Looking back. Dean said his 50 State Strategy worked very well in 2010...for the GOP.
The Democrats quit using it, shoved Howard out the door so to speak...they stopped it at once after 2008. Many of us noted then that the Republicans embraced it...they just were using a different message.
To those who say this strategy elected so many Blue Dogs, I say that's because it was not done the way it was intended.
Howard Dean used to say that Democrats needed to go to people's doors in red states and tell them what Democrats really were about. He always said we could win that way. And we did, in 2006 and 2008. He said we had to sound like Democrats, tell them what we believed in. Didn't happen.
Trouble is in 2010 they didn't sound like Democrats. In fact many lost because they sounded very much like the Republicans they were running against. Instead of standing up and saying what Democrats traditionally believed there was too much of the DLC/Third Way/PPI rhetoric. There was not a definitive choice in many cases. They all sounded too much alike in policy.
Here is an interview from 2010. Ari Berman of Herding Donkeys is speaking to and about Howard Dean.
Howard Dean says 50 State Strategy worked well for the GOP in 2010.
Former Governor Howard Dean says Tea Party activists took a cue from his 2004 campaign playbook to score major victories for Republicans in the 2010 campaign. Dean made the comparison on VPR's Vermont Edition with Ari Berman, author of the book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics.
Dean said during the 2004 presidential campaign he connected with huge numbers of Democrats throughout the U.S. who felt the Democratic Party in Washington had ignored them, a feeling similar to that of some disaffected Republican voters in 2010. Dean said the highest compliment to his so-called "50-State Strategy" was that the Republicans used it effectively against the Democrats in 2010.
Meanwhile the centrist think tanks were spouting nonsense. More from Jon Cowan...
How the Democrats can stay relevant
Returns show, once again, that the voters who drive elections are self-identified moderates and independents, and largely middle class. They ran for the hills this cycle.
The stampede was fueled not only by anxieties over a troubled economy but by independents’ continued search for a political party that governs from the center. After rejecting Sen. John McCain – and the Bush legacy – as too right wing, and supporting Obama by 8 points, these restless Independents voted against Democratic gubernatorial candidates by more than 30 points in 2009. And they continued to flee from Democrats yesterday.
To woo them back, reclaim the center and assure electoral and governing relevance in 2012 and beyond, Democrats must make a big change: become the economic growth party. They must shift from being a party that seeks an expanded safety net to one obsessed about increasing the economic pie. This means ditching economic populism, offering robust pro-growth policies and embracing fiscal responsibility. It also means taking on some sacred cows – like downsizing federal employee pensions.
Ditch populism? Stop being obsessed about safety nets? Taking on "sacred cows" like downsizing pensions?
Sounds just like Republican policy to me...extreme Republican policy.
These "think tanks" were developed and funded by corporate politicians...but they surely worked effectively to take our party way to the right. They had money and power behind them.
I don't think this so-called centrism will be so effective anymore. People are catching on as they fear the future of this country.
In this case Howard Dean was right once again. We need to stand up and let them know a Democratic party that stands for the people and what is right for them.
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