with his words, but fails. “Smart power” does not inspire or deliver a strong influence to his campaign.
Edwards’ issues his new proposal for national security in his campaign along with his views on national emergencies. “The administration may think domestic defense is about changing the color code from yellow to orange. Let me tell you something: the colors that will make America safer are firefighter red, EMT white, and police officer blue." Edwards’s love of corny metaphors continues on his views of homeland security. Edwards hopes to tighten the National Guard to quickly respond to situations, as America had to face with Hurricane Katrina. He plans to hire more National Guards than simply rely on volunteers. Besides the National Guard, he plans to tighten, strengthen and regulate safety on our police force, first responders and fire fighters, because,” If we don’t take care of them, they won’t be able to take care of us.” Because of events like 9/11 and Katrina he plans out a system for “domestic readiness”. He plans to create a new warning systems, throwing out the color flags, which “cause confusion”, and adopt information via modern nifty gadgets (our Sidekicks, RAZRS, Blackberries, laptops, and the occasional few, pagers). Edwards’s primary goal is for a “safe and free” America”. He says no to surveillance of Americans’ phone calls and emails without a warrant, wishes to close Guantanamo Bay, a military prison holding people accused by the United States government of being terrorist operatives, restore habeas corpus, and says no to torture. What more can you ask for?
Along with emergency efficiency, Edwards believes that, “ensuring national security requires more than the exercise of raw power. Fighting global warming will also protect our security interests.” “If unchecked, global warming could lead to civil strife, genocide, and increased terrorism. Solving global poverty is a moral imperative, but it is also a security issue -- global poverty increases the risk to America by providing a safe harbor for instability, extremism, and terrorism.” Edwards is a little melodramatic about the whole war, terrorism, genocide strife bit, but he gets the point. He alludes to the problem on disappearing natural resources of water around the world, and the military crisis of threats over the shared resources. He ends with an equally dramatic statement saying, “Living up to our American ideals by protecting basic freedoms will help us avoid actions that give terrorists or even other nations an excuse to abandon international law.” The statement is dramatic because it’s a far stretch how global warming is tied to our freedoms, but uses this to add a somewhat serious tone to his speech. In the end, Edwards addresses key issues of America’s defense with an outline plan to build a more defined military, double the budget for recruiting, invest in military equipment, create a larger Marshall Corps, provide additional education for our troops, modernize our forces, create a new national emergency system, and protect our workers. His issues are relevant to our needs, but he goes about addressing them in a manner that is almost too painstakingly corny to take serious. Ultimately though, we will never know how America could be with John Edwards. “Democrat John Edwards looks down at his notes as he announces his withdrawal from the presidential race in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, La., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008.”
( I thought he kind of looked like Jason Bateman. Sorry it's pixel-y, but I was too lazy to reformat it)
References:
"Strengthening Domestic Defense." John Edwards for President (2008) 07, Febuary, 2008 <http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/homeland-security/>.
"A Strong Military for a New Century." John Edwards for President (2008) 07, Febuary, 2008 <http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/homeland-security/>.
ABCNEWS, "Edwards: 'It's Time For Me To Step Aside'." Edwards: 'It's Time For Me To Step Aside' (2008) 07, Febuary, 2008 <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4215091&page=1>.
Mdang per3
Mdang per3
No comments:
Post a Comment