It seems like Howard Dean's "Deaniacs" are quite pleased on the selection of the former Vermont governor/presidential candidate as DNC Chair. The Washington Post reports that many people are making their first ever donations to the Democratic National Committee. One person in Florida aka home of "Baby Bush"( the President's brother, Jeb Bush) asks Dean to come to the Sunshine State and make it "blue" again.
Writer Dan Balz talks about how these people were the force behind Dean's surge last year and also helped in the Kerry campaign. Much has been said about how the internet has energized the party. What's not been said is Dean/MoveOn's web-based movement has been 0-for-2. Despite all the the talk, Dean did not get very far in the primaries and all the organzing MoveOn did, had very little effect. And now, this losing concept is going to be used again.
Well, we can forget the Dems winning in 2006 or 2008.
Dean may have governed as a centrist while leading Vermont, but he knows he get a lot of mileage from being a leftist than he could as a Clinton-style moderate. You can at least say he knows where his bread is buttered.
But what is disturbing is that the Dems are losing a chance to build on the sucesses of Clinton. Clinton won because he steered a moderate course. That might have frustrated the lefties, but at least they were winning. With Dean as chairman, the left will once again be in the driver's seat. There will be much talk of opposing Bush's policies and about how evil the President is. Money will flow into DNC coffers, not from the money men of yore, but from hard core activists. Dean will make Democrats feel good about themselves. What he won't be able to do is win elections for them. Why? Because the Dean is a symptom of a problem within the Dems: they accept their viewpoint as reality and see no need to spread the liberal gospel. Hence, why we hear silly things like "Buy Blue.com" or calling anyone who voted for Bush an idiot. Conservatives know their viewpoint is just that, a viewpoint. So, they work hard to sway public opinion to their side. Liberals and even moderates like myself are not so good at that. The Dems had the opportunity to remodel the party into one that works to persuade the public and instead chose somone who is nothing more than a cheerleader to an echo chamber.
As messed up as my party is, I think I'll stick with the elephant.
Posted by Dennis at February 22, 2005 12:43 AMJS, I am well aware of what USA NEXT has done and I think its reprehensible. But what I'm getting at is that the Dems right now seem to be more interested in "being right" than in trying to persuade the populace of their ideas.
Posted by: Dennis at February 24, 2005 10:48 AM
Christopher, I did say that Republicans are more tolerant of other views. Far from it. What I am saying is that conservatives know their viewpoint is not the popular view and work to change that by persuasion; something that liberals and moderates have forgotten to do. If liberals and moderates want to make their opinions known and to take power back from the far right, they need to start persuading people instead of thinking that their viewpoint is so obvious, because it is not.
I am in total disagreement with your assertion that the Republicans accept that their viewpoint is not the gospel truth and work to spread it. In my experience, both Dems and R's share the failing of believing they have a direct line to the Truth. I find that those who stay away from labels like D or R tend more to understand that their viewpoint is subject to change and they tend to be more likely to engage those with opinions different than theirs.
The first counter example I thought of is the powerline blog - a conservative blog which has no respect for those who disagree with their views.
Posted by: christopher at February 24, 2005 09:59 AM