John Edwards and moral leadership

Former Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate Edwards has taken on the cause that many of us thought would be front-and-center after Hurricane Katrina: systemic poverty. He's currently on a poverty awareness tour of colleges that stops at Darmouth College in Hanover NH today. It's in conjunction with group called "Opportunity Rocks", and the Center for Promise and Opportunity.

Unfortunately, because of work commitments, I came to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government courtyard about halfway into his speech. There were a few hundred people there, I would guess. (A well-dressed and alert-looking fellow stopped me and asked, "Who's that speaking?" Now... I didn't want to be a jerk, but I might have gaped a bit: What do you have to do to get famous around here? Is running for Vice-President on a major ticket not enough? No, I didn't say that.)

With his typical clarity, Edwards exhorted the crowd, especially the students, to take moral leadership of the issue of poverty. He quoted an unnamed DC labor leader: "The people we've been waiting for ... are us." Edwards sees the grassroots as the place where movements -- that's his term -- are born, and that the populace at large cannot wait for elected officials to act; elected "leaders" must be made to follow a popular engagement.

So, when people are sensitized to human suffering and motivated to act, what are the next steps? That was on my mind going into the interview.

David asked first about the sense of national community that Edwards appeals to. Edwards saw that sense when John F. Kennedy was president, but feels it's been missing for a long time. Hurricane Katrina was a signal moment in creating a sense of community again: "These people are part of our country!"

David then asked, Why do you want to talk to bloggers? Sen. Edwards, it turns out, is a big blog fan.  His One America Committee has its own, along with a videoblog, podcasts, the whole bit. He likes the real, immediate and unfiltered communication through blogs.

I asked, What is the best way to get elected officials to notice the issue and act? Edwards is concerned with helping create a political movement against poverty. Currently elected officials don't see it in their own interests to do anything. "You are the people to do it," he said.

But concretely, what does that mean? What's the "funnel", by which I mean, where does all the action and organizing and publicizing lead? Is it Letters to the Editor? Direct political action? Edwards hopes that blogs, reflecting citizen-level energy and enthusiasm, can help achieve a tipping point in which the mainstream media eventually picks up an issue and forces government officials to act.

That's an interesting, non-partisan strategy, for which I have a lot of sympathy: For all that we choose officials based on their ideology or temperament, they are all subject  to circumstances and Zeitgeists beyond their control. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act; Clinton signed welfare reform; Reagan signed COBRA; George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act. Why? They pretty much had to.

I asked Edwards about the fact that many young people are drawn to volunteerism, but political involvement is low; people will volunteer in a soup kitchen but not question why people need a soup kitchen. Can these folks be engaged? Edwards feels that young people haven't lost their idealism, but that no one in the political arena has asked them to act. But any movement addressing systemic poverty must reflect their integrity. This is really the nutshell of Edwards' challenge to his young audience, and all of us: Do It Yourself.

(To date David and I have no idea how Sen. Edwards' folks, or the KSG organizers, or whoever, got our names in particular, but we were grateful to have the opportunity to talk with him.)

(By the way, see also Taegan Goddard's three questions for John Edwards.)