Dean's Seminal Speech on Race Relations

[stickdog]

While the circular firing squad keeps reloading, more and more people are discovering that they like their poltical contests leavened with a little hard truth.

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=9b38b5de052cf8c12c6ce9e9e55a7546

Howard Dean Signifies New Tack on Race for U.S. Politics

www.BlackCommentator.com, Commentary,
Glen Ford and Peter Gamble, Dec 28, 2003

Howard Dean’s December speech (in South Carolina)is the most important statement on race in American politics by a mainstream white politician in nearly 40 years. Nothing remotely comparable has been said by anyone who might become or who has been President of the United States since Lyndon Johnson’s June 4, 1965 affirmative action address to the graduating class at Howard University.

For four decades, the primary political project of the Republican Party has been to transform itself into the White Man’s Party. Not only in the Deep South, but also nationally, the GOP seeks to secure a majority popular base for corporate governance through coded appeals to white racism. The success of this GOP project has been the central fact of American politics for two generations – reaching its fullest expression in the Bush presidency. Yet a corporate covenant with both political parties has prohibited the mere mention of America’s core contemporary political reality: the constant, routine mobilization of white voters through the imagery and language of race.

On Dec. 7, Howard Dean broke that covenant, saying:

"In 1968, Richard Nixon won the White House. He did it in a shameful way – by dividing Americans against one another, stirring up racial prejudices and bringing out the worst in people. They called it the "Southern Strategy," and the Republicans have been using it ever since. Nixon pioneered it, and Ronald Reagan perfected it, using phrases like "racial quotas" and "welfare queens" to convince white Americans that minorities were to blame for all of America's problems. The Republican Party would never win elections if they came out and said their core agenda was about selling America piece by piece to their campaign contributors and making sure that wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a few. To distract people from their real agenda, they run elections based on race, dividing us, instead of uniting us."

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. yes this is a new dawn only if we can exploit it

I feel DK is on the same wavelenghts as the doctor, he is just not
getting any play

[stickdog]

2. Personally, I think DK would get a lot more play if he

packaged himself as "Dean without the compromising."

[DemBones DemBones]

4. Very true -- I hope you'll read my proposal below about how to

get Dean to stop shooting his mouth off and simultaneously shooting himself in both feet.

Voting for a compromising centrist is distasteful enough -- voting for a liar is too much for my party to ask of me!

[Upfront]

13. Dean Speaking In Iowa

In this speach while speaking about candidates who voted for war, Dr. Dean singled out Dennis Kucinich, by saying Dennis was the only candidate who had the courage to speak out against and vote against the war. My take was he was attempting to make amends by clearly stating that Dennis was along in not voting for the war, and he also, had the guts to speak against it. Hope this helps some of Dennis supporters feel a little better. My support for Dr. Dean is strong, but I am sorry when he makes this kind of error, and he did with Dennis on this one.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. This is one time when I disagree with the Black Commentator.

Dean can talk the talk pretty well but he doesn't walk the walk. He would be yet another enable of corporate power, wealth, and monopolies, and do little for the people, black, white, Asian, or Latino.

It is particularly disappointing how his supporters make excuses for his lies and gaffes, and for his record. Why don't you correct his errors?

Dean tells you that you have the power. Why aren't you using your power to tell him that he's wrong to lie and dissemble? If this really is a bottom-up campaign and you really have influence, you need to tell him he's turned a lot of Democrats against him with his lies. If he gets the nomination, he needs to try to win us back if he's to have any hope of beating Bush. It's almost too late; I'm not at all sure he can win me over. But he can stop the damage where it is.

It's time for him to stop bashing the other candidates as Bush Light when the description fits him so well. It's time for him to stop falsely claiming that he's the only candidate to oppose the war from the start. Dennis Kucinich has called him on that before and I thought he'd agreed not to make the false claim again but now he has a new flyer out wit the same old claim. Does he also still claim to be the only white candidate to talk about race with white audiences?

It's one thing to say "I'm the better choice because yada yada yada" when yada yada yada is all true, quite another to set yourself above others by lying.

Demand that your candidate, Howard Dean, stop lying -- for his own sake.

Otherwise, "If It's Dean, I Go Green." It's your move, Dean supporters. Use your power for good.

[ima_sinnic]

5. I have not heard Dean lying

. . . build up your own candidate instead of bashing mine.

[burning bush]

6. Otherwise, "If It's Dean, I Go Green." ???

Why not:
"If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit!"

You sound like an OJ Simpson defense lawyer.

I have yet to hear Dean lie about anything, and I have the feeling you'll go green regardless of which Dem gets nominated. So...take your threats and go play by yourself.

[Cheswick2.0]

9. well suit yourself

:cry:

[Polemonium]

7. Use your power too

I'm tired of the line if things don't go my way, I give up. Democrats should be focusing on energizing the base and getting others involved. Dean has inspired many to get involved. Dean is listening to his supporters, which is something that has led him to a more progressive agenda than he would have had if he wasn't listening to the base.

If you cross your arms and watch this thing from the sidelines, it is you that are helping ensure that Dean becomes what you don't want him to be.

Imagine a democratic president who was elected on small donations, and huge grass roots support. Do you have any doubt that the country would be much better for it? A candidate not tied to corporate money only happens this year if we make it happen. So the question is are you going to be whining from the sidelines that only 5% of the millions of Americans share your world view, or are you going to do everything you can to get in the ear of a candidate who is listening to the people for a change.

I love Kucinich, I am a green, and while Kucinich is a great thinker and ideas man, Dean has the power to inspire people to engage in democracy again. I'll gladly support Kucinich if he gets the nomination, and I hope you will consider supporting Dean if he wins.

[stickdog]

8. Dean's opponents love to say "it's just rhetoric."

But rhetoric itself is very important -- hence the Newspeak language of 1984.

This election year, there is a fight going on about what issues can and can not be put on the table vs. Bush. To Dean or DK, all is fair game, and that's the way it should be.

Yes, it's up to Dean's supporters to make sure Dean follows through on his rhetoric, but don't underestimate the inherent value of someone who simply has the guts to clearly broadcast the truth while almost everybody else is hedging.

Rhetoric has a life of its own. Yours as well as Dean's.

[stickdog]

10. An example of the sort of rhetoric that has a life of its own ...

because it turns your "not enough Dem loyalty" criticism of Dean on its head.

[Hep]

11. I think I'd rather demand

that you either show you credentials from psychic friends or stop predicting the future.

Go green. PLEASE. Come back here on November 3 and say you voted GREEN.

[artr2]

12. Have fun voting for bush

when you vote green this time