Nothing ground-breaking, but I think this is a good “forward to your less politically obsessed friends & family members” call to action:
… I don’t believe all or even most of the Republican party voters are racist, but going at least as far back as Lee Atwater, the Willie Horton ads, and the attacks on John McCain in the South Carolina primaries in both 2000 and 2008, there is a persistent willingness in the Republican party to use race baiting for electoral advantage. The fact is, this is racist behavior.
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Now if the Tea Party, which is not a professional group of politicians have the decency to repudiate the racist fringe in their group, why can’t the Republicans? Obviously they think this approach works on the margins, but even if this stuff works, it sure doesn’t produce good leaders or a civil society, and it certainly doesn’t produce a stronger America, it produces an even more polarized and angry America. It’s that willingness to put party ahead of country that has the Republicans in such low regard.
[…] __
I have often said the biggest problem with the Democrats is that we are not tough enough. Now is the time to be tough. The fact is that the stimulus package has reduced unemployment from where it would have otherwise been in this Bush-induced recession (based on policies most of the Republicans now in Congress voted for). The fact is, as 60 members of the House and the CBO showed last week, the Public Option, or Medicare Buy-in, as it should more correctly be called, would have reduced the deficit over ten years by an additional $68 million dollars. The fact is that President Obama — despite Republicans killing the climate change bill — has done more in 18 months to change America’s approach to the environment and green jobs than any president in memory.
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The fact is that if we are going to tackle the deficit, it makes no sense to cut taxes for people with plenty of money while we tell people who depend on Social Security and Medicare that they have to do with less, or to play games with unemployment insurance for those who need it most.
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The fact is that the Democrats won the election in 2008. The Republicans refuse to do anything for the country except say “no”. That means we have to work hard and do what we believe is right. And we have to stop apologizing for it. We have to stand up for what we believe in and stop trying to make deals with people who cannot be trusted to make deals for the good of our country. It’s not too late to win in 2010. Conviction politics works. Just ask the right wing!
JGabriel
Dean needs to lose that line. It sounds like “politics by convicts”.
Otherwise, yes, good show.
.
Keith G
Can Howard perform a mind meld with Barak?
roshan
From the late-nights:
Veritas78
The only part of my old car that I wanted to keep was the Dean bumper sticker.
wilfred
This concern over race baiting would carry more weight if it was applied across the board. Hillary Clinton resorted to race-baiting in the primaries and what happened?
Fair play’s a jewel. The way to stop this is to do what Ross Perot did. Back in one of the debates with Bush and Clinton he didn’t equivocate:
“If you’re a racist or a bigot, I don’t want your vote.”
I propose that all parties and candidates include that in their campaign rhetoric.
kay
@wilfred:
She lost the Democratic primary and thus the Presidency?
wilfred
@kay:
And is currently Secretary of State.
aimai
@wilfred: Working very hapilly and loyally FOR THE BLACK GUY. What part of that is your problem? Don’t you believe in redemption?
aimai
roshan
@wilfred:
That might just get a third party going, in this country. It’s a gift that will keep on giving, at least for another 50 yrs, after I am pushing up daisies.
kay
@wilfred:
Right. Obama’s choice for that position. Since he was the ultimate target, I think he can forgive South Carolina, measured against her 30 year record on equality issues.
I just don’t think you can equate the two. Democrats came back at Clinton hard for that, and she did the requisite apologizing and explaining. I don’t remember anyone deliberately avoiding the issue. It was huge. It was explored and debated endlessly.
Granted, some of that was a recognition of the electoral implications of dividing the Democratic coalition, but there was something close to panic when it started, and she shut it down fast.
wilfred
@kay:
So then it was just politics. If so, then I don’t how someone can say: “there is a persistent willingness in the Republican party to use race baiting for electoral advantage. The fact is, this is racist behavior.”
Is it only a question of degree and persistence? Or is race-baiting always racist behavior? That seems to me to be the question. Maybe so. But that is hardly a stirring cry to action.
Similarly, it’s a bit specious to say ‘Obama’s choice’ – he’s not the arbiter of racism or racist behavior. I imagine there was a bit of politics in that choice, too, no? In which case distress over race baiting takes a back seat to political expediency.
So I say – take the pledge:
“If you’re a racist or a bigot, I don’t want your vote.”
Lawnguylander
All racists and bigots are aware of their racism or bigotry and would not vote at all if everyone told them their votes were not wanted.
Nethead Jay
@wilfred: How nice of you to be so concerned…
RSA
@Lawnguylander:
I’ll assume irony here. I’ve heard too many people (online) say things like,
“I’m not a racist, I’m a racialist.”
“Separatism isn’t the same as racism.”
“I’m not a bigot, I just don’t like minorities.”
Not always in those words, but you get the picture.
kay
@wilfred:
Dean is not asking Republican leadership to excommunicate the Tea Party.
He’s saying Republican leadership should acknowledge it’s a problem, and say something.
I don’t actually agree with him, in his basic premise. I think the Tea Party is the re-branded base of the national Party, so if the Tea Party has spoken, so have national Republicans, but there’s a persistent longing to pretend there is a unique entity called the “Tea Party”, that is somehow different than “an energized and angry Republican base” so he’s not alone in that fiction.
Comrade Javamanphil
This post needs the “Show me on the doll where Rahm touched you” tag. FWIW, pieces like this, and the fact they get little MSM coverage because of Dean’s marginalized role within the Democratic party / Obama admin are why a bunch of us still hate on Rahm. Hard to remember when Dean governed VT as an unrepentant moderate.
grandpajohn
He is right about this now what is his suggested method of educating these masses to understand that they should stop voting for the very people who are gang raping them.
Living in SC I have watched it for many years, hell we are soon to be rid of the worst governor in my life time, one who couldn’t even get along with his own republican run legislature . We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, but all I hear and read is how bad for the country Bailouts and stimulus programs are, even though they are saving out ass here in SC from depression like numbers.
Our school system is laying off teachers, and cutting programs because the idiots in our legislature changed the funding of schools to be by sales tax instead of property taxes, so guess what happened to sales tax collections when the bush recession hit. But hey property owners now has to pay less taxes , doesn’t matter if their kids grow up to be idiots, of course the big shots in government don’t have to worry, they send their kids to private schools and the gang rape of the lower and middle classes continues ably abetted by those getting raped.
NobodySpecial
I personally think it’s brilliant, in that he treats the Tea Party as the serious, sober party and the GOP as a bunch of fringe lunatics.
Of course, they’re both fringe lunatics, but by giving the Tea Party the patina of being the ‘responsible’ conservative party, he’s trying to weaken the GOP in time for the elections.
Good stuff, but then he ruins it for the Purity Police by demanding we ‘stand up’ for stuff. Doesn’t he know by now that this country will never pass a single piece of progressive legislation, being a center-right nation that hates hippies and all?
Allison W.
Its not toughness, its being consistent. Dems can come up with tough words, but what they fail to do is hammer it day in and day out until its conventional wisdom.
TaMara (BHF)
Nice post, Anne.
Phoenix Woman
I will never, ever forget how Howard Dean saved the Democratic Party from its own leadership back in early 2003.
“What I wanna know…”
Mpls
Howard Dean was the best DNC chair in my adult lifetime. Tim Kaine has been AWOL as far as I can tell.
ware
68 million, 68 billion, whatever it takes.
Uloborus
@wilfred:
Ah! I can answer this one.
The difference is between rare cases of racist rhetoric that are soundly, publicly disapproved of by the party, apologized for by the candidate, and result in rejection by the party voters – and systematic promotion of racist rhetoric and opposition to all civil rights legislation, lapped up by a voter base deliberately cultivated for its racism for the last 30 years.
I mean, hey – I’ve jaywalked. So what’s really the difference between me and the Oklahoma City Bomber? We’re both CRIMINALS, right?
So. To close the last loophole, see above – the Democratic Party repudiates racism vocally and in action. What else exactly are you asking for? That they PHRASE it the way you’d like?
Uloborus
@Allison W.:
Would that even work? Is it even possible? It’s not like Democrats don’t try. The media would rather give Republicans the bully pulpit. Much, much, much rather. It’s a question of who gets the chance to hammer their point home, not who’s willing.
I mean, the Republicans are generally better at messaging exactly because they’re ruthless partisans who don’t care about the nuances of good government, sure. But it’s the media who laps it up and spoonfeeds it to the rest of America.
wilfred
@Uloborus:
I was responding to this comment in the post:
My response was that anything less than repudiation by all parties, I mean individual candidates, too, is hypocrisy.
During the World Cup, every team participated in the “Say No To Racism” campaign. It didn’t matter whether, say, England, was more or less racist than Ghana.
Ross Perot had the guts to say:
“If you’re a racist or a bigot, I don’t want your vote.”
Anything less is sophistry.
Uloborus
@wilfred:
And what I’M saying is that the Democrats have repudiated racism, repudiate it in LEGISLATIVE action rather than words all the time, and all Ross Perot has is having phrased it in a way you find more concrete and satisfying. Of course, as one candidate in one election rather than a whole party that has to accommodate individuals that’s also fantastically easier. He didn’t have to worry about individuals pulling some crap that the party as a whole doesn’t support.
EDIT – I put to you that saying something brave and noble about racism is sophistry. Voting for the civil rights act, equal rights for women, and with any luck repealing DODT is the meaningful demonstration that you’re not a bigot. Saying ‘I don’t want the vote of bigots’ is just having a nice way with words.
zippity
@ware: That is a typo, right? It’s supposed to be 68 billion. 68 million is a pittance.
Joseph Nobles
I think there should be a Bush Doctrine equivalent for racism. Those who harbor racists or incite racism for political gain are racists as well. I don’t care how many black friends ya got.