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| Republicans Fear Dean |
| 12.09.03 (9:38 pm) [edit] |
It is a daily habit now for Republicans across the nation to lambaste the front-running Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. The former governor of Vermont is now the constant barrage of right-wing message men sent to attack at every opportunity. Its as if the Clinton’s have fallen off the face of the earth.
But the "right" has every reason to be on the offensive. They know Dean’s message to the American people is resonating and it will ultimately lead to a Texas style showdown in the west. That’s right, it’s the west, not the south that may determine the presidency.
For those cynical to the thought that Dean could give Bush a real race, lets examine some key variables that will play into the minds of the voting electorate on that decisive Tuesday in November.
First and foremost, the country is still evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. According to a new Los Angeles Times poll, the country is as divided today, as it was in the 2000 election when Republican George W. Bush barely beat Democratic candidate Al Gore. And you don’t need a poll to recognize the continued deep divisions along gender, racial lines and issues debating the moral and cultural values of the country.
Secondly, in a field of nine candidates, Dean has managed to solidify a base that is ready to mobilized against President Bush. Let us not simply mistake them for Democratic Party activists and anti-war pacifists. No, Dean’s base is also represented by those who will not forget how Bush fraudulently won Florida in 2000, disgruntled democrats that turned Green and by a youth vote that began to rally against G.W. during the lead up to the war.
Conservatives may claim Dean’s eventual nomination as a sign from God that Bush is meant to be president, but history is on the side of the New York stock trader turned doctor. The Democratic presidential candidate has won the popular presidential vote three times in a row--twice, under the guidance of the skilled triumvirate of Bill Clinton, Paul Begala and James Carville; but most recently with Al Gore at the helm. And demographic trends (particularly the growth in Latino voters) tend to favor the Democrats going into 2004.
Most historically, President Bush will be running for reelection after a two-year period in which his party has controlled both houses of Congress. The last two times the American people confronted a president and a Congress controlled by the same party were in 1980 and 1994. The voters decided in both cases to restore what they have consistently preferred for the last two generations: divided government. Since continued GOP control of at least the House of Representatives seems guaranteed, the easiest way for voters to re-divide government would be to replace President Bush in 2004. And with a plurality of voters believing the country is on the wrong track, why shouldn't they boot out the incumbent president?
Predictably, the conservative machine will speciously paint Dean as a “mad leftist wacko” who wants not to revert the country back to greater times, but to convert the country into socialism. Unfortunately for them, the Vermonter has been barely liberal. As governor, his policy almost always came from the center. Dean even cut income taxes during a budget surplus. Today, Vermont remains in surplus while 38 states are mired in fiscal crisis. But republicans will benefit from his one liberal stripe as governor. His signature on the controversial civil union legislation, which is still the single civil union law passed in these 50 states of America.
On foreign and defense policy, look for Dean to say that he was and remains anti-Iraq war and Karl Rove knows, there are lots of traditional centrist foreign policy type voters that were also anti-Iraq war. But Dean will emphasize that he has never ruled out the use of force, including unilaterally. In fact, expect him to say that he believes in military strength so strongly that he would increase the size of the Army by a division or two. It's Bush, Dean will point out, who's trying to deal with the new, post-September 11 world with a pre-September 11 military.
Thus, on domestic policy, Dean will characterize Bush as the deficit-expanding, Social Security-threatening, Constitution-amending on radical, while positioning himself as a hard-headed, budget-balancing, federalism-respecting compassionate moderate.
Yet, they say he’s unelectable. That he can’t possibly pick up one of the 14 southern states Bush dominated in 2000. But Dean will be allowed to redefine himself after the nomination. It appears, as though, Dean will try to meet southern voters head on, rather than run tail. He will offset the conservative falsehoods with his centrist and patriotic platform.
Still, dubyas greatest asset is his handling of 9/11 and the war to root out the Taliban in Afghanistan, while putting both Osama and Saddam on the run. But his lack of a well thought out exit strategy from Iraq may be his notice of termination from the Whitehouse by the American people. Do not be fooled by Conservative arrogance over the Dean/ Bush match up. They’re already chomping at the bit because they know Dean’s gonna give’em all they can handle.
---Proletariat-- E.D. Petty © 2003-2004
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posted by: SamAdams (reply)
post date: 12.10.03 (7:30 am)
Absolutely right ... Karl Rove is scared shitless ... and, Dean can run circles around Bush intellectually and on the court of ideas ....
Dean must be strong-- because the corrupt Bushies will play ugly, dirty and immoral (illegal) games and try to rig the 2004 election, as they did in 2000.
posted by: WinstonSmith (reply)
post date: 12.10.03 (9:57 am)
Well said ... and remember that when Reagan ran they said that an ex-actor (although he had been governor) would never become president ... You are right, and I think the Bushies must be very worried, especially following Gore's endorsement of Dean ...
Wonder how the Bushies will rig their 2004 banana republican coup d'etat?
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