Is Dean good enough? Some progressives say yes.
[A friend who is a Dean supporter and view the Greens as “splitters” and “spoilers” sent me this. We’ve been talking back and forth about the Dean campaign and the Green Party, etc.
This is posted as an “equal time” item, since I’ve also posted some negative stuff.
Very interesting take on Dean, lots of information about his policies which address some of the concerns that have been raised elsewhere.
My response:
a) I’m NOT willing to overlook his policy lapses.
b)
i. I don’t have that “visceral passion” to dump Bush from the White House. Yes, I think he’s bad. Certainly up there with the worst, but I think people’s perceptions are skewed after eight years of Clinton… is Ashcroft really that much more scary than Ed Meese? Cheney and Rumsfeld vs. James Watt and Caspar Weinbarger… Powell vs. Kissenger? Give me a break. I don’t think we’re in the middle of the apocalypse (in the short term).
ii. I’m more interested in the next fourty years than the next four. Dean’s not going to initiate any policy changes that fundamentally change the socio-economic trends which point towards global catastrophe within my lifetime.
c) Dean can win without the Green/progressive vote. Let’s tend to our own base, and be Dean’s “loyal” opposition. I wouldn’t be too unhappy if the dialogue between 2004 and 2008 is between the Dean/Dem and the Nader/Green camp, instead of the Lieberman/DLC and the Bush/Christian Coalition camp.
- Thomas
” It is, in part, a recognition of Duverger’s Law - one of the few reliable “laws” in the social sciences - which states that American-style, winner-take-all, plurality voting systems produce political structures intractably dominated by two parties. “
P.S. England and Canada show that it is quite possible for more than two parties to co-exist in a plurality-based winner-take-all system… canada has five or six “major parties”, and England has three… plus strong nationalist parties in Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has four. Etc.]
Guerrilla of the Week
Editor’s Pick, August 10, 2003
Editor’s Note: He’s graced the covers of both Time and Newsweek. He’s clocking more dollars than Foxwoods on fight-night. He’s even got a blog. The dude’s got mainstream mojo. No doubt.
But everyone on the Left is asking: Is Howard Dean a true progressive with a real shot at the big house? Or is he just another Democratic Party shill with a pocket full of promises and a one-way ticket to the George McGovern Retirement Home for Veterans of Electoral College Blow-Outs?
Today on GNN.tv, we examine the Dean Machine. It goes without saying the tough-talking former Vermont governor is far from ideal by most traditional lefty standards: He’s pro-death penalty, the NRA loves him, and he’s often referred to as a fiscal conservative. He’s famously anti-war, but he’s recently talked about sending more troops to Iraq, not bringing our boys and girls home. Despite all that, it would be hard to argue that Dean isn’t making a pretty damn good case that he’s the best thing the Left has going as we head into the ‘04 election season. He says what he believes, and he’s energized tens of thousands of citizens (including a high percentage of young people) across the country. He also has the Party leadership shaking in their loafers. Just based on the idiotic things Joe Lieberman has said about him, he must be doing something right.
