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Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Happy "Dean Speaks for Me" Day!
Posted by Jill | 7:39 AM
You know what to do.

A reminder from the Houston Chronicle's Stan Merriman:

What his critics fail to understand is that Howard Dean is leading in a manner we progressive populists have elected him to do. We tried the capitulation strategy favored by Berg and others in the party for the better part of the last 15 years under Democratic Leadership Council-based party leadership. We progressives, at least many of us, endured and even support their attempt out of misguided party loyalty.

It failed, quite miserably. So, now it is our turn. Progressive populists are the dominant force in the party and we want to speak truth to power. We want Dean to say it like it really is: The Republican Party is 80 percent white and Christian; its agenda is dedicated to advancing the power of the wealthy and corporate America. In our view, Rep. Tom DeLay's conduct is criminal. Both are trying to lead us into a fundamentalist Christian theocratic state with a diminishment of our Bill of Rights. And Howard Dean is leading us in the grass-roots development of a populist party belief system with a progressive agenda of rights that some mistakenly consider entitlements. He is empowering us at the grass-roots of the party to craft a belief system around rights to which citizens who have built by the sweat of their brow are indeed entitled as members of the richest and most powerful society in world history:

•The right to vote in fair elections.
•The right to restrain our government from squandering our wealth, national reputation and young lives on an ill-conceived and immoral war.
• The right to require corporations and the wealthy to once again pay their fair share of taxes to provide what some call entitlements — such as, health care for all of us; excellent, free public education through college or technical school; the right to remedial services to help rebuild broken communities and lives in our inner cities; and the right to a living wage and fair collective bargaining for working Americans.
Republican denial of these rights evokes justified anger and aggressive rhetoric. Howard Dean understands what some of his Democratic critics apparently fail to comprehend: Republicans have declared cultural and economic war on our people.

[snip]

Howard Dean is leading a party of resistance and rebellion to restore the American Dream. In the Clinton years we tried the triangulation strategy and what did we get? His near impeachment and a declaration of war against us and all we hold dear.


Another reminder from Ari Berman:

Dean -- unlike his inside-the-Beltway predecessor Terry McAuliffe -- is actually trying to build an alternative to the corporate base of the GOP. Even Newsweek's Howard Fineman, long a reflection of conventional Washington wisdom, recognizes the importance of this shift. "Early in the last 'cycle,' in 2001, the Republican National Committee outraised the DNC by a 3-1 margin," Fineman writes. "So far this year, that ratio has been cut to 2-1."

"More important," Fineman continues, "is the way it was raised. In the past the party relied on 'soft money' from millionaires. But such donations are now illegal. Officials estimate that $12 million of the $14 million the Dean regime has collected so far this year has come from those who gave less than $250. 'For people who really look hard at the numbers, he's wowing people,' says Elaine Kamarck, a respected DNC member."

In just over a hundred days on the job, Dean has visited 22 states, devolving badly-needed resources and control to the grassroots. On these trips, Dean flies coach, buys his own bus tickets and carries his own bags. Democrats in red states like Nebraska have already received 10 times the amount Terry McAullife provided last year. State party chairs describe Dean's visits as "electric," "ecstatic," and "very excited," Sam Graham-Felsen recently reported on Alternet. Nick Casey, West Virginia's State Democratic Chair, said people were driving "three hours from the south, five hours from the east, just to hear him."
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