The following is a blog entry I made in my personal blog on March 3, 2004. I bold emphasis below was added for this Daily Kos diary.
I post it again because I am increasingly fearful that if Hillary wins the nomination, she will quickly dispatch of Dean as the DNC chair. That greatly concerns me. I believe in his 50 State Strategy and believe that Barack's success is a direct result of Dean's party building efforts.
Wake up for Dean
Tonight may be the last meet-up for Dean -- possibly forever. If it made sense, I'd prefer to call it a Wake [up] for Dean.
The roller-coaster that was the Dean campaign has long since come to a grinding halt. The plummet on that last turn was a real dozy and has left me aching, frustrated and angry. It is one thing to have a campaign grind to a halt because the candidate is wrong on the issues, made bad policy choices or has a closet or a record from which he cannot disentangle himself. It’s another to have the cause derailed by financial mismanagement, a self-important news media and the "all-important" [that's sarcasm there] concept of electability (more on this last one at another time).
This campaign -- this cause -- was important. It made a difference to a lot of people. People that had given up on politics. People that had lost touch with the importance of exercising their right to petition their government. People that had forgotten that it is not simply enough to show up on election day and vote, but that civic duty demands more -- that civic responsibility is not a curse but a blessing. People needed to be reminded that the power of one -- is not a futile, theoretical or impotent power. It was the greatest right and opportunity provided to the citizenry by the Founders -- some might say bestowed by God (but this is a topic for another time). For many, the Dean campaign offered those reminders and more.
To say that I will miss the Dean campaign is a great understatement. Do I expect his new initiative, to be announced on March 18, will endure beyond November? No, I do not. Its not that I am overly pessimistic, it’s just that I have seen this fervor before. I witnessed it in the McCain campaign. I've repeatedly experienced it in the student cause de jour.
Well meaning people of good faith cannot keep a cause going forever -- they have lives to which to return. The cause needs to have attainable goals to survive. A primary election within a six month window is one. A general election within a fourteen month window is another. Beyond that, in order to keep the motivation and momentum, the purpose must be extremely narrow in its focus: e.g., tax relief (see the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association -- of course it doesn't hurt if the cause directly affects your bottom line), NARAL (or your ethical values), etc.
Unfortunately, like third party candidates, long term causes without narrowly tailored purposes and messages have had -- and are likely to have -- very little success (a recent exception to this general conclusion may be MoveOn.org, although I would posit that it is attempting to be a narrowly focused entity that is constantly reinventing itself by giving quick, attainable goals and then moving on to another issue -- perhaps a story for another time). Some of you may disagree with this conclusion and if you do, please post a comment below. In the meantime, however, I am left with the question of what to do with Dean. It's an important question and I have an unusual answer.
First, let me state that Dean should not be a vice presidential candidate and anybody who thinks differently on this point probably doesn't have the best interests of the Democratic Party -- or the country -- in mind. Nor should he be relegated to lead some amorphous voter drive or progressive fund raising entity -- that role is already being filled by MoveOn.org (note that for every MoveOn.org there are at least five TruthandHope.orgs that have or will fade away shortly after their first met -- or unmet -- milestone is reached). Rather, Dean needs to stay involved in the Democratic Party. He needs to be front and center, motivating the base, retaining the Deaniacs, driving his fund raising machine, and holding Kerry accountable to the progressive ideals that gave the newly-revitalized Democratic Party its backbone. No, I'm not talking about making him Secretary of [fill in the blank].
Rather, let's make him Chairman of the party. That's right, Chairman. We need his energy. We need his excitement. We need his troops. And let's face it, Dean needs a job. This suggestion, of course, means that Terry McAuliffe must go. I don't think that he will be missed.
Terry has only continued the lobbyist-dependant approach that was made popular by Ron Brown. That was fine when the Democrats had a charismatic leader like Bill Clinton, but let’s face it -- one of the main reasons why the Democrats have lost their way is that they have lost touch with their base and with the American people. Depending so heavily on money from Washington made what was happening beyond the beltway secondary or tertiary -- yes, more so than usual. With the Republicans' K Street Project the Democrats' well has dried up, leaving little fertile ground. We need a return to the roots, the people, the issues and the ideals that gave this county the original promise of liberty and freedom for all, and tyranny by none. Because lets be honest, the Republicans have long abandoned the mantle left by Lincoln and have exchanged it for Nixon's Southern Strategy. For better or worse, the Democrats are the party of the People.
You may disagree with me about whether Dean is the person to lead us back to that -- but I assure you that Terry McAuliffe is not. We need to get away from the people that would like nothing more than to allow Bush another four years so as to give Hillary a 2008 run at the White House sans a Democratic incumbent.
Do I really think that people are thinking that way? You bet I do. The Clintons aren't in it for the here and now -- they are in it for history. And Hillary wants her shot at the herstory. But we cannot wait for Hillary to be the heroine on the white donkey. We need relief now! We need motivation now! We need fundraising now! We need hope now! We need Dean!
In the past, I have been a yellow dog Democrat because notwithstanding any other issue, I always "vote the Supreme Court". The last thing in the world I want is for the Huckabees, Bushes and McCains of the world nominating judges to our benches. Period.
This year, however, I will be voting the DNC chair. And if Hillary is the nominee, I have no doubt that she will want to replace Dean. For that (and other reasons expressed in another diary), I will not be voting for Hillary.
Howard, thank you for your service. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for resisting the calls to reward states that violated the crystal clear rules established well in advance by the DNC. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Even though you are not on the ballot, I am voting for you.
P.S. In the unlikely event that Obama wins and Dean leaves his post, perhaps Obama, as the leader of the Democrats, would make Edwards DNC chair. After all, like Dean four years ago, he needs a job.