Howard Dean for AmericaSee The Bush Tax: How Much Is It Costing You? links were added in January 2004
Of the nine contenders for the Democratic nomination, Howard Dean stands out. There are some who are more left-leaning (Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich) and in normal times I’d be as far left as I could get in my choice. But these are far from normal times. The outcome of the 2004 election is excruciatingly important; with each passing day the Bush Cabal plunges us deeper into a frightening quagmire of hostile foreign relations, self-interested corporate plunder of the national mind, heart, and wallet, impending terrorist threats and imminent major war, depauperized economy, and compromised civil liberties. Another four years of the current administration will bankrupt this country not only economically but also culturally, intellectually, and spiritually.
Bush has his base of supporters—the far right corporate honchos, fundamentalist Christians, “good” Republican hacks who stand to profit from a GOP agenda—and nothing Bush does, no matter how outrageous, duplicitous, evil, or dumb, is going to sway them. But in my view he has a fatal flaw: he is not trying to broaden that base. He is as far to the right as I am to the left and in maintaining that position he will lose the hearts and minds of the fence-sitters, that maybe 25-35% of the population who are catching a whiff of a stench so bad it’s getting hard to ignore, people who don’t respond well to extremes at either end of the political spectrum but just want to feel secure in their jobs, safe in their homes, and free in their lives.
Howard Dean stands out first of all because he is NOT a Washington “insider.” Unlike Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Edwards, he has not had lobbying groups to appease, votes like the Iraq war resolution and tax cuts to stand up or down for, networking contacts to cultivate and go to cocktail parties for. From Howard Dean’s
biography, from the Burlington [VT] Free Press, 9/13/01:
Governor Dean is a physician who previously shared a medical practice with his wife. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1971 and his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City in 1978. He served in the Vermont House from 1982 to 1986; was elected lieutenant governor in 1986, and became governor in 1991 with the death of then-Governor Richard Snelling.
I like the idea that he is a doctor. Doctors can’t become doctors without almost ten years of dedicated, grueling education and self-sacrifice. Without dwelling on the small proportion of people who are motivated by lust for money to become doctors, I like to think that, for the most part, doctors must have an altruistic streak, they must want to help people, to alleviate suffering. They must also develop an understanding of human weaknesses and needs and, coming into personal contact with so many, a tolerance and appreciation for diversity, for the characters and personalities that make up the daily life of the world.
So at some fundamental level he starts out in my eyes as a basically good person, a studious and probably kind person. How did he do as governor of Vermont? I recently ran across a piece by Marty Jezer, an old friend of mine from the 60s, a Vermont free thinker who is still delivering delightful and insightful cultural essays, On Howard Dean:
To me, Howard Dean was the governor with the overly-tight collar and a head that looked like the protruding bulge of a squeegee ball. Then came the battle over civil unions.
In December 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court unanimously ruled that gay couples are entitled to equal rights and protections under the law. I initially castigated Dean for coming out against gay marriage. He chose to make a stand in support of civil unions. And stand he did. Right-wing Republicans attempted to make civil unions the issue by which they would bring down moderate Republicans and liberal Democrats. The debate was ugly, but Dean was heroic. On radio phone-in shows and in speeches and public appearances, he took on the abuse, bigotry and phony science of the homophobic following and did not give an inch. He turned the debate and the election that followed into a referendum on human dignity and dignity won. The bottom line with Howard Dean is that he’s a decent guy with backbone.
As Governor, Dean had little to say about foreign policy and no contact with Vermont’s peace movement. His opposition to the Iraqi War is a surprise. But there is substance to his critique and, as evidenced by the civil union fight, he’s not likely to soften his position in order to pander for votes.
That counts for so much! That consistency, that predictability, I need someone I can count on. Bush is famous for about-faces from his days as Texas governor vs his days as president. There is nothing Bush says that is not suspect in some way: an outright lie, a distortion, something expedient that he doesn’t really mean, a clever sound bite devoid of substance, remarks that he assumes (so wrongly!) that will be forgotten or forgiven—whatever, he simply cannot be counted on to stand behind his words.
And Dean mentions it about himself as something that sets him apart from the other candidates, in an interview by William Rivers Pitt: “I am very up-front about what I believe. . . . People know where I stand . . . people will get what they see.”
I don’t conceal my views or make a different speech in front of a moderate than I would in front of a liberal audience. I just let it all hang out there. I think what’s attractive to audiences is that I am willing to say what I believe, and stand up for it. Sometimes it is not what they believe, but that’s much better than being told by a lot of the other Democrats in the race, “Well, I don’t support tax cuts but I voted for a $350 billion tax cut,” or “Well, I think this war is a terrible thing but I did vote for the resolution.” That is what drives people crazy, no matter if they are conservatives, liberals or moderates. . . .
[I]nside the Beltway you get trained to minimize the risk, maximize your appeal to every interest group at the same time, and consequently you vote on both sides of every issue. That’s the kind of positioning the American people just don’t understand. They think, what is this? Why are you voting every which way? We’re not going to win elections like that. People in my party fundamentally misunderstand why this President is popular. The reason he is popular has absolutely nothing to do with the issues. It has to do with the fact that people think he is a leader. The way to deal with a leader is to be another leader, and to be strong in your views and present the American people with a choice. Not to take half of his policies and vote for them, and then say, “Well, I voted for half of the policies, but I thought he was a little wrong on this one.” That’s not going to win us this election.
Jezer continues, also looking for that worm of untrustworthiness, inconsistency:
His critique of the Bush Administration was so thorough and bold that I was suspicious that it was published on Common Dreams. Was this an attempt to fish for lefty votes? I was therefore relieved to see the statement posted on Dean’s official web site as well. In it, Dean accurately portrays Bush as a dangerous ideologue who has broken with traditional American politics in both foreign and domestic policy spheres. His unilateralism has undermined the war on terrorism, which depends on international cooperation, Dean says. “War should be a last resort,” not a policy choice that takes the place of diplomacy. “On Day One of a Dean Presidency,” he writes, “. . . I will tear up the Bush Doctrine. And I will steer us back into the company of the community of nations.” This is good rhetoric and good statesmanship.
On domestic policy, Dean accuses Bush of dividing the American people by race, class, gender and sexual orientation. He acknowledges that his fiscal conservatism “did not make the progressive community happy,” but argues that “social justice must rest upon a foundation of fiscal discipline.” Though Dean, as a budget-balancer, short-changed essential social services, his pride that, unlike other states who face billion dollar budgetary shortfalls, Vermont is in good fiscal shape must be respected.
So where does he stand on the issues? The centerpiece of his campaign is accessible health care. Some people think this died back around the time Hillary Clinton’s initiative failed, but fortunately some Democrats are still rallying around this as a crucial issue, a concern that all American citizens should have access to doctors and medical care regardless of income and ability to pay. As a doctor as well as a former governor, Howard Dean can be expected to be in the forefront of this cause and to have realistic ideas about it. He challenges the Bush tax cuts as money wasted and would reinstate those taxes and allocate the resulting income to expanded state and federal programs:
Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Right now, they only offer coverage to children from lower-income families. Under my plan, we cover all kids and young adults up to age 25 -- middle income as well as lower income. This aspect of my plan will give 11.5 million more kids and young adults access to the healthcare they need.
Second, we’ll give a leg up to working families struggling to afford health insurance. Adults earning up to 185% of the poverty level -- $16,613 -- will be eligible for coverage through the already existing Families and Children Health Insurance Program. By doing this, an additional 11.8 million people will have access to the care they need.
Many working families have incomes that put them beyond the help offered by government programs. But this doesn’t mean they have viable options for healthcare. We’ll establish an affordable health insurance plan people can buy into, providing coverage nearly identical to what members of Congress and federal employees receive.
To cushion the costs, we’ll also offer a significant tax credit to those with high premium costs. By offering this help, another 5.5 million adults will have access to care.
Third, we need to recognize that one key to a healthy America is making healthcare affordable to small businesses. We shouldn’t turn our back on the employer-based system we have now, but neither should we simply throw money at it. We need to modernize the system so employers will have an option beyond passing rising costs on to workers or bailing out of the system entirely. Fortunately, we have a model of efficient, affordable and user-friendly healthcare coverage: the federal employee health system.
And on other issues, Dean’s official web site includes a section On the Issues. Select from a long list, including:
- Homeland Security (“three circles of defense”)
- National Security (a seven-point program for achieving the goal of Iraqi stability, freedom, and self-sufficiency)
- Fiscal Responsibility (“We cannot have social justice without a sound fiscal foundation. We must balance the federal budget.”)
- Environmental Protection (“we must not only enforce existing clean air and water standards, but make them stronger. . . We must conserve our wild and open spaces.”)
I am particularly fond of Dean for being innovative at a time when the old ways of doing things are simply outdated, tired and uninspiring. From the Greens he has adapted the idea of Meetups, monthly small local gatherings of supporters dedicated to sharing information about his stand on the issues, recruiting new supporters, and working together in classic grassroots style to overcome the Bush administration in 2004. I feel safe in saying he is the only Democratic candidate who recognizes bloggers like myself as a vitally important element in a political campaign—this is especially true in light of the latest deregulation of the media: the internet is a powerful force that the moguls forgot to take into account that Americans will hopefully turn to as traditional corporate sources become more and more diluted and propagandized. His website itself includes a weblog and a section devoted to wireless—Dean is current, with it, up to date.
Howard Dean gets people excited:
A friend gave me a link to a speech this unknown-to-me candidate had given, and that . . . was . . . it [writes Michael Giardina in Why I Choose Dean].
He hit every note, every issue, had me jumping out of my desk chair, had me ready to walk through a wall in order to get him elected. After that, I went to his website, found out where he stood on the issues, and surfed around the Internet to see what other people were saying about him. I liked what I saw.
Today I donated to Howard Dean and the Dean for America campaign. I’ve gone to a MeetUp for Dean meeting in my town. And I’m writing this note to Democratic Underground because there is a groundswell of support out there for Governor Dr. Dean.
The people at the MeetUp were just like me--and not; there were veteran Democratic activists; young minorities who were pumped up about Dean’s position on “talking about race” in the election; and other non-politically active types. It was, in a word, awe-inspiring.
Watch out for Dean and his supporters: there is a buzz on the street about him, people who are not political junkies are excited about politics because of him, and people like me who wouldn’t have given Al Gore’s campaign five cents just contributed to Howard Dean (and didn’t feel for one second that I was “throwing away” my money by contributing to his campaign).
And I plan on doing it again, because while Bill Clinton may have been “The Natural,” Howard Dean is “The Fighter.” And right now, we need a fighter, because Election 2004 is going to be a 15-round heavyweight fight. And we can’t afford to lose this one.
Items that I consider especially important, especially in terms of countering opponents’ distortions and spin—from the left as well as the right. For the most up-to-date and complete news and commentary, see the Dean for America homepage and Blog for America.
The $25 Revolution
Bill McKibben
OrionOnline
. . . This is radical democracy, far more radical and more important than the particular positions Dean is staking out. And the fact that it comes from a radical center, not the left or the right, makes it all the more important. . . .
Howard Dean
Andrew Gumbel
LA CityBeat, December 24, 2003 . . .The bizarre truth is that the more the pundits bash Dean and predict the imminent collapse of his candidacy—as they have been doing from the moment he first emerged as a major force on the eve of the Iraq war—the more they betray their profound lack of understanding of the movement he has unleashed. They haven’t grasped the extent of his grassroots organization and the radical way he is reshaping the whole notion of political campaigning, in the Democratic Party and beyond. And they have either failed to appreciate or have woefully underestimated the sheer excitement he is generating, not only within his party but also in a whole new constituency of supporters being politicized for the very first time. . . .
Decision 2004: ABD vs. ABBA
Don Hazen, AlterNet, January 1, 2004
. . . Some worry that the oft-repeated charges among Democrats that Dean is too liberal, too impulsive, or otherwise hard to elect will create a defeatist, self-fulfilling prophecy. Democratic candidates seem to have joined a number of pundits in working to establish a caricatured image of Dean that might be hard to overcome in November. . .
Dean Makes Racial-Political History
The Black Commentator, December 11, 2003
Howard Dean’s December 7 speech is the most important statement on race in American politics by a mainstream white politician in nearly 40 years. . . .
Republicans Fear Howard Dean
Mike Hersh, August 23, 2003
Howard Dean's Democratic critics call him too far left, too far right, and—when they get really desperate—“unelectable.” None of these charges hold up under mild scrutiny. . . . Comprehensive list of referenced quotes that illustrate Republican viral spin-points that are increasingly infecting the public consciousness. The only antidote: familiarizing yourself with Dr. Dean’s true record and platform and helping to spread the word about these truths. Why Howard’s not George
Mike McArdle, Democratic Underground, July 15, 2003
Why the campaign of Howard Dean cannot be compared with that of George McGovern. Supplement it with 1972—Muskie, Wallace and McGovern, chapter 8 of The Taking of America, 1-2-3, by Richard Sprague, first published in 1976, for an even more complete understanding of the irrelevance of “the McGovern thing” regarding Dean and his campaign.
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