[From the diaries by susanhu, who digs mlr701’s excellent round-up on Dean, and this quote: “Well, you don’t do it softly. No great change agent in American political history has worked softly.”]
I’ve noticed a couple of good Howard Dean articles this afternoon. It looks like some people are finally starting to understand what Howard Dean is trying to do for the Democratic Party. The first article is from Reuters, and the second is from a web site called Corante.
The Reuters article, Democratic leaders back Dean, don’t want ‘wimp’, first lays out the criticisms Dean has faced this week, both from the national media and from fellow Democrats. The author, John Whitesides, contrasts the inside the Beltway view of Dean as a loosed cannon with the opinions of Dean expressed by members of the DNC executive committee.
The contrast is stark. While Joe Biden and Barak Obama, along with other Congressional Democrats, distance themselves from Dean, executive council members embrace him. Why? Because they want an aggressive, outspoken leader. They also understand that the DNC desperately needs someone who knows how to mobilize and grow the Democratic base.
My favorite bit of the article:
Western Democrats said they were thrilled Dean attended a regional meeting in Helena, Montana, last weekend. “How many Democratic chairmen have gone out to Montana?” asked Steven Alari of California.
I wonder when Joe Biden or Barak Obama were last in Montana, working to build the Democratic base?
The second article is from a web site called Corante. The article is called A Master Politician at Work, and it’s fascinating. The author, Dana Blankenhorn, points out that Dean is doing exactly what he needs to do in order to make the minority part the majority party:
Well, you don’t do it softly. No great change agent in American political history has worked softly. They have all had enemies. They have chosen these enemies carefully. They have deliberately made themselves the victims of these enemies until events moved their way.
They have often made enemies within their own political party. A minority can only become a majority after it grows a spine and tosses aside the spineless. This is how Republicans did it 40 years ago. It’s what they did to the Rockefeller Republicans.
And it’s what Howard Dean has been doing to the Washington Democrats.
What else is Dean doing? He’s telling the truth, and it’s killing establishment Democrats. He’s winning over people on the Internet, who support him with money and publicity. Eventually, Blankenhorn predicts, Dean’s vision for the party will win:
No Democrat on Earth has Howard Dean’s political brilliance. No one else has his instincts. He’s not crazy, he’s not angry, he’s not mad. He’s giving people the truth, and those who hear it are responding.
Those who feed and depend on the current system, both Republican and Democratic – they just think it’s hell. Because when the time is right, and the inevitable contradictions between our assumptions and reality occurs, they’re all going to be thrown out of their Washington paradise.
Please read these articles, even if you don’t like Dean. They’re very interesting, and might just give you a different perspective. For those of us who do like Dean, it’s good to have a deeper understanding of what’s going on in the Democratic Party right now.
I hope everyone’s not sick of Howard Dean today!
HELL NO! AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHH! (version of scream)
Here’s more from Howie Martin’s blog (a repository of ALL things Howard):
Saturday, June 11 @ 16:01:05 PDT by howard martin (0 reads)
“Dean is an electric figure who could be one of the party’s stars – if they would let him. Instead, the Democrats remain in a state of nirvana, lacking both leadership and direction. You won’t find one Democrat not named Clinton during the past decade who has been so good at grabbing the spotlight, remaining stubbornly solid on issues and effectively criticizing Republicans. Dean, though sitting on the opposite end of the political spectrum, is better at being Bush than Bush is. But the Democrats, not known for their bravery or risk-taking in recent years, are afraid of Dean. And so long as they continue to suppress voices like Dean’s, the Democrats will remain card-carrying members of the minority party in Washington. Some of them, like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, understand this. Although she disagrees with Dean’s most recent comments, she told The Los Angeles Times he is a terrific party chairman. “That is why,” she said, “the Republicans are so relentlessly going after him.” Question is, why are the Democrats?”-from the op-ed in The Daily Telegram (MI).
Let’s hear it for Hausfrau: Action Diary for Dean Fans
I posted one of these this morning but it dropped off the page. I am glad you posted this again. I love the Corante piece.
I posted the communication that the Democratic Party of Oregon sent out about Dean in Hausfrau’s Dean Action diary, so I won’t repeat it here, although here’s a link. This gist was a lesson in how to talk about Dean–and back him up. Party folks out in the states are NOT happy about the Washington Dems reactions.
I was at the meeting in Montana. Not only did Dean show up, he did it without an entourage and carrying his own bags. He stuck around and hung out with us for a low-key barbeque and boat tour on the Missouri. He never dodges a question or fails to give a thoughtful answer.
For me, the contrast between the old Democratic Party and the new Democratic was most stark at the DNC meeting in February when we elected Dean. Prior to the meeting, there was a McAuliffe farewell party at the National Building Museum: chartered buses, fancy food, free booze, giant video screens, huge stage, glitzy clothes. After the meeting, there was a reception for Dean at the local brewpub: we rode the subway there, people wore jeans and bought their own drinks, and the hors ‘d oeuvres consisted of some veggies and dip and chicken on a stick. I’d much rather have my donations spent on building state parties than on parties for insiders.
Not only that, but Dean’s reception sounds an awful lot more fun.
They were both fun in their own way. The National Building Museum is an incredible building…and Al Franken was the host. The Capitol Brewing Company felt nice and low key after a packed weekend of meetings and other events.
One thing about being on the DNC that really surprised me was the..um..social events.
do tell!!!
Seriously, I promise I won’t breathe a word to anybody…
6^)
I agree — Dean’s party sounds MUCH more fun.
One of the things I disliked about Terry Mac was the utter disregard for rank and file Democrats. His reception is a perfect illustration of this neglect. The elections lost under his leadership are a perfect demonstration of his neglect.
…is appealing to the “base” — voters who are progressive or liberal because of values — and he’s using “anger points” to get his message out.
In other words, he is doing what Rove proved worked.
If you haven’t watched it yet, and would like to see an exceptional documentary on our politics over the past 30 years, I really recommend seeing The Architect, a Frontline doc on Karl Rove. This is no partisan piece. You got Republicans — even admirers — talking about Rove, what he thought, what he did, and how effective it was, step by step. It’s like hearing trade secrets from the directors of the board. Quite fascinating.
It’s an unshakable success story. Right now, the Rove machine’s legacy in Texas is astonishing — a totally GOP-appointed Supreme Court, to start with. The total domination of our national agenda, effective manipulation of the national media….
Where was the GOP in the ’70s? Where is it now? In the ’70s, the GOP was a minority party. Now it controls the government and claims more registered voters. Why? It’s certainly not because the party appeased the left and moved to the middle. No, they appealed to their base.
That is what Dean is doing. In my view, this achieves two things:
(1) He appeals to the core voters. He gets people fired up and involved. He gets people seeing things in clear, almost black-and-white terms, but framed his way. Rove knew this. That was his strategy in 2004. It worked. Dean noticed.
(2) He gives the more moderate politicos cover. Nobody is going to sound overly “liberal” — nobody has to — as long as Dean is out there sounding the notes, the loud and attention-getting appeals to progressive and liberal values, appeals to progressive and liberal views of the right — appeals to voters who feel disenfranched and disrespected.
The press and DLC-types can hand-wring all afternoon, but the fact is that Dean is no more extreme than Lee Atwater was. Dean is playing a role.
Now, whether his appeals will work, I guess we’ll see. But given that nobody among the Democrats in Congress is offering any vision of America that isn’t largely “Bush is wrong,” I’m glad Dean is making noice. Bush is wrong, but Dean is clearly saying there’s another way, and he’s making hints.
He has everyone’s attention now. Don’t you think the press will want to know what he says next?
Governor Dean, you have the microphone.
NEW WaPo article off my RSS feed:
“Unrepentant after a week of controversy over his inflammatory remarks, Democratic chairman Howard Dean told party leaders yesterday that casting traditionally liberal issues in moral terms is a key to breaking Republicans’ eight-year hold on the White House. …”
Dean Urges Appeal to Moral Values
IN PRAISE OF HOWARD DEAN ….Ed Kilgore says that he’s got no problem with Howard Dean:Every party chair spends a lot of time speaking to Democratic activists, and inevitably serves up a lot of red meat. Dean’s recent “controversial” remarks would…
This story, or rather set of stories, had a very interesting week of publication/broadcast, and transformation.
What started as “Dean is out of control. Says crazy things” changed to “Democratic leaders criticize Dean.”
It appears to be changing from that to “Democrats back Dean. Like that he is provocative.”
This is simplistic, I know, but the story does seem to be morphing in our favor, and most decidedly against the Beltway Democrats who truly showed the white feather this week.
Great observation! The people are speaking!
The people are speaking, and they’re being heard over the right wing noise machine. That’s part of what I think is so cool about Dean’s coverage.
BTW, thanks for adding links to other articles. Interesting reading!
From Will Lester of the AP:
Dean Renews Attacks on Republicans
It’s working–people are reading the article to read about Dean, but they see sentences like the one below. If it gets printed enough times, it’ll start to echo.
I like it when Dean throws us some red meat comments.
It makes me glad to know that someone is fighting for us.
Also fun to watch the pubbie pundits heads explode. lol