Is Howard Dean's Raised Voice Raising Cash?

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Warham
Why didn't Terry McAwful go the same route?

Because as somebody astutely put it on NPR this week, McAULIFFE was a political operative, whereas DEAN is a politician. Each has it's advantages, each has it's drawbacks. But DEAN will start to pipe down a bit...

[FORD]

from Moore's Lore by Dana Blankenhorn
June 10, 2005
A Master Politician at Work

Transformative politics is not for sissies.

If you’re to really change political trends, and put bottom rail on top for a generation, you can’t be gentle about it.

You can’t cajole. You can’t seduce. You have to go right for the throat. And you have to be ready for the whole of the old order to come down on you for it.

So let’s be clear about this right now. Love him or hate him, Howard Dean is a master politician.

He’s not really a liberal, you know. He’s what used to be called a Rockefeller Republican, back in the day. He believes that budgets should be balanced, that alliances should be negotiated, that science should be respected, and that it’s possible for government to make life better for people if it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

He made it work in Vermont. He ran to the right of other Democrats there. He balanced budgets. He dealt amicably with Republicans. For his pains he was often called a sell-out by environmentalists, by the state’s left, even by its gay community.

He’s still the same man, but today Rockefeller Republicanism is called extreme liberalism. He’s only on the left because the center has shifted radically to the right. Our assumptions today are far to the right of those our parents held. Most people today believe government is their enemy. Most people are skeptical about science. Most people don’t care about budgets. This is reflected in their choices right down the line, from President to school board.

So how do you effect change?

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.

He ran against them in the primaries. They defeated his bid, but they wanted his people, so they gave him the party apparatus.

And he’s running with it. Saying that many Republicans “never worked a day” or that the GOP is a “white Christian party” isn’t a gaffe. It’s red meat to the netroots. And the first step toward change is always energizing your base. This is precisely what the “conservative movement” did in the 1960s. They energized and organized their base voters. They got them enrolled in like-minded organizations. They kept calling them victims of a great conspiracy. They got into their checkbooks (via direct mail in this case), and where their money went their hearts and minds soon followed.

Getting criticized by the party elders is actually part of the process. The leaders of the permanent minority are always doomed to become followers of the new majority. Howard Dean isn’t interested in leading a bunch of losers. He’s interested in political transformation.

Transformation, however, is a slow process, even in the Internet Age. We’re talking about people here. We’re talking about what I call Moore’s Law of Training, because it doesn’t exist. The productivity gains of the Internet explosion that came about in the 1990s didn’t really become apparent until the following decade, after people and businesses felt forced to learn, and to implement change.

What’s true in tech is true in politics.

My criticism of Dean has little to do with what he says. I’m more worried about the fact that the technology at his headquarters doesn’t properly scale. The Democratic Party is not yet a two-way discussion. It’s still too much talk goes down and money comes up. The discussion happens elsewhere, in the blogosphere, and the party’s presence within that discussion – even Dean’s presence – is surprisingly muted.

There are legal reasons for this. Anything the party does must be paid for, full price, and a scaled political discussion encompassing 100 million would cost Dean’s entire marketing budget. So this discussion takes place elsewhere, at Dailykos, at the Huffington Post, at TPM, at Eschaton, at Liberal Osis, at 1,000 other “points of light” where Democrats gather around small virtual campfires to feel their shared victimhood and plot their political revenge.

And at the end of the day, those bloggers put up their links to Dig Deep for Howard and people respond.

The bloggers pay the bills. The bloggers flog the netroots. The netroots respond with money. And it is good. Just as Richard Viguerie was good for Ronald Reagan, so Markos Moulitsas is very, very good for Howard Dean.

Harry Truman famously said, in response to calls that he “Give ‘em Hell,” that “I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” It brought him victory in an election Truman had no business winning, in 1948, an election that really kept Democrats dominant for 20 years, despite the rise of suburbia, and made possible both the Warren Court and the Civil Rights movement.

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.

Who will replace them? Those who hang on tightest to Howard Dean’s coattails will replace them.

link

[Sarge's Little Helper]

Fuck the DLC!

[academic punk]

Reagrding that article, I think it is best to do it - affect change - softly. People are more willing to go along if they feel like part of the team than if you treat them like children.

Studies prove people retain knowledge better if you let someone at least THINK they thought through and solved "problems" (and that can be complex math to learning to tie your own shoes) themselves.

One of Kerry's detractions was that he came across as "elitist". Bush somehow manages to convey that he's a Washington outsider (after having access to the white house from 1980 though 1992), regular guy (he's an inheritor of generations of MILLIONS of dollars), and someone you'd like to have a beer with (Bush don't drink).

Dean is still coming across - the PERCEPTION is - as someone who is talking (and, for some, thats putting it lightly) TO rather than WITH people.

I want to hear him and his message. Whetehr it's being bogged down with HOW it's being communicated is another question.

[academic punk]

Scouring through through some letters in various publications, found these:

To the Editor:

Re: "Dean's Remarks Draw Fire From Both Sides of the Aisle":

Unfortunately, the derogatory remarks by Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic party, about republicans have distracted attention from more serious issues facing this country. I believe he will get back on track and stay on message.

Democrats, and Democratic leaders, should never forget that Dr. Dean was one of only a few Democrats who had the courage to challenge President Bush and his administration on thier reasons for going to war in Iraq - and he was right.

If these leaders had half the courage that Dr Dean has shown, their party and their country would be in much better shape.

Bennington, Vt.

[academic punk]

To the Editor:

I think it is hilarious that the Democratic Party can appoint Howard dean as party chairman and then oppose John R. Bolton's selection as ambassador to the United nations because they think he lacks subtlety.

Greenwich, Conn.

[academic punk]

To the editor:

Howard dean is right on target in criticizing Republicans. Who needs a bunch of Caspar Milquetoasts cowering in the corner of Congress when the United States is being dismantled economically, morally, and institutionally?

As a contributing member of the Democratic Party, I want to see some backbone in Congress. If the Democrats ahope to succeed, they had better find their voice. If their fundraising falls short, don't blame Howard Dean.

Jacksonville, Fla.

[superdave]

Howard Dean is an idiot, plain and simple, if he continues on his current pace, the Dems will be finished in quick order

[DrMaddVibe]

Originally posted by superdave
Howard Dean is an idiot, plain and simple, if he continues on his current pace, the Dems will be finished in quick order

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!


You'll ruin the ending for Ford!!!!

[FORD]

The babblings of a racist idiot don't change my opinion one way or the other about anything.

[academic punk]

To the Editor:

During the past four and a half years we have seen a president mislead us into war, begin the process of dismantling Social Security, push an extreme right0wing agenda and steadily make appointments of judges who support such an agenda, and meanwhile the Democrats have a lunch to chastise Howard Dean for speaking out against the Republicans abuse of power. If Joseph R. Biden Jr. and John Edwards cannot lead, they should get out of the way andf allow others to do so. Half the country eagerly awaits someone with enough fire in his belly to speak out against this extremeism.

New York

[academic punk]

To The Editor:

I expect Republicans to blast Howard Dean when he criticizes them. The current majority in Congress and the administration are the most thin-skinned politicians I have seen in the recent years. This administration and its sounding boards have intimidated anyone who criticizes anything they do.

It is disheartening , however, to see Democrats attacking Dr. Dean for speaking out. Republicans frequently question Democrats patriotism. Justice Janice Rogers Brown has equated liberalism with slavery. It's about time at least some Democrats had the gumption to strike back.

There is a wing of the Democratic Party that believes the way to win elkections is to try to appeal to moderate Republicans. I WOULD SUBMIT THAT FOR EVERY MODERATE REPUBLICAN THE DEMOCRATS CAN WOO BY COMPROMISING THEIR PRINCIPLES THERE ARE TWO CORE DEMOCRATS WHO WILL VOTE FOR RALPH NADER, THE GREEN PARTY, OR NOT AT ALL.

Goshen, NY

[Satan]

Originally posted by academic punk
To The Editor:

I expect Republicans to blast Howard Dean when he criticizes them. The current majority in Congress and the administration are the most thin-skinned politicians I have seen in the recent years. This administration and its sounding boards have intimidated anyone who criticizes anything they do.

It is disheartening , however, to see Democrats attacking Dr. Dean for speaking out. Republicans frequently question Democrats patriotism. Justice Janice Rogers Brown has equated liberalism with slavery. It's about time at least some Democrats had the gumption to strike back.

There is a wing of the Democratic Party that believes the way to win elkections is to try to appeal to moderate Republicans. I WOULD SUBMIT THAT FOR EVERY MODERATE REPUBLICAN THE DEMOCRATS CAN WOO BY COMPROMISING THEIR PRINCIPLES THERE ARE TWO CORE DEMOCRATS WHO WILL VOTE FOR RALPH NADER, THE GREEN PARTY, OR NOT AT ALL.

Goshen, NY

This is exactly what I have been telling the appeasement "centrist" Demoncrats for years!

[FORD]

JON CARROLL
- Jon Carroll
Monday, June 13, 2005

Why are the Democrats such weenies? Howard Dean makes the unremarkable statement that the GOP is the party of white Christians, and other Democrats run and flee and say, "Oh no, oh no!" And a Republican yahoo accuses Dean of "political hate speech." Neither "white" nor "Christian" is an epithet. A glance at the videotape from last year's Republican convention indicates that both characterizations are entirely fair.

And yet some Democrats think Dean is being too confrontational. We should be nice to the lying liars or people will think we're, gasp, partisan. "Partisan" is a good thing; it's what the Founding Fathers had in mind. The problem comes when one party stays very partisan and the other party starts modifying and mollifying and trying to find some mythical friendly center. I loved Mister Rogers, but I never thought he'd make a good chairman of the Democratic Party.

So maybe lunatic liberals should keep a few things in mind. First, the Bush administration is increasingly unpopular. The latest ABC/Washington Post poll reveals that 52 percent of the American people disapprove of the way Bush is running the country. Ask specifically about Iraq, and the numbers climb -- 58 percent disapprove of his handling of the war.

Which means, according to Eric Alterman, "George W. Bush's approval rating is now a full twenty points lower than Bill Clinton's was on the day he was impeached." I believe the American people want a party that will express their displeasure at the elitist and corrupt Bush administration in strong and vigorous terms.

People should stop believing the bullfluff that Fox News represents some significant percentage of the populace. The latest Nielsen ratings show that the Fox News Channel has 1,758,000 viewers in prime time, with only 416,000 falling into the 25-54 demographic. This is in a nation of 300 million people. However much noise it makes and however much room it takes up in the brains of media people, Fox is a very small muffin in a very large bakery -- a small, wizened, bitter muffin. Ignore it; everyone else does.

Elitist? Since February, the U.S. Army has missed its recruiting goals every month, sometimes by as much as 40 percent. People do not like the war, and they do not want their sons and daughters dying in the cause of ... whatever the cause is. You'd think that Bushies would support the beleaguered military by enrolling high-profile Republican scions in the Army -- both Bush daughters are eligible to sign up -- but it's not happening. Sacrifice does not play well in the "go back to sleep" Bush propaganda parameters. Nah, they make the wars -- let someone else fight them.

Corrupt? You bet. I think we have scandal fatigue, because some of the newer ones are just not getting any play at all. A senior Air Force procurement officer, Darleen Druyun, made a deal to lease Boeing refueling tankers for $23 billion, despite Pentagon studies showing that the tankers were unnecessary. Then Druyun quit the government and joined Boeing. Such a coincidence. Two years later, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to nine months in the federal pen.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has ignited a trade war with Europe over "illegal subsidies" to Airbus because the alleged subsidies hurt the trade position of, yes, Boeing. We'd never give illegal subsidies to Boeing, oh my no.

This is just one example of the malign effects of the revolving door between big business and the Bush administration. There's the case of Philip Cooney, a former American Petroleum Institute lobbyist who signed on as the chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (!!). According to documents obtained by the New York Times, Cooney "repeatedly" edited official documents to eliminate or downplay the now widely accepted links between greenhouse gases and global warming.

The White House is still taking the position that global warming is a liberal conspiracy. The liberals' ability to cause a drought in Australia has amazed many.

This is merely the latest in a long series of incidents, from "abstinence only" sex education campaigns to downplayed links between smoking and heart disease, in which the administration has adjusted the facts to fit its conclusions -- and to please its corporate donors and its ultraconservative base.

Most Americans are neither ultraconservative nor superrich, and they are interested in hearing the truth. The Democrats should be interested in telling the truth, and telling it in a strong and convincing manner. They cannot flinch when the White House does one of its "gay marriage booga booga" dances. Be not afraid, Democrats. This is not an occasion in which the meek will inherit the earth. Speak for the people, because the people need you to end the madness.

link

[Nitro Express]

Hey, what about Jimmy Dean? You know the ex musician that became the king of the sausage industry?