I wonder how the Howard/Hillary contest that year is going to work out?
Just some dark humor for dark times. I don't know how the next few weeks will turn out, but I'll admit I'm not optimistic. I'll support Dean until it's absolutely clear that he's unviable, but I think it's time to start looking towards the future. I actually think it may be bright.
The backup plan to this nomination was always that Dean would be the Democratic Barry Goldwater. Of course Goldwater won the nomination largely because his party had suffered an ideological implosion that allowed him to pick up the pieces. Our party, on the other hand, has merely split up into a group of Northern Alliance-style personal fiefdoms with a lot of individual quests for influence but not much overarching ideology. At this point the Big Tent has grown so large that far too many of its inhabitants are elephants (if y'know what I mean).
Sadly, this wholescale abandonment of Democratic ideals (save for a few exceptions: Russ Feingold and my senator Dick Durbin among them) is now being echoed even by Democratic voters. When "electability" becomes the sole issue by which a party's voters judge their prospective candidates, it's a sure sign that that party has lost faith in its core ideals.
But the Dean movement still has the potential to change that. We can change it by working from the bottom up. We can change it by electing representatives, city council members, hell even fucking members of the school board-- that espouse our values. By working within the party like that, we might finally be able to give people an reason to be Democrats beyond the tepid "hell it's better than Bush" message we're trumpeting today.
We need to make it clear that a Democrat who consistently votes against Democratic values and Democratic positions will face a primary challenge. And we need to make it clear that those primary challenges will be well-funded and well-staffed, by the same mechanism that raised $40 million and thousands of volunteers for an obscure centrist governor from Vermont.
Despite our prowess, I think it's safe to say we lost this round (although who knows, Dean might still pull something out between now and Wisconsin). There are reasons for that: media bias, mismanagement, unfair tactics. The fact is, as it stands Howard Dean's 2004 race seems to be in its last days.
But we haven't lost the war yet. Tom Daschle is still the weak-kneed appeaser he was before you heard of Howard Dean. Zell Miller is the same turncoat. Max Baucus is still the same Republican foil he was in 2001. The anger against these guys that's been so pervasive among Democrats since 2000 (or even since Clinton's impeachment) is still around today. Dean harnessed it; he didn't create it. And we took that newly empowered outrage and we almost won the nomination.
In four years we will try for President again. Maybe with Howard Dean, maybe with someone else who is willing to fight for our values. Certainly for someone who thinks there's more to the Democratic platform than perceived ideas of electability. In the meantime, we must get local officials on our side, and we must replace the corrupt Democratic establishment with dynamic new officials.
Ultimately, a party divided against itself will not stand. And we're the ones who believe in the party, and its ideals-- not the Daschles or Zell Millers of the world. As long as the party runs away from us rather than with us, it will lose and lose.
If we want to see a strong party, a party that defeats the Republicans again and again, we must first create a party that is confident in its own beliefs. A party that is not apologetic when it talks to minorities about race, or women about abortion, or seniors about healthcare. A party that is willing to fight for the right to an equal opportunity society, a party which contributes votes and organization to advance those issues, and not just empty rhetoric in November.
If Howard Dean can build that party then, despite everything, he has won this race. And that, to me, is why I look forward to the next months and years. We all thought the long battle to take our party back would be won this year. That was naive; in fact, it's just begun. I can only say, "Bring it On".