Howard Dean is a knucklehead.
Following his recent comments about the Republican Party and the flap over it, Howard Dean continues to prove that he is as much an obstacle to real progress in terms of bipartisan cooperation as Karl Rove. While almost everyone in the political world agrees that Democrats need to change the middle-class's opinion of them, especially defeated incumbents such as Martin Frost, Dean behaves like the party mascot.
While Mr. Frost seems to have it about right, he is also failing to capitalize on the devisive nature of Republican oratory. Democrats seem to be working so hard to become the "authentic" Democrat, but the opportunity is there to become the "true" American. Where is the leader that can speak to us without catering to each special interest? Where is the leader that will speak to us about the universal pursuit of happiness each American is entitled to? Where is the leader to speak about the things that unite us as a nation, yes even with Republicans?
Dean describes a stereotype of the GOP that has this yellow dog Democrat thinking they may be the party for me! Instead of providing sound bites that secures the white working man vote for Republicans, Dean needs to speak in terms that isolate the Republicans. As the Republicans push an agenda that most Americans are uncomfortable with at best, it is time to create their image for them. As talking points are handed out to every constituency the GOP counts on, Democrats should be drawing a line in the sand right behind them.
Republican leadership does not stand for members of Congress that will publicly disagree with Bush policy and uses (the lack of) party money to rein in rouge individuals. I call this distilling policy until it comes out pure and uncontaiminated. THIS should be what the Dems speak on, how GOP distills its members ideas until they are in total unison, one voice.
My party should be the party of the American melting pot, taking into account the differences, but utilizing the strength of each to forge a tempered steel society that will withstand challenges from extremists of every stripe, foreign and domestic. My party should be the party that leads the world forward with the small steps of each individual shouldering a share of the load.
Dream the American dream, make your world a better place, be a better person today than yesterday, and help someone less fortunate than you. THAT is an America that knows no limits, includes all faith and demonstrates what distinguishes us from the more sectarian states on earth.
Who will be this leader?
While Mr. Frost seems to have it about right, he is also failing to capitalize on the devisive nature of Republican oratory. Democrats seem to be working so hard to become the "authentic" Democrat, but the opportunity is there to become the "true" American. Where is the leader that can speak to us without catering to each special interest? Where is the leader that will speak to us about the universal pursuit of happiness each American is entitled to? Where is the leader to speak about the things that unite us as a nation, yes even with Republicans?
Dean describes a stereotype of the GOP that has this yellow dog Democrat thinking they may be the party for me! Instead of providing sound bites that secures the white working man vote for Republicans, Dean needs to speak in terms that isolate the Republicans. As the Republicans push an agenda that most Americans are uncomfortable with at best, it is time to create their image for them. As talking points are handed out to every constituency the GOP counts on, Democrats should be drawing a line in the sand right behind them.
Republican leadership does not stand for members of Congress that will publicly disagree with Bush policy and uses (the lack of) party money to rein in rouge individuals. I call this distilling policy until it comes out pure and uncontaiminated. THIS should be what the Dems speak on, how GOP distills its members ideas until they are in total unison, one voice.
My party should be the party of the American melting pot, taking into account the differences, but utilizing the strength of each to forge a tempered steel society that will withstand challenges from extremists of every stripe, foreign and domestic. My party should be the party that leads the world forward with the small steps of each individual shouldering a share of the load.
Dream the American dream, make your world a better place, be a better person today than yesterday, and help someone less fortunate than you. THAT is an America that knows no limits, includes all faith and demonstrates what distinguishes us from the more sectarian states on earth.
Who will be this leader?
posted by Kurt at 3:20 PM
3 Comments:
My brother sent me this commentary on the Frost link -
"Re: Frost etc, a long rambling rant
He may not be the rabid dog Dean is, but Frost doesn't get it at all either. The majority of the leadership in the Democratic party is so out of touch with the reality of life in the USA it's pathetic. They're at Alice's tea party! Deaniacs fancy themselves the new SDS, the true off spring of the "heroic" activism of the 60's. Sorry, I was the activism of the sixties and a lot of what we said was naive or off-base. Does that mean the Republican revisionists who are trying to win a war that ended 30 years ago are right! Hell no! They're as out there as the Deaniacs. They want to say the activism of the sixties was totally off base and I say it was solid, but off target and based upon the wrong foundation.
But Frost isn't a Deaniac you say. You're right. He has no passion. He's a special interest stooge. And he's clueless. Look at how he describes the middle class in his op-ed piece. The white middle class he says are "many, but not all of whom, are union members". Union membership is down to less than 10% of the work force. And the unions are as stuck in the 50's and 60's as is the Democratic Party.
In Connecticut the Communications Workers of America are trying to organize Verizon. So they run out a poster child of corporate abuse of workers, a woman whose husband had been called up and went to Iraq. She was fired for excess absentism. The union tries to portray Verizon as unpatriotic and insensitive to workers needs. Firing someone because they are having a bad time balancing work and life while struggling to raise a family while the husband is overseas fighting a war. The CWA tried to make it seem like she was fired for missing one day of work while her husband was overseas. When the facts came out they were this. The husband had been home six months when she was fired. Prior to her being fired she received 11 months worth of paid administrative leave time spread out over 19 months which included the time her husband was deployed. What Verizon had actually done was to allow her to miss 79% of her scheduled work time during the time her husband was in Iraq and the first month he was back. They then gave her six months to get her act together and stop her absentism. When she didn't they fired her. I'm sure Verizon isn't pure in this situation and that they had already decided to fire her long ago and simply waited it out until it was politically safe to do so. But they don't come across as abusing their workers. The union comes across as not getting it, not understanding where we need them to go to bat for us.
While the issues raised by the Democrats about the abuses of workers, tax systems, the environment, our political system by corporate Republicans are right on target, Frost, the unions, and the leadership that wants to portray itself as champions of the people don't have a clue about what is legit and what isn't. They don't know what real life is like for the average American, and approach things from such an elitist perspective no one even bothers to listen to them any more. I'm waiting for the big unions to start to ask WHY they can't organize retail and other service industries. Only a small part of it is because the workers are scared of getting fired. Much more of it has to do with the unions lack of understanding of the needs of the workers.
As for Frost and the Democrats, rather than telling us how right they are about things and how stupid we are that we don't support them, how about if they begin to listen to themselves. Frost laments that voters don't trust the Democrats in terms of national security. Why should we? Yes, they proposed things Republicans got credit for. But listen to the pre-election talk about the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. Half of it sounded like Rodney King, "can't we all just get along" and half sounded like it was read straight from Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book. If you really, really believe deep in your heart that a president can send thousands of soldiers to face death in an act of petulance to avenge "daddy" then I have to question your person. If you believe folks are that self-centered and callous, what are YOU capable of doing? There were, and are, lots of reasons to oppose the Iraq War, but for the Democrats it was all about personal motives, personal objectives, personal issues. And I'm not talking about how war is personal for the families.
The Democrats couldn't talk about international policy, about us as a nation. And so they made the issue one about Bush's personal motivations. The only thing they could talk about was integrity. But they didn't have their own personal integrity to hold up as an alternative. By integrity I'm not saying that Kerry or Dean or others were crooked, on the take, or immoral womanizers, or anything like that. But they raised the issue of core values and then showed that the only core value they had was holding power, being elected.
So, Mr. Frost, you wonder why white middle class voters overwhelmingly vote for your opposition: the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. Who are you really, and what do you actually stand for? You talk about drawing lines in the sand. Where have you drawn the line in the sand for you as a person? And when was the last time you actually listened to what I have to say rather than telling me how you know what's best for me and everyone else?
This is exemplified in my congressional district. A very heavily Democratic district with a Republican congressman. Rob Simmons is in the field a lot. And not just making speeches. He listens while at events. And he responds. And though we may not agree with him, we know what he believes and why he believes it. The same could not be said for the congressman he unseated a few years ago. The Democrat that ran against him last time, and likely again this time, is similar in being clear on his values and being willing to stand with them, not just go with the political winds or special interests. The result, a very very close election in 2004 and the prediction for a dogfight in 2006.
The truth is, the complaint Mr. Frost and the Democratic Left has against the Republican Right, is on target --- and it hits themselves as well! The Democratic leadership is simply a mirror of the Republican leadership. (It used to be the other way around in the 70's!) That friends, is not an alternative. That is being oppositional. And it's the alternative I'm looking for.
Grace and Peace,
Rob<><"
Kurt.
Do you really think that by comparison, Dean's name calling, is all that bad, when you look at the fact that Republicans are spouting out non-truths to us each and every day, and wanting us to believe that what they say is factual? See my blog today for examples of this culture of deception.
Barbara, I want someone to lead AWAY from the comparative of "my errors are not as bad as YOUR errors" mentality.
I enjoy your site and frequent it often. Almost every entry and nearly every comment from readers generate a response from me! I just don't post them all.
My brother's rant is, I believe, an excellent assessment of where the traditional base of the Democratic Party is today. We are seemingly all looking for a leader.
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