Reply #30: Boy, are you wrong about Howard [View All]

[RazzleDazzle]

BOY are you wrong.

Did you forget, or just not know, that he's the one who signed the Civil Unions bill in Vermont, the first in the nation?

And he learned a powerful and valuable lesson in the process. remember that he did this just months before the election at a time when he was already at only 35% approval -- and WENT ON TO WIN! I'm sure he learned many lessons, but two of them were: (1) do what's right and defend it mightily and (2) let people know they've been heard.

After he signed that, he wore bullet-proof vests (yes, there were death threats) and just went around everywhere, INCLUDING the most hostile areas, letting people talk. He said that they eventually talked themselves out, and were glad to have been heard. Just listening defused them.

LIke I said, he went on to WIN that election.

No, Dean doesn't believe Gay Rights is a divisive issue that ought to be avoided. He knows better, because he lived it.

Howard's "out there" and now fully understands that gay rights is a divisive issue. An issue that may deliver a Democratic congress or not. I'd question how long and tenatiously Howard Dean fought to keep his word and what his true feelings are about his promises.

Dean is the master of healing/erasing the wedge in "wedge issue." His response on Civil Unions is that it's an equal rights issue -- no class of Americans ought to have less rights than any other class. Damn hard to argue with that.