Shock of the Old: Dean's political lineage

[CertainKindOfFool]

This article is for anyone who is skeptical of Howard Dean:
http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/10/franke-ruta-g.html

The mainstream media suggest that Dean has roused the Democratic Party's base through his opposition to the Iraq War and straight-ahead criticisms of President Bush. But comments like the ones above suggest that Dean has tapped into something much deeper -- and older in American political history -- than mere Bush hatred. Irrespective of whether he ends up winning the Democratic nomination, Dean has already accomplished something valuable for liberalism: He has reconnected it to a strain of religiously inflected American history it typically ignores.

In many ways, contemporary liberalism does not reach all that far back in American history. Its emotional roots are located in 1968 -- that year of great upheaval that, for liberal baby boomers, was year one of the brave new world -- and, to a lesser extent, in 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt assembled the bricks and mortar of the welfare state. These are liberalism's historic reference points and the grounds from which its present-day rhetoric and enthusiasms spring.

Dean, though, comes out of neither of these two traditions...

No, Dean is something altogether different. He is more a product of geography -- and his was a chosen geography, as he was born in New York City -- than ideology. The more one watches him on the stump (and watches his admirers watching him), the more it becomes apparent that he comes out of, and is reviving, a tradition of small-town, New England civic and religious fervor that is all but forgotten in American politics today. He is something the country has not seen in a very long time. He is, essentially, a *northern* evangelist.

[DemBones DemBones]

1. The quasi-religious aspects of the Dean campaign have been

discussed here before. It's radical Protestantism for liberal atheists and agnostics.

But enough about politics, the question that begs to be asked, CertainKindOfFool, is "Just what kind of fool are you?" ;-)

However did you choose such an interesting name?

[CertainKindOfFool]

6. My Screen name

Its an Eagle's song from their Desperado ablum about a musician... just what I happen to be. The way I see it, everyone is a fool in their own respect, but it takes a certain kind of fool to be a musician.

"Cause its a certain kind of fool that likes to hear the sound of his own name..." -The Eagles

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Obviously I'm not heavily into the Eagles or I'd have known, but

it's a great line about musicians so I'm glad to be informed. I've always liked Jerry Jeff Walker's line "Getting paid for doin' what I'd be doin', anyways," as a good, if hardly poetic, description. I married a musician and gave birth to another one (who'll be playing in Des Moines tonight and I think Sioux Falls the next, then Minneapolis) so I know a bit about musicians and the touring life!

Welcome to DU, CertainKindOfFool! :hi:

You can probably figure out how I came up with my name. "Democrat right down to my marrow" is my sometime sig line.

[Scott Lee]

2. Wow - so much for the "ditch God" lie, then

I suppose the Deanophobes will have to dream up another fantasy with which to tar him.

Awwww.

[MoonAndSun]

3. Pretty good article, thanks for the link, CertainKindOfFool......

I like your name, it immediately brought forth the song by the Eagles "Certain Kind Of Fool" from my favorite album/CD by them, "Desperado".

:hi: and welcome to DU!!

[CertainKindOfFool]

7. Speaking of the Eagles....

I have a great story about the Eagles. I include it in every letter I write to Iowa to enourage voters to support Dean.

Sorry its so long:

I have a story, something that happened to me the day before I sat down to start writing this letter. On Monday Oct. 20, I organized a small group of students to hand out Dean flyers outside the Kohl Center here in Madison for an Eagles concert. Though I am a big fan of the Eagles, being a student I couldn’t afford a ticket to the show. While I was standing there handing out information on Dean, a man came up to me and asked me what I knew about Dean. I just told him what I told everyone who asked: He’s the former governor of Vermont, Democrat running for president. The guy then asked me if I’m an Eagles fan, and I tell him, yes of course, I love the Eagles. He then says “Want this? I have an extra.” and just hands me an Eagles ticket!! It was a great concert. Besides playing all their classic songs like Hotel California, Desperado, and Life in the Fast Lane, they also sang their new song “There’s a Hole in the World Tonight” which is a protest of the Iraq War. I am so glad I was lucky enough to get a free ticket just for being there helping the candidate I support!

But my story's not over yet. That night when I got back to my dorm room, I checked my email and found a message from our local field coordinator offering a ride to go see Dean in Howard County, the last stop on his tour of Iowa. So Wednesday, we drove 3 hours to Cesca, Iowa to see Howard Dean. But the great part is this: I got to talk to Dean personally and tell him my Eagles story I just told you. Wow, that really made my week. And I owe it all to the Dean movement.

[MoonAndSun]

8. What a great story, I also saw The Eagles when they were here

in Phoenix this past summer. One of the best concerts I have ever seen, and yes, they sang "Hole in the World".

And you got to speak to the Doctor, wonderful. He was here in town for the debates in Phoenix and he spoke on the campus of ASU and my daughter saw him speak and got to shake his hand. She was psyched!!

[DemBones DemBones]

11. Now that's a great story! You'll be able to tell that one to your

children and grandchildren -- who might even like the Eagles, musical tastes no longer being tied to chronological age.

[realFedUp]

4. Welcome to DU CertainKindOfFool

No fool here. :-)

[Cha]

5. Welcome from me, too, to DU, CertainKindOfFool!~

"Down by the banks of Lake Champlain, two cottonwoods hang over the water's edge near Burlington, Vt.'s College Street. Rick Sharp, an attorney who's known Dean since 1980 -- when they fought to change the downtown waterfront from "derelict, industrial storage yards" into today's popular public park and bicycle path -- shows me a scar on one of the trees. It's from beaver bites. "Howard ended up saving that tree by putting some chain-link fence around it to prevent the beaver from chewing all the way through," says Sharp. "The tree was about half the size back then." :kick:

[CertainKindOfFool]

9. Dean

He's a great guy, hey. Practices what he preaches unlike the rest of the field.