Dean's candidacy really needs to be seen as a movement

worldgonekrazy

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Wed Jan-07-04 07:12 PM
Original message

Dean's candidacy really needs to be seen as a movement

I've noticed a lot of people on this board and in the media focusing their attacks of his campaign upon the man that leads it, ie. Dr. Howard Dean. This is, of course, fair and legitimate, but it also misses the bigger picture.

That bigger picture is a massive populist movement that is taking hold in the United States, with the Dean campaign acting as its political manifestation. These people are sick and tired of politics as usual and have been energized by the emergence as a man that represents something else, something better.

We are tired of the corporations influencing, and now even literally writing, legislation in this country. Yes, business interests have always had powerful controls on government and probably always will exercise some muscle in the decision making process. But what we are seeing today is unprecedented and just plain corrupt. Dick Cheney's friends in the energy business are now writing our nation's Energy Plan. Bush's friends in the oil industry are leading us off to wars. The RNC's corporate buddies are influencing our country's environmental regulation, such as the abhorrent Clean Air and Skies act, which, like everything in the Bush administration, does the exact opposite. On and on the list goes, and there is no end in sight without the people standing up to take back the power.

We are tired of a Democratic party that more often than not seems to be complicit with the radical right wing agenda. Our party laregely voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, which is clearly an attempt to undermine public education. Our party supported the Iraq War Resolution wholeheartedly (with the exception of a few brave dissenters), which is obviously the linchpin of the PNAC agenda. Our party supported the first of Bush's tax cuts and offered only meek criticisms of the second, even though both were CLEARLY aimed to bankrupt the gov't and thus starve social programs. These are not the values that our party is supposed to espouse.

We are tired of the right wing framing the debate. What a bizarre set of cirumstances we find ourselves in when those that seek to fight off a radical agenda that aims to benefit only the very few must apologize for our views.

These things can change, but only if we support and further the groundswell movement that is taking place today in this country. While mainstream candidates seek desperately to derail the movement (for fear of losing their coveted power), we must rise to the occasion and shout even louder to make our voices heard. We must make the rest of the country realize why they ought to listen to us, and I think they are ready for it.

Howard Dean is a pragmatic populist, a perfect figurehead for a movement that aims for the advancement of ALL Americans, not just the few wealthy elite. To those that detract from him and as a result the larger movement I beg of you: consider what is at stake here. We can embark on a new path, a path blazed for and by the people. Or we can continue down the same path with a more amicable leader at the helm. I, for one, am tired of the latter. Are you?