I originally posted a version of this in Josh in Chitown's diary, as a reply to his implication that, by declining federal matching funds, Howard Dean was somehow "not playing by the rules."
I posit not only that he IS playing by the rules, but that if he wasn't, it's a GOOD thing. Accepting matching funds may be this great altruistic ideal, but it's suicide against Rove.
Firstly, I believe the campaign finance rules were clearly set up to limit massively-funded insider campaigns backed by a few megadollar corporate donors who give thousands of dollars - like Bush.
The rules were NOT intended to keep a massive popular groundswell of grassroots support from resoundingly supporting a populist candidate with hundreds of thousands of small-dollar donations - like Dean.
Dean's campaign IS campaign finance reform DEFINED. Lots of average people giving small donations, swamping and overpowering the possible influence of a few large donors. That IS the little-d AND big-D democratic ideal. THAT is how we beat Bush. The power and purse of the people.
Besides, from a realpolitik standpoint, it's insane and suicidal to cling to "the rules" as an excuse to unilaterally disarm against the most powerful political war machine ever seen.
The idea that we can accept matching funds, then hold our heads up high after being creamed and say "At least we fought fair" is pernicious, wrongheaded and just plain wimpy.
We're facing evil in 2004. Pure, unmitigated evil. It behooves us as a party and us as a people to fight that evil with everything we have - every dollar, every volunteer, every mousepad, every shoe and every bit of hope.
If we don't go all-out, and we tie our hands behind our back in the name of purity, cleanliness and "campaign finance reform," we WILL lose this election.
If we lose in 2004 knowing we didn't throw everything we had at the Rove machine, if we lose knowing that we didn't go all-out for fear we might "not play by the rules," what will we say to our children, and to the generations to come who will face the irreparable damage that Bush can and will do in his next term.
I refuse to play by the rules in this election, because I don't want to tell the generations of Americans to come that "Well, we lost and doomed America to a neo-conservative regime for four more years and to a fascist Supreme Court for at least the next decade, but at least we lost fair and played by the rules. That's a moral victory, see?"
It's like the French Resistance. The Maquis... they didn't fight fair. They fought dirty, in fact. Blew up troop trains, sabotaged highways and generally wreaked havoc with the Germans. They're heroes, because they didn't play fair. They risked everything to save a nation and a planet from fascism - and to hell with fairness and decency and playing by the rules.
No, I want history to read that we patriotic Americans didn't play by the rules - and in doing so, resoundingly defeated the growing neo-conservative threat to liberty, justice and the Constitution.
In 2004, winning isn't everything. It's the ONLY thing.