Is Dean putting power in the hands of the people, really?

[AP]

I think this is worth debating, so stick with me for a second before you hit reply and accuse me of flame-baiting and knee-jerk Dean bashing.

I just read MGKrebs's post which says: "I think the Dean "mania" is as much about the empowerment we have been given through the internet driven campaign as it is about him." This is a common sentiment people repeat in defense of Dean's campaign. Some say that that sense of empowerment is MORE important than Dean's politics.

Now, I aslo read Maired's post today which says: "Dean isn't planning on making any substantive changes...Find something among his policies that is going to change the direction in which wealth flows. There isn't one.

He's not going to cut the obscene war-industry budget...He's not going to take the hands of the wealthy elites out of our pockets on healthcare. Instead he's actually planning to give them $88G MORE per year while still leaving 10M people without healthcare. He's not going to end the drugs war, which means that while, if he follows through, he's going to switch some money out of the prison industry, he's just going to funnel into the same elite pockets via the healthcare industry...He says he's going to balance the budget. But on whose backs? Obviously not the wealthy elites' backs, so guess whose backs that leaves! (I added my own comment to this post which noted that Dean's education plan is actually a government subsidy to the banks which give out higher education loans...so the list of policies which relate to wealth transfers is long, I think.)

It has always been my feeling that that wealth transfer is the bottom line when it comes to politics. Republicans would be all for abortion and gay marriage and they'd hate christian fundementalists if they could figure out a way to turn those issues into policies which shifted wealth and power to the wealthiest. And I wonder, how empowered are the people when they're empowering someone who isn't really interested in channeling ECONOMIC power down to the middle and working class?

Discuss.