Are you saying that they SHOULD vote for BUSH?

[ChoralScholar]

Are we really going to turn down a vote that could put a Democrat in the White House in 2004? I personally don't care WHO votes for Dean or any other Democrat, as long as Bush is out on his ear.

Should I tell my buddy with the confederate flag on his 1978 Ford that I DON'T want his vote? Is that really what we want to do?

I don't own a confederate flag. I don't particularly like it. But as a liberal, I don't care if someone else flies it. It's not my place to say. If they're not breaking the law or affecting me in some way, then its none of my business. Its certainly none of my business if Dean wants my buddy to vote for him.

People are saying "why couldn't he have said this?" or "why didn't he say that?" Well, goddammit, he didn't. He said what he said because he wants people to vote for him. Plain and simple. He didn't burn a cross, he didn't say we should bring back literacy tests and poll taxes, he didn't say that 'separate but equal' is okay. He just wants a particular sect of the population who normally may not vote to come out and check his name on a ballot, so he can get in office and maybe make the country a better place. Plain and simple. Are we really this stupid that this offends us? Get real.

We shouldn't let this divide us. We're better than that.

I'm going to bed.

[tedoll78]

1. Really..

I admire him for trying, and for addressing the topic frankly. His phrasing leaves him open to opportunistic attack from desperate opponents, but most intelligent people get the point that he was attempting to convey.

[Ambassador Hope]

2. Some on here think so

It is nuts. We did not care that Clinton flew the flag at his house.

Why should a silly flag mean anything?

Dean does not fly it at his house.

He does not support being against blacks.

If I had anything that offend someone and they ask me to not wear it, I would do it for them.

I thought we were trying to win this thing.

[E_Zapata]

3. The ends don't justify the means........

and if we can't keep that principle straight -- then our souls are lost for good.

Hell, I just logged onto the board for the first time all day -- so I haven't even seen what this is about.....but the posts are flying high as a confederate flag on MLK day! Oh my, Dr. Dean, what have you done now???!!

[interceptor]

4. Its all nuts

Well today, everyone is saying the other candidate is a racist. Its ridiculous. Yeah, Dean screwed up in his choice of words a little, but its not like Lott's friggin Thurmond "tribute" last year. (Oh yeah, the most liberal of the bunch is really a closet KKK member.) So now the collective Democrat field is running around with their panties in a bunch over who's more racist...or less racist, I dunno. I take it as a *bad* sign that none of them yet has a strong platform that resonates with voters and separates them out, nor do they have any idea for one.

There's a great article on the front end of the site about how the party has to stop trying to avoid the centrists and appeal to everyone to win votes. Its absolutely true. I saw another poster in here somewhere say something about kicking out the non-purists. Are they mental? Bill Clinton has it right - going hard left won't win. You might not get everything you want by courting the middle but you'll get something more than nothing at all.

[E_Zapata]

5. Thanks so much for the primer on the issue.....

I appreciate it.

I have since seen the quote. And you will find a number of posts by me not condemning Dean, but condemning those who are minimizing this.

I agree.....honoring the spectrum strategy is key in this country.....but golly gee.....I don't think Dean is a racist, but it really, really, really, really, really, really DOES matter if we validate racist symbols.

[sandnsea]

6. Yeah, he did

"He didn't burn a cross, he didn't say we should bring back literacy tests and poll taxes, he didn't say that 'separate but equal' is okay."

That's what that flag stands for and if we're ever going to make further progress on race, we all have to say so. He says he's going to talk to white folks about racism. Well he better start by telling them to put that flag down, no matter what part of the country they're living in.