[Mb-hair] Dean Was Right

[Michael Butler]

    Dean Was Right
    By William Rivers Pitt
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Saturday 11 June 2005

    "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you
were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor
hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."

    -- Revelations 3:15-16

    If the leadership qualities of those in charge of the national
Democratic Party could be squeezed into a shampoo bottle, the directions on
the back of the bottle might read something like this: ³Make tentative
statement. Offer equivocation to avoid appearing adamant. Scramble for cover
when colleague offers stinging critique of opposition. Stab colleague in
back in public. Palpitate and fret, hem and haw. Lather, rinse, repeat.²

    Quite a recipe for success, yes? Not lately.

    For the last several years, the Democratic Party has been, for the most
part, leaving skid marks on the street as they have retreated from
confrontation after confrontation with the radicals who now control the
Republican party. This retreat has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime
to the utterly outrageous.

    Here and there resistance has been put forth - on the Social Security
issue, on the stem cell legislation, on the nomination of Bolton as UN
ambassador - but all too often the most effective resistance to these and
other disastrous policy initiatives has come from other Republicans, and not
from the Democrats. It was the eloquence of Republican Senator Voinovich
that threw sand in the gears of the Bolton nomination, and it was Republican
Senator Specter¹s promised override of any Bush veto of the stem cell
legislation that has made that issue a problem for the White House.

    And then along comes Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC, outspoken and
uncompromising, swinging Willie Stark¹s meat ax with a will and a purpose.
He dared to say that he hates Republicans, that the leadership of that party
hasn¹t worked a day in their lives, that the GOP has become a radical
hothouse of right-wing Christians, almost all of whom are white, and that
House majority leader Tom DeLay should go back to Texas and get his looming
prison sentence over with. Insert palpitations. Suddenly, Democrats like Joe
Biden and Bill Richardson start knocking over furniture and old ladies in
their rush to get to a microphone so they can distance themselves from the
wild man.

    Yes, yes, lather and rinse and repeat. The problem with all the
equivocation is that it obscures a simple fact that requires exposure and
discussion in this country: Dean was right. Ninety nine percent of
Republicans in the state legislatures in all 50 states, and in Congress in
Washington DC, are white. Even in states and districts with large minority
populations, the Republican representatives for those places are almost
uniformly white Christians.

    Of 3,643 Republicans serving in state legislatures across the country,
only 44 of them are minorities, amounting to 1.2%. Texas, with a minority
population of 47%, has 106 Republicans in the state legislature. There are
exactly zero African Americans and exactly zero Hispanics serving in that
body as Republicans. In Washington, 274 of the 535 elected Senators and
Representatives are Republican. Exactly five are minorities.

    Of course, there are ethnic and religious minorities within the rank and
file of the GOP, but every demographic analysis of the party¹s makeup
clearly shows the vast majority of Republicans fit exactly into the
description offered by Mr. Dean. His point, by the way, was not that white
Christians are bad people. His point was that, in this pluralist society
made up of so much diversity, the Republican Party does not represent the
true face of this country. He was also pointing out that the GOP has been
taken over by that small, radical minority of white Christians who believe
separation of church and state is evil, and who believe Biblical law is a
better tool of governance than that pesky Constitution.

    As for hating Republicans, the employment record of the GOP leadership,
and DeLay¹s date with a Houston cellblock, there is method to the supposed
madness here. Those who question the wisdom of Dean firing broadsides like
this look to the old lawyer¹s maxim: When you have the law on your side,
pound on the law, and when you have the facts on your side, pound on the
facts, and when you have neither the law nor the facts on your side, pound
on the table. On so many issues facing us today, Dean and the Democrats have
both the facts and the law on their side. The question becomes, then, about
why Dean is pounding on the table.

    The answer is straightforward, and appropriately bold after several
years of ineffective limp-noodle Democratic leadership. Every time Dean
fires off one of his salvos, reporters flip open their notebooks. Headlines
get made, discussion begins, and a whole lot of people start debating the
facts and merits of his statements. Is the Republican leadership run by
right-wing yahoos? Is DeLay going to jail? Controversy begets press. Dean
can see, as well as anyone else, how effective the moderate, soft-touch,
treading-lightly approach has been working lately for the Democrats.

    But how are we going to win those white Christian middle-America voters
to our side by having Dean basically call them out? asks the ruffled
Democratic leadership. The answer to this lies at the heart of what the
Democratic party has been failing at for a while now. The voters who are
supposedly going to be alienated by this kind of talk are the very same
voters who look for guts, strength and straight talk from the leadership of
this country. All too often, Democratic leaders come off sounding like they
are saying seven things at once, leaving the impression that their spines
are somewhat slippery. Boldness, on the other hand, begets confidence, even
in disagreement.

    These Dean statements also, coincidentally, whip the Democratic base
into a roaring frenzy as they hear an actual Democratic leader speak their
beliefs out loud and in public. One of the things Dean is working on every
day is to redirect DNC fundraising away from the big-dollar donors who give
equally to both parties in order to hedge their bets. Dependence on this
breed of donor causes the party to crab towards the middle and avoid
anything resembling true opposition.

    Dean wants DNC fundraising efforts to be focused on the common citizen,
the Democratic activist who has been screaming at the party to say what must
be said, and Dean¹s inflammatory statements spark the kind of donation
avalanche that turned his Presidential campaign into a financial juggernaut.
He may have lost in the end, but the manner in which he raised campaign
money changed the face of electoral politics. He is porting those lessons
into national DNC fundraising efforts, and statements like these go a long
way towards making those efforts wildly successful.

    Memo to Dean: Keep doing what you are doing. Lather, rinse, repeat.