It will probably not be a surprise to any of you reading this blog or to those of you who saw my movie that I backed the Vermont Governor for President and am now mustering all of the resources at my command to see that Howard Dean becomes the next DNC chairperson.
There are three main reasons why I support Dean for the position:
1) Organizational Wherewithal. His was an original candidacy that stressed grassroots activity and new communications tools (i.e. the Internet, Meetups, etc) and that after his withdrawal focused on funding, nominating and electing state wide and local officials across the country.
2) Attitude. "What I'd like to know is...." Who among us can forget his address at the California Democratic Committee last year, challenging the timid party leadership in Washington to fullfill its duty and oppose the bad policies and scorched earth politics of the other party? Or his caustic response to the capture of Saddam Hussein, when the conservative party and its American media flunkies tried to snow us with the idea that the deposed Iraqi leader had been a grave threat to our country and that his capture would mean and end to the insurgency in Iraq, a critical marker for the War on Terra, and the beginning of a peaceful reconstruction in Iraq? Remember that? Dean will take the Republicans and the corporate media to task and be unapologetic in doing so.
3) Intangibles. It may be that the position of DNC chairperson is overrated, but if nothing else, he'll have official standing, and will therefore be someone the media will call on for reactions to current events, and someone who most people in the country will recognize when he's speaking for the Democratic party be it on the cable TV shoutfests or the Sunday morning snoozeathons. After so many years of weak responses from our congressional representatives, it will be encouraging to have a bold spokesman for a change.
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Just one thing, Howard. Sometimes you go out of your way to make it seem like you're a conservative on some matters like the deficit or gun control. Please don't do that. It's OK if you want balanced budgets and think states should have jurisdiction over gun rules, just don't make it seem like you think the conservative emblem is something we should be trying to attain. Conservatism is backward, authoritarian, fundamentalist, anti-Democratic, anti-freedom and anti-individual. Conservatism is not something to be desired, it is something to be opposed, and rigorously.
Good luck.
3 comments:
I'm with you 100%.
There are only three Democrats that I would classify as magical. Clinton, Dean and Obama. When you hear each of them speak, you not only say "damn, they're good", but they have this other je ne sais quoi about them.
I also agree that the term "conservative" when attached to "fiscal" is an oxymoron post-WWII. Democrats spend less than Republicans and grow government less. How does "fiscally progressive" sound?
The guys at Pandagon.net had a similar reaction to the term "fiscal conservative" yesterday. Let's just ban the word conservative unless it's attached to a negative attribute.
Here's a few phrases you can throw around this week:
"Jerry Orbach had a conservative recovery"
"The tsunami has created a conservative environment for survival"
"The Redskin's conservative scoring has kept them from winning"
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