I'm with Dean until the end. I'll vote for him in the IL primary, whether he's in it or not.
But I know his chances are slim.
And I know the campaign made a lot of dumb mistakes (and I've documented some of them here.
But I propose that spineless, morally-bankrupt, craven Democrats, and in particular, the DLC leadership gave in to their own homophobia to help kill off Dean rather than stand up for what's right.
And if today's Massachusetts decision is any indication, we Democrats had better be prepared to look in the mirror and ask ourselves which side of history we want to be on, because like it or not, history has found us.
The more I look back at this election and the stupid "electability" canard and the relentless DLC assassination attempt on Dean's candidacy, the more I simply can no longer avoid the conclusion that Dean was destroyed by homophobia.
Dean governed as a centrist. He should have been a DLC poster boy. But early on in the campaign, Dean got tagged as out of the mainstream. Why? It wasn't the war. This started before that. It was the civil unions bill.
Let's face it. The party knew the Republicans would try to use Dean's gay-friendly record against him, because Dean had become so associated with that landmark legislation, and they decided to kill him off rather than grow a pair of balls and stand up for what's right.
Dean never backed down from his support of the bill and never stopped loudly proclaiming equality for America's gay citizens in his stump. And the DLC wet its collective pants.
He may have had to wear a bullet-proof vest after signing that bill, but ultimately, they just found another way to kill him.
But, as we've seen today in Massachusetts, this issue isn't going away. The nominee will have to address it. What will our standard-bearer say?
Democrats need to understand that the Republicans are going to stake out their territory on this regardless of the name or background of the Democratic nominee. Our choice isn't whether or not to deal with the issue. Our choice is simply this:
Which side of history will we be on?