When Trippi came out and endorsed Rosenberg for DNC chair, he claimed he wasn't trying to slight Dean (although one wonders why Trippi had to make an endorsement at all). His rationale was that Dean was better suited for a position where he can take stronger stands on issues and be more critical of the party, like senator of Vermont. As DNC chair, Trippi argued, Dean would have to play a more conciliatory and unifying role, which isn't the best use of his talents.
I had the opportunity to speak with Trippi during the RNC, and I found him to be a highly engaging, but utterly delusional man, and I don't think anything has changed.
When I told Trippi how big a Dean supporter I was, he rolled his eyes. I apologized -- "I guess you're kind of sick of hearing that," I said. "No," he replied, "it's not that. It's just..." And then he kind of trailed off. It took me a while to figure out what he meant, but I eventually came to realize that he believed that had Dean been the nominee, all those people like me would have come out and voted for him. What Trippi failed to grasp was that "all those people like me" were also going to come out and vote for Kerry, and we did.
I've heard this theory a thousand times that there's millions of people out there who don't vote because they're desperately waiting for a candidate who really stands for something. One gets an image of them eagerly picking up the morning newspaper and scouring through its pages in search of news about their new savior, whomever it might end up being. If only he presented himself! Then they'd all go out and vote for him, all fifty million of them.
This is of course, utter bullshit. The reason why these people don't vote is because they don't give a flying fuck who the president is. When you ask them, they'll tell you all about how they're waiting for the right candidate, but the truth is, they don't know and they don't care. Those of us who canvassed on election day know all about these people. "I don't feel like waiting in line," or "I've got laundry to do." The idea that they don't see any difference between John Kerry and George Bush is just an excuse they use to avoid their civic duty. A monkey from Mars could tell you that the two candidates had absolutely zero in common.
So the idea that all these millions of new voters would have flocked to Dean is an utter delusion that was unequivocally disproved in Iowa.
But honestly, that's not what Dean's candidacy was about. Dean made his splash onto the scene when he gave his famous "what I want to know" speech at the Democratic convention in LA in January of 2003. Now two weeks prior, Kerry made a speech at Georgetown University in which he lambasted the Bush administration and their drive towards war. But the key difference between Kerry's speech and Dean's speech, is that Dean was not really criticizing Bush -- he was criticizing the Democrats.
Kerry was running as presidential candidate. His basic message was, "I have the experience, and this is what I want to do as president." Dean however, was trying to start a grassroots movement. He wasn't so much running for a position as he was attempting to change the party. Even he himself admitted that the real initial reason he ran was to raise issues about the Democratic party, and that he never expected to win, or for his candidacy to gain traction.
So when Trippi says that Dean's talents are better suited as senator of Vermont, he's completely full of it. Being a good senator takes the prosecutorial passion of a Chuck Schumer or John Kerry. Someone who can stand on the chamber floor and present a strong case as to why we need more financing for cargo inspections and regulations for investment bankers. This is not the kind of stuff that gets Dean up in the morning. Stuck in a position like this, he would waste away in the back hallways of Washington. What Dean wants to do, and what Dean has always wanted to do is create a Democratic party of the people. A party that candidates like John Kerry could run on and win.
Those millions and millions of people who don't vote are not waiting for the right candidate. They're waiting for the right party. When a candidate -- a single man gets up and says, "Yes, I care so much about you and your issues," it rarely rings true. But when that candidate belongs to a network of people that includes family, friends, fellow church mates, the local fireman, and Eddy down at the butcher shop, you'll be much more inclined to go vote for that candidate. This is something that Dean understands, and it's always been his mission. I think Trippi understands this too, to a certain extent, which is why he endorsed Rosenberg (someone who also gets it). But what Trippi fails to grasp is that right now our party needs a bold leader, far greater than Vermont needs a bored senator.