DCFOUNTAIN.COM

Photo: Premshree Pillai

In the couple of years or so since former presidential hopeful John Edwards blew apart his long-time marriage and once-promising career with one hormone-driven swoop, any noble principle for which he stood has been long forgotten.

Yet distinct echos of Edwards’ “two Americas” refrain, which he trilled relentlessly throughout his 2008 primary campaign, surfaced this week in Robert Reich’s prescription for curing what truly ails the American economy.

Reich served in three administrations, most notably as the widely respected labor secretary to President Bill Clinton. Many of his arguments no doubt will fall on deaf ears attached to interests motivated solely by profit and power rather than those quaint American notions of “liberty and justice for all” and the “land of equal opportunity”.

Yet Reich’s arguments offer a compelling reason for hope — while also carrying an ominous warning against a yet-to-emerge demagogue seeking to take this nation even farther down the road to ruin.

The seeds of the 2012 presidential race have begun to germinate. Every American has a vested interest in seeing that only the most satiating and nutritious of those seeds ever reach harvesting stage. We can ill afford to continue our curious addiction to deregulation and privatization — the junk food of the policy-making cafeteria.

Sure, these junk policies often may taste quite good when consumed. But as the events of the past two to three years have shown on multiple fronts — from the near ruinous Great Recession to the catastrophic BP oil spill to the endless waves of recalled products, produce and prescription drugs — they ultimately cause us infinitely more harm than good. Americans should run far, far away from any office-seeker promising us more of the same.