Brooks on candidates / response

[rlev1223]

My email to David Brooks today:

Whoever becomes the Democratic candidate, he will owe a huge debt of gratitude to Howard Dean. Starting as a less-than-obscure asterisk, Dean built a base and an organization that now extends far beyond its internet roots. (I know this because I help organize volunteers in California, many of whom are older Americans from both parties who have never thought of working in a political campaign before.)

Dean has also forced all of the major candidates out of their timid postures of political appeasement and shown them that the only way to defeat this obscene group of war-profiteering bible-thumping sociopaths is by following the lead of the 50% of Americans who distrust the Democratic Party establishment almost as much as they detest Mr. Bush.

[Democrats unite]

1. Sorry I disagree...

We didn't have Dean in 2000. Dean has only energized something for his base & there has been numerous posts NBD. Dean hasn't done anything for the Democratic party. Democrats who voted in 2000 & felt cheated are sure as hell going to vote again in 2004. I will give credit where credit is due, but it ain't here.

[rlev1223]

5. Sorry you disagree...

What I saw prior to the Dean campaign was a party of
dispirited confusion. It was Dean's team that understood the latent individual anger and the general feeling of impotence and was able to organize them into cohesive political action. Certainly, he has used base-energizing rhetoric that was far more progressive than his own record -- so what? That's just smart in a party where the activists who will work are far more progressive than the country as whole.

Dean knew what needed to be done to shake the party up and it has worked. Go back and review the somnambulant Kerry and Gephart speeches from the early campaign. If you had seen Dean's first speech to the California Democratic Party convention a year ago, it was like tossing a molotov cocktail into a dry barn. The other candidates were caught flat-footed and only now are beginning to attune themselves to the same disaffected voters.

One of these guys is going to be the candidate, and whether it is Dean or not, my original point stands -- the party owes a huge debt to Dean's organization and volunteers and will benefit greatly from continuing to pay close attention to them.

[Democrats unite]

6. We were disorganized during a non election year

now theres a no brainer. When election time got near everybody started kicking in! I still disagree.

[chocolateeater]

8. Well this Democrat feels

that the only way to beat Bush is to invite more people into the process and let them know thay can make a difference in the way this party and this country is run. Dean is the only one pointing in this direction by attracting small donors and people who haven't been in the process for a long time, and letting them apply their own creativity to the way the campaign is run.

[Duder]

2. The Progressive Review would agree:

At the moment, the only candidate who stands a chance of breaking the long term downward trend of the Democratic Party is Dean. This isn't to say that Dean can do it, only that he stands a chance. Aside from that dangerous loose cannon Clark, the rest are pretty much standard Democratic fare, which is not good news for the party. -- Sam Smith

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Absolutely agree.

Dean has forced the timid candidates to abandon their appeasement or, at least, try to excuse it. He has transformed the election into an anti-war, anti-bush, contest rather than the "we're not quite as bad as bush" losing waltz that the appeasers tried to make it. He has confronted the issues head on.

Hopefully, the Democratic party will see the handwriting on the wall. Move left and represent the people or die.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

4. I now think Dean has been divisive and damaging to the Dem party.

I used to think otherwise... It's too bad he couldn't have been more positive becasue it could have been used to something really good - to strengthen the Party.

[Democrats unite]

7. I think the whole point in the beginning of his campaign...

was to demoralize the party & try to make him look like some type of savior. Well it didn't work.