The Underdogs from Joe Trippi

[maddezmom]

Dear XXXX,

Howard Dean stood up last year when the Democratic establishment was afraid. He said that if we stopped doubting our convictions -- if we fought for what we believed in -- we could take the fight to George W. Bush, and we could win.

You stood up with him, and history made a sudden turn.

The story of this election is not apathy -- it is Meetups, house parties, Generation Dean, first-time voters, and thousands of Americans dropping their skepticism to write, travel, contribute and volunteer for your campaign. You showed what the American people can do in a face-off with the status quo.

And now those same establishment candidates would like to steal the spoils of your success by telling reporters that they -- not you -- are the campaign of change.

The thing we're fighting is larger than George W. Bush, and larger than any of the establishment candidates. What we're up against is a political system that distorts, divides, and co-opts -- and does anything in its power to make you so disgusted with the process that you won't participate in your own democracy.

It's a hard fight, but we will win.

We're stronger. We have traveled a great distance together. At every turn the establishment said you couldn't go on, but each time we have become stronger.

The Iowa caucus is six days away. Seize the moment and take one action today that will help us win. Write ten letters to undecided voters in Iowa, and tell them how a vote for Howard Dean will change our country. With Iowans under a media blitz from the other candidates, the strength of a hand-written letter from another American has never been more important:

http://commons.deanforamerica.com/letters

You gotta believe.

Joe Trippi
campaign manager
Dean for America

P.S. Please forward this email to your friends, and ask them to join you in writing letters.

P.P.S. Help support the thousands of Americans who have traveled to Iowa this week to get out the vote for Dean:

http://deanforamerica.com/revolution





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Looks like all the campaigns are trying to rally the base.

[chimpymustgo]

1. Dean and Trippi have decided to go scorched earth. Scary and sad.

"And now those same establishment candidates would like to steal the spoils of your success by telling reporters that they -- not you -- are the campaign of change."

Gore, Carter, Clinton - SOMEBODY - has got to intervene. Trippi and Dean are determined to rip the party to shreds.

[robbedvoter]

2. Here's the part that scared me:

The thing we're fighting is larger than George W. Bush, and larger than any of the establishment candidates."
right after came the part that had me ROFL:

"What we're up against is a political system"

Are you guys starting a revolution? Changing the political system, are you? What will it be? Communism? Socialism? Deanism? Can you let me in the secret?

[chimpymustgo]

4. What IS this new political system? And must we all chant and clap?

Thank you, but no.

I want my country back - and my party.

[Eloriel]

6. It SHOULD scare you

if you don't get it, and even more if don't want to.

We're going back to a Democratic Republic where political power is in the hands of The People.

Pretty damned scary, isn't it?

Eloriel

[KittyWampus]

14. Ironic- Republic Refers To Representatives Of The Electorate

and yet Dean says this election is about "US" not him.

As a Representative Democracy this election is most CERTAINLY about Dean.... what his Record & Policies actually are.

And whether or NOT he is fit to represent the Electorates Interests.

And considering his Right leaning, DLC Record as Governor, his Centrist Platform and his Leftist rhetoric... Dean doesn't seem to know WHO or WHAT he really wants to represent other than himself and his select cronies.

[DancingBear]

8. Here's the even scarier part

"Are you guys starting a revolution?"
They actually believe that they are.

No one else has ever done this before. Not Eugene McCarthy and the Kiddie Corps. Not George McGovern, who had kids lined up at every voter registration booth on every college campus in America. Just them. Dean is new. He's different. He's an outsider. He's also a fraud.

The Messiah has come bearing maple syrup. The whole thing is a false canard, for we all know Dean is as mainstream and as "connected" as they come.

Interesting, yes?

[chimpymustgo]

9. Dean didn't support a state holiday for MARTIN LUTHER KING.

'Nuf said.

Game over.

Get lost.

[slinkerwink]

19. the political system is based on voter apathy

and that's what the Dean campaign is determined to change----nothing more than that.

[bitchkitty]

3. I believe, Joe!

Very inspiring, thanks for posting that.

[maddezmom]

5. no problem, let the best candidate win. ;)

[chimpymustgo]

7. So true! May the best candidate win!

We all win.

[markus]

10. Dean isn't going to overthrow the Dem leadership

We are.

There were more people at the Dean visit in Fargo N.D. than there were at the last North Dakota state convention.

There are enough regulars at the Dean Meetup to take over the party in Fargo, if someone wanted to lead them.

Given that the Democratic Party is, as a party, a complete shambles in our de facto one party state, I don't see why not.

I'm not Generation Dean. I'm a past district chair and legislative candidate. I've worked on campaigns big time and small time, for pay and for free.

I don't see anyone in the party leadership who's prepared to stand up to the right wing in America.

I want my party back, and I'm rounding up a posse to do just that partner.

This isn't about the Governor at the end of the day. This is about saving the country, and I'm open to any suggestions you have on how it's done.

Don't tell me the answer is Clark or Lieberman. Hell, I've coopted out before, and worked for a Democrat many hear consider to be Satan's Cajun Uncle (hint, Zell is Satan), and other's because they were a winnable candidate in a tight spot.

At the end of the day, Dean is a winnable candidate in a tight spot, really. I've read his views. I stand firmly to the left of many of them.

But his message of taking the party back is what I, as a party activist, as most excited about. That and his unbridled hostility to Bush and the Right.

How many attacks have I read here against McAuliffe, Daschle, et al? Folks, revolutionary change can start at the precinct caucus.

How many of you, regardless of your candidate, will stand for or support a Chair and Second Representative/Policy Committee member to your state central committee who's ready for fundametal change? How many will put their names up as delegates for the state convention? For the national?

There is a a potential revolution going on. You can stick you heads in the sand, if you wish.

Or you can make common cause with the new Dean voters to take back this party from its careerist, corporate stranglehold.

[YellowDawgDemocrat]

11. It's people like Markus that will put Dean in the White House

Kuddos!

[barbaraann]

15. Bravo, Markus!

Do you think Dean/Trippi, etc. will lead the revolution to restore the grassroots of our party if Dean gets the nomination?

[blm]

12. And here is HOW Dean stood up against Bush in July 2002.

While Kerry was attacking Bush, Dean offered this:


 MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe the military operation in Afghanistan has been successful?
       
       GOV. DEAN: Yes, I do, and I support the president in that military operation.
       
       MR. RUSSERT: The battle of Tora Bora was successful?
       
       GOV. DEAN: I’ve seen others criticize the president. I think it’s very easy to second-guess the
       commander-in-chief at a time of war. I don’t choose to engage in doing that.

[robbedvoter]

13. Because he knows that in his soul, W is a moderate and will be reselected

Also, didn't you read the memo? THIS IS BIGGER THAN BUSH!
This scary revolution only touches the whole damn Bushco thingy incidentally.
What it really aims for is bad democrats like you and me who fail to obey the Howard. It's their country, not yours.
And Eloriel, I am scared. Fanatics do scare me - my frame of reference being more recent than Robespierre. I've seen atrocities done in the name of "the people" and the wholy revolution.
I think this country is pretty good as it is, if onlt the fascists are stopped and democracy restored. I kinda like this political system. But that's just me. ?It must be because "I haven't got the power" and the tea is not in my harbor" non?

[Rose Siding]

16. O fer God's sake- we all know bush is a puppet!

Of the corporatists- of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Lay.

As Pitt wrote, if Disney screws up, do you blame Mickey? The system in DC has sqeezed us out but it will change. If you don't see that yet, maybe you'll at least be gracious enough to appreciate the coming change once it's completed.

How the hell do you think you stop fascists and restore democracy?

[copithorne]

17. Is Dean now Anti-Establishment? Hasn't he crossed over?

I respect that Dean supporters feel like they are outside of the establishment. And the Dean campaign has changed the party for the better. It held it to account for supporting that insane war. That's why I joined it last year.

But as a Clark supporter, it feels to me that Howard Dean is now the establishment candidate. You've got Al Gore and Bill Bradley -- what wing of the Democratic establishment is left? That covers it all doesn't it? You're going for Jimmy Carter. You've got unions and all the go along to get along congressmen.

The Wesley Clark campaign will have to call on the people in order to win.

But I know establishment/anti-establishment is all a state of mind.

[Rose Siding]

18. The campaign's success hasn't changed it's nature

It's successful because people are involved- active- participating in unprecedented numbers. The pols that are throwing in are like kids in a candy shop- to see the party re-energized must be like seeing a dream realized.

I don't know any "go along" types involved. The unions are nothing but *people*, organized and in large numbers.

Did you think it would come as a huge surprise to Dean supporters when this really began to work? Endorsements don't mean that Dean caved to anything, but that others like what they saw and joined up.

Do you see any of the endorsements that Clark receives as changing him or his campaign somehow?