Someone suggested that I crosspost this, so that’s what I’m doing. Just some of my own thoughts on the flap regarding Howard Dean’s appearance on CBN. I’m putting them out there, and if they can be of use to anyone, or offer any insight, that’s great. But it’s been a long week, and I just can’t see spending my weekend immersed in the kind of ugliness that has been par for the course in many people’s comments about Howard lately.
I hope that what I have posted below the fold can be a useful addition to the dialog. Food for thought, anyway. If it leads to heated debate, there’s nothing I can do to stop that, but I’m not interested in playing. Think I’ll take a pass on “Getting Hit on the Head Lessons” as well. 😛
As Howie in Seattle has noted here, Howard Dean has admitted that he made a mistake when he said in an interview on CBN that the 2004 Democratic platform said that marriage is between a man and a woman. (Thanks to floridagal for providing a link to the video.) But, as Corinne commented, I’d like to see someone, anyone, travel as much as he does, give as many interviews and speeches as he does, and retain an extraordinary amount of information as he does and not screw up at some point. Enough.
Indeed. He misspoke. I shudder to think how many times I do that in a given day. And in this case, I can imagine that it seemed to Howard Dean that the Democrats wanted to be very clear about their non-support for same-sex marriage in the 2004 election, given this:
On Page 113 of his book “You Have the Power, Dean says:
“It remains to be seen, too, just how much my support for the civil unions bill will hurt my chances to reshape Democratic politics. Some pretty important Democrats have shown they think it might. When former president Clinton was trying to drum up support (for another candidate), just prior to (that candidate’s) entry into the presidential race a year ago, he called a friend in a large city and said “I need you to be for so and so.” The friend demurred. (sentence left out)
The friend told Clinton he was Dean supporter. “Howard Dean”, Clinton said “forfeited his right to run for president when he signed the civil unions bill. He can’t win.”
It was a rare mistake for the president. The supporter was gay and called us to tip us off.
Also, as I noted elsewhere, here in Ohio, I’ve seen the anti-gay crap work. Getting people riled up about the notion that “those Democrats don’t share our values–they want to bring gay marriage to our state” is such a tried and true tactic, it was even used to get people to vote against ballot/election reform amendments.
My husband, Demetrius, got robocalled before the election in which the Reform Ohio Now Amendments were on the ballot. He’s gotten calls and mailings from the Republican party ever since he voted for McCain in the primary of 2000. He was encouraged by whoever to vote against the amendments because they are backed by those homo-loving abortionists. From out of state. Something like that. Not those exact words, but that’s the effect they were going for. Booga-booga!
Here’s an example of the kind of ad that was run against the election reform amendments that were put to a vote in November of 2005.
Given that dynamic, I really can’t fault Howard Dean for debunking the Rovian meme that Democrats are the party of same-sex marriage–while in the same breath going on to say this:
“I think where we may take exception with some religious leaders is we believe in inclusion. That everybody deserves to live with dignity and respect and equal rights under the law are important.”
” I’m not saying we’ll agree with everything between the more conservative evangelicals and Democrats but I think there’s more common ground and we’re willing to work with the evangelical community.”
Finally, with all of this talk about Howard Dean doing something so nutty as reaching out to people who watch CBN, I was reminded of some of what he said when he spoke at an event in Columbus this past January….
But what we really need you to do is reach out and talk to those who didn’t vote with us the last time. People who disagree with us. Because the truth is, we have something in common with a lot of those folks. Evangelical Christians. People think they’re all Republicans–it’s not true. Because their values include making sure no child goes to bed hungry at night. A lot of Republicans are cutting school lunch programs. Their values include not leaving more debt to our children than we found ourselves. The Republicans are the largest borrow and spend thrift group I’ve ever seen. The largest deficit in the history of the country and going up. Evangelical Christians believe it is immoral to treat the earth that God gave us the way that this administration is. That’s something that we have in common.
More from that speech here.
