I'm not here to sing the praises of Howard Dean. Chairman Dean has garnered plenty of adoration around these parts. This diary is all about the
next Howard Dean.
Republicans and Democrats embody different worldviews, and it shows in our leadership styles. The typical Republican leader wants your vote, but requires little else. In exchange, they'll try to make you feel warm and fuzzy about how wonderful America is... just the way it is. And they especially like it when we're passive and compliant.
By contrast, Democratic leaders demand of us that we step up to the plate. They aren't characterized by our adulation. In fact, they only succeed to the degree that they inspire our emulation. Our participation. Our dedication.
They have always required of us that we be the ones to carry the torch forward.
John Kennedy inspired a generation to "ask what you can do for your country". He created the opportunity for idealistic Americans to join the Peace Corps... to help relieve the starvation, disease and poverty of some of the most afflicted parts of the world. Which incidentally built up a healthy account of good will towards America in the eyes of these parts of the developing world. It was morally principled as well as being practical diplomacy. The classic win/win scenario. JFK was a forward-thinker whose vision was big and bold enough that there was room for many others to share it and participate in creating it.
FDR's inspirational leadership pulled America out of the Great Depression and through the greater part of a hellish war fought on two fronts. He developed ambitious public works and infrastructure projects... and put America into high gear as an arsenal for Democracy, industrially, socially and militarily. He didn't do this himself - he inspired the American people to step forward, and they did.
"You want to treat our friend Coretta like a role model? Then model her behavior."
Bill Clinton, eulogizing Coretta Scott King
There's been a lot of analysis about why Dean's supporters were as fervent as we were in the last election. It's true that Dean spoke bluntly and passionately in opposition to the Bush administration at a time when Bush was regarded as untouchable in the wake of 9/11. Dean questioned the justification for the Iraq war early and often. And Dean articulated many of our feelings about this administration that hadn't been given voice in the media or by our elected representatives, by and large. That certainly got our attention.
But one of the things, for me, that sealed the deal was this: Dean's empowering message: "You Have the Power". That assertion is the heart of the democratic idea - that our government's authority derives from the consent of the people, and that we have the capacity - and the responsibility - to change the direction of the country if we don't approve of our government's policies or values.
And it was a call to action.
It's remarkable to hear such a message from a politician of any party. By and large, most politicians are just as happy to have a passive, apathetic and disengaged constituency. Activists are a pain in the ass: they expect results. They hold elected officials accountable.
Besides, we're so much cuter when we're asleep.
Needless to say, although Dean supporters felt empowered, we didn't have the numbers: certainly not in Iowa. And we certainly didn't have the media... that's for sure. But Dean was still right: political power does reside in all of us.
But like any muscle, it atrophies when it is not being used.
I got sick of listening to myself complain, when I read The New York Times in my armchair and asked myself, "Well, are you going to sit there, or are you going to do something about it?"
I was able to say, "Yes, I will. I will do something about it."
Howard Dean, from his book "You Have the Power"
I'm writing this because I want to encourage some of the passionate, opinionated and courageous denizens of DailyKos to do something: Put up or shut up
No, no, no... I don't really want you to shut up. Not at all. But I'd like to suggest that we need to take our fiery pixels of indignation and follow them up with practical work in the world of tangible mass, energy and inertia. I suggest that the focus of our efforts ought to be to take back and transform the Democratic Party into what we are so consistently disappointed that it hasn't been: namely, a party working persistently on behalf of the interests of the working men and women of America. Defending and preserving the rights and the dignity of the common folk.
A party that works for us isn't falling into our laps. We can and must be present to win.
I'm convinced that somewhere out there, one of you... one of us... is the next Howard Dean. And she or he needs to get angry enough when reading the New York Times - or the DailyKos - that she decides she's got to do something about it herself.
But what?
Howard Dean is an example of something that's become all too rare: the citizen politician. He didn't get a degree in political science or in law to focus on cultivating a career in politics. He started out by trying to get a bicycle path built along the shoreline of Lake Champlain. Land which was slated for development as part of a municipal plan. But Dean's group wanted to create a public space allowing access to the waterway.
They won. The waterway got built... and it's now the site of a yearly jazz festival. It's an asset to Burlington, and 80,000 people go there to watch fireworks on the 4th of July.
Just a modest little local political action: a couple of hundred people getting fired up to take back a piece of the waterfront.
Dean persisted in his local political activities. He was elected to be a Carter delegate from Vermont for the Democratic Convention in NYC in 1980. He went on to chair his county's Democratic Central Committee. And then ran for a seat in Vermont's legislature (against Bernie Sanders!) and won. That meant that he was a legislator for about 4.5 months of the year... during which time he worked as a doctor on Mondays and Fridays and in the evenings the rest of the week.
Dean had to move away from his district to house a growing family... which meant that he couldn't keep his seat in the legislature... but ran for Lt. Governor - a part time job as well. And when Gov. Dick Snelling died, Dean succeeded him and became a full-time politician for the first time... as Governor of Vermont.
The point I'm trying to make is summed up by the proverb "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step". It's completely trite... and true.
There's something that's largely been forgotten in American life: we need to be involved. Most people seem to feel like we elect politicians to take care of the issues around governing... so we don't have to.
How's that working for us?
The truth is that we have vital interests at stake that aren't being served by the career politicians. We need to be up in their grilles... and email swarms are nothing compared to a group of folks sitting in on their meetings.
If 1 out of every 100 Kossacks resolved to get involved in their local DFA groups or PDA groups or their local Democratic clubs or central committees, we would be able to rapidly make the changes we want to see happen. If we coordinated our efforts online centrally... to facilitate our distributed local efforts, we'd change the political landscape for a generation faster than we could dream.
We're already doing it. How is it that Dean got to be chair of the DNC anyways? People like us showed up at the DNC regional meetings in numbers that couldn't be ignored.
So this means work. And I mean real work. Not just laboring over eloquent prose for one's diary (and I'm not knocking that). But putting ourselves out on the front lines. Stuffing envelopes. Phone banking. Walking precincts. Holding candidate forums. Driving people to the polls. Drafting resolutions. Circulating petitions for candidates. Becoming candidates.
It will not be easy: not at all. Your local Democratic organization is likely to be populated with cliques of people who are more invested in maintaining their petit fiefdoms than creating a Revolution in Democratic politics. You will, on many occasions, wonder why you bother... why you need this aggravation. Some people will gladly smile at you as they twist the knife in.
But not all of them will. Some will welcome you. Some will be willing to mentor you, if you are humble enough (and wise enough) to realize that you need to learn something about your local political landscape. We have natural allies out there... and we do have each other. And that's a lot.
The thing is, to do this will not only take work, but courage. And that's another function of leadership - to inspire us to find our own courage. It's easy to sit in front of our computers and attack Democratic Senators for not demonstrating the courage of our convictions. Which leaves it up to us to fight for what we believe in. That's our moral responsibility to ourselves, our loved ones, our communities, and our posterity.
This is the fight of our lives. Our forebearers stormed the beaches at Normandy to preserve our liberties and a way of life that is slipping away from our grasp. Many, many of them gave their lives for their country. All we are required to do is give a portion of our lives for ours.
And our children will be paying for the despoiled land, the changed climate... the mountain of debt that will result from the ongoing scorched earth policies of the corporate Republicans.
To combat the willful destruction of our civil liberties, our privacy, our freedom and our environment... this is the challenge of our generation of patriots. Online activism is a wonderful tool... but more is required of us. Much more.
The right wing is not going to disappear. One election, no matter how decisive, will not undo the years of damage done to our nation by the Bush administration and their sycophants. We need to repudiate the entire ideology of the right. We need to build infrastructure. We need to do it ourselves. And we need to do it now.
Who's with me? I want to hear what you are up to in your local efforts to pick up the torch and carry it forward. Tell us your battle stories. Let's inspire each other.
Let's be leaders.