Consider this from the Progressive Pulse, where the author attempts to contrast Giuliani with Edwards (after accusing the former of profiteering from his leadership after 9/11):
Edwards, on the other hand, works with families who have been injured through medical negligence or defective products. He helps them navigate our judicial system as they seek due process for their injuries. True, there is significant financial reward for Edwards, but there is societal good in his role as advocate for those who are less powerful, so that they may seek justice within our legal system. After all, are we not a nation of laws?
Edwards, the ambulance chaser, benefits from a system in which medical malpractice suits pay out exorbitant sums due to simple human error. Edwards benefitted directly from racking up massive jury sums. "You can’t put a value on human life" liberals are fond of saying, but Edwards tried to do so asymptotically by adding as many zeros as possible to these awards, then taking his cut. Many of these cases are tried before a jury of our "peers" — people who no more understand the minutiae of medicine than how these astronomical awards affect the price of healthcare for the rest of us, and drive competent professionals out of areas like ob/gyn.
The John Edwards of the world don’t care about people, they care about money and power. Edwards, for example, benefitted from convincing ignorant juries that bad outcomes for babies = negligence on the part of physicians. (This has got to stop.) Could Edward’s own soak-the-rich populism be an outgrowth of his own self-loathing? Maybe he’s a true believer in socialism. But he, like Marx, probably feels guilty about his affluence… particularly when gotten by duping jurors with pity parties, blaming doctors, and accusing good companies of everything under the sun. I’ve no doubt Edwards tried some good, just cases. But let’s not conflate lawyers with the rule of law. And let’s not try to paint Edwards as anything more than a populist ambulance chaser. For that is what he is.
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