There's something happening here ...
"Dr. Dean is a dangerous lefty ... he's McGovern or Mondale ...." scream the DLC.
"He's an ally of Gingrich ... he hates old people and puppies and workers ..." screams the more traditional 'nanny state' left.
He's LIBERAL! No, he's CONSERVATIVE!
Well, he's neither.
I'm not sure that he's even sure how to define the wave he's caught up in.
I'd assert that what we're seeing is a new movement toward Pragmatism. The old black/white, liberal/conservative, Commie/Corporatist dichotomies don't serve us well any more, if they ever did. The world moves too quickly for poles to settle out. The needs and swings of society are fluid. What we have to return our Democracy, and the Democratic party to, are simple, basic foundations.
What works for us as a country?
How can we share and develop the common values that could make us a force for good in the world?
How can we shepherd the legacy left to us by our forebearers, and steward it better and brighter for our children and grandchildren and the world they'll live in?
I think that those like myself who are drawn to the Dean campaign, whether we be enviromentalists or civil rights absolutists or worried about jobs or health care or education, recognize a simple practical search for solutions. A willingness to learn, to adjust, to seek common ground and find what works. Even the anger we hear so much about is somthing other than it appears at first blush: it is really the shout of concern you voice when you watch someone you love being self-destructive.
The other campaigns, for both major parties, look to the past. To fear, to envy, to our base divisions. It appears to me that the Dean campaign, a campaign which is as much lifting the doctor up as being led by himself and Trippi, offers a willingness to work together, to get sweaty and engaged and involved.
A New American Pragmatism is going through the pangs of birth.