Chairman Dean
February 11, 2005
All signs point to my preferred presidential candidate (that’d be Howard Dean) taking the chairmanship of the Democratic party — which, as near as I can tell, is pretty revolutionary. Unfortunately, a lot of the commentary runs something like this:
“Little has been learned?” That makes it sound like business as usual in the Democratic party — and makes Dean sound like another John Kerry or Terry McAuliffe. Neither of whom are, incidentally, known for being bare-knuckled political fighters. In fact, they’re better known for caving under political pressure. From the opposing party.
For awhile now I’ve felt the Democratic Leadership has been loathe to admit they have to deal with the rest of us. They want us to give money, sure — but then they seem to want us the hell out of the way. They certainly can’t win any grass-roots organizing awards; they keep trying to create cults of no-personality.
No, putting Dean in the charman’s seat says to me that the Democratic party has learned quite a lot. It might not be the lesson a lot of Republicans would like (Move Right!) or the lesson a lot of conservative Joe Lieberman Democrats would like (Move Right!), but I think it’s clearly a new direction for a party that’s been trying to find a direction for almost a decade.
Posted in Politics
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February 15th, 2005 at 9:48 am
AMEN brother!
I finally have some hope for the Democratic party now!!
In 2003, while doing my part to get active in my local Dean candidacy campaign, I refused to give money to the DNC and McAuliffe. To me, they were all the reasons for NOT wanting to be a Democrat. The DNC was fighting tooth and nail to get rid of Dean!!
Thus, this is why this turnaround in the DNC is so heartening. I truly believe the Democratic party will be a much better party with Dean at the helm.
February 16th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
You took the words out of my mouth regarding that commentary, the party’s interaction with members and their method of handling opposition.
What worries me, though, was the content of Dean’s speech when I saw him last year (just after the election). I had hoped to hear him talk about grass-roots politics and influencing the overall party direction, but he ended up spending most of the speech talking about how horrible the “bad guys” (Republicans) were, with little mention of the ways he differentiated himself from the Democratic party or how to fix the party’s internal problems.
Here’s hoping he doesn’t just become another cog in the machine.
February 16th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
I think the info you’re looking for there is here: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/