Give Em Hope Howard!!!
Today's news is worth a pause and a look back into the political forum that I have tried to turn a shoulder on for the time being.
Today Howard Dean announced his candidacy for the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. This is the post held by Terry McAullife for the past four years. By declaring his candidacy, Dean is abandoning a run for President in 2008...even though that may have been improbable considering his exit from the 2004 race.
I am for Howard Dean. I like Howard Dean, and I respect Howard Dean. I stood up on stage and endorsed Howard Dean for President. I flipped pancakes with Howard Dean. I will support Howard in his quest to take the DNC chair.
Why? Because I am a reform Democrat. The party has strayed dangerously close to violating a number of the principles that we hold dear. The Democratic Leadership Council is driving the party further toward corporate backing and losing our sense of change. Democrats have too long focused on regional victories based on perceptions and frames that have been generate by the other side. As Howard Dean put it in his email today:
"Offering a new choice means making Democrats the party of reform -- reforming America's financial situation, reforming our electoral process, reforming health care, reforming education and putting morality back in our foreign policy. The Democratic Party will not win elections or build a lasting majority solely by changing its rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other side's positions. We must say what we mean -- and mean real change when we say it."
"But most of all, together, we have to rebuild the American community. We will never succeed by treating our nation as a collection of separate regions or separate groups. There are no red states or blues states, only American states. And we must talk to the people in all of these states as members of one community.
That word -- 'values' -- has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe. But when political calculations make us soften our opposition to bigotry, or sign on to policies that add to the burden of ordinary Americans, we have abandoned our true values."
I believe that Dean offers hope to the Democratic Party. Dean is not a left-wing liberal...he is a staunch fiscal conservative, socially progressive, rurally grounded, and able to use technology to outreach to core bases. Do not be fooled by the right wing and the picture they will paint of Dean...he scared the jeepers out of them (not with the scream) by motivating the unmotivated and speaking a powerful and compelling message when it was unpopular. Dean's opposition to the war does not make him a super liberal, it makes him intelligent.
Other candidates have promise. Simon Rosenberg is a powerful centrist who is also adept at using technology for outreach. Donnie Fowler is a Clintonista and will be the choice if Hilary is serious about a run. However, candidates such as Tim Roemer (anti-choice, pro-Bush tax cuts, conservative board member) and Martin Frost are just quick answers to what some perceive as an easy problem. Throwing a conservative or Southern Dem at the head of the party is not going to unite us, it is going to fracture us.
Let's give Dean a chance to help us take our country back.
Today Howard Dean announced his candidacy for the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. This is the post held by Terry McAullife for the past four years. By declaring his candidacy, Dean is abandoning a run for President in 2008...even though that may have been improbable considering his exit from the 2004 race.
I am for Howard Dean. I like Howard Dean, and I respect Howard Dean. I stood up on stage and endorsed Howard Dean for President. I flipped pancakes with Howard Dean. I will support Howard in his quest to take the DNC chair.
Why? Because I am a reform Democrat. The party has strayed dangerously close to violating a number of the principles that we hold dear. The Democratic Leadership Council is driving the party further toward corporate backing and losing our sense of change. Democrats have too long focused on regional victories based on perceptions and frames that have been generate by the other side. As Howard Dean put it in his email today:
"Offering a new choice means making Democrats the party of reform -- reforming America's financial situation, reforming our electoral process, reforming health care, reforming education and putting morality back in our foreign policy. The Democratic Party will not win elections or build a lasting majority solely by changing its rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other side's positions. We must say what we mean -- and mean real change when we say it."
"But most of all, together, we have to rebuild the American community. We will never succeed by treating our nation as a collection of separate regions or separate groups. There are no red states or blues states, only American states. And we must talk to the people in all of these states as members of one community.
That word -- 'values' -- has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe. But when political calculations make us soften our opposition to bigotry, or sign on to policies that add to the burden of ordinary Americans, we have abandoned our true values."
I believe that Dean offers hope to the Democratic Party. Dean is not a left-wing liberal...he is a staunch fiscal conservative, socially progressive, rurally grounded, and able to use technology to outreach to core bases. Do not be fooled by the right wing and the picture they will paint of Dean...he scared the jeepers out of them (not with the scream) by motivating the unmotivated and speaking a powerful and compelling message when it was unpopular. Dean's opposition to the war does not make him a super liberal, it makes him intelligent.
Other candidates have promise. Simon Rosenberg is a powerful centrist who is also adept at using technology for outreach. Donnie Fowler is a Clintonista and will be the choice if Hilary is serious about a run. However, candidates such as Tim Roemer (anti-choice, pro-Bush tax cuts, conservative board member) and Martin Frost are just quick answers to what some perceive as an easy problem. Throwing a conservative or Southern Dem at the head of the party is not going to unite us, it is going to fracture us.
Let's give Dean a chance to help us take our country back.
posted by GT at 7:27 PM
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