Last Christmas, when we were all sitting around chatting about the upcoming election over some Yultide dessert, my mother, a fairly reliable progressive Democrat, said that, while she was a Hilary girl who found herself falling head over heels for Obama, under no circumstances whatsoever would she vote for John Edwards.
I was shocked.
That's when several of my cousins also nodded in agreement.
"Why?" I asked my family. "Why not Edwards?"
The response?
"There's just something about him. He just seems shifty".
I couldn't see it. I'd been a fan of Edwards from back in '04 - he was actually my choice before I became a Deaniac. He seemed to be the guy who'd be forceful in his defense of progressive beliefs and values, almost to the point of recklessness. No one could deny how passionate he was. Surely no one could doubt that, given the chance, he'd be a good advocate for that other America he kept talking about.
No, let's be honest.
I didn't WANT to see it.
Not even subconsciously.
This election has been a real education as to how so many negative traits aren't just inherent in members of a given party.
Because a man who'll do anything for a given cause, no matter how noble it may be, is, by definition, a man who cannot be trusted. And it's just as true of John Edwards as it is about George W. Bush.
