Do you have to hate “corporations” to be a progressive?

John Edwards is ratcheting up substantive criticism of Clinton, saying we should not just replace "a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of the other." Clinton has a lot more support in the business community, while Edwards is more and more crossing the Rubicon to an outright embrace of labor.

I want them all to go into every primary strong as hell, ready to accept the verdict of Democrats: which of three (or more, but there’s only so many that can go around) fantastic candidates do we most want to be our next presidential candidate? The choice among an embarrassment of riches. In that vein, I think Hillary should embrace the Edwards challenge as a bona fide issue that shows why the country needs Democrats in charge now. It is the philosophical glue that can unite Democrats of all stripes with independents who know George Bush has gotten us into a lot of messes. If I were her, here is roughly what I would say.

People can call me a “corporate Democrat” all they want, and it’s a very legitimate issue that is being raised. My candidacy has a lot of support from many in the business community. Does a Democrat have to “sell-out” ordinary Americans by being friendly with business leaders? I reject that, and I believe my record speaks for itself. I don’t think Warren Buffett or Bill Gates expect me to sell out ordinary Americans who have always been the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. They, like many responsible business leaders, recognize that a country is only as strong as its weakest links – that millions of Americans continuing to live in poverty, the threat of becoming uninsured against a health catastrophe hanging over almost every family in the country, growing inequality between the richest Americans and ordinary people, a resource-draining war and the gigantic loss of America’s standing in the world – these are all like an enormous ball-and-chain dragging down our economy and our whole society.

Being a progressive is not about being hostile to business, which, after all, is responsible for about three-quarters of the paychecks Americans receive. It’s about making sure ordinary Americans get a fair shot at dividing up the rewards. Under this Republican administration, the spotty economic growth we have had has been grabbed up almost entirely by the wealthiest Americans. That’s out of whack. The difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party is that Republicans owe their political existence almost entirely to the very wealthy. We care – we have to care -- about every American. We have to care about workers, and the environment, people who care about Social Security, and women’s rights and racial equality or we will not continue to get their support. We are the only party that can put things back into balance, and a President who wants to accomplish things for the American people will be a lot more successful with solid support from the responsible American business community.