This Is Where I Came In (Dem Party-wise)

I was almost on board with the electability thing as far as Kerry was concerned.

I'm a Dean supporter and will vote for him in the primary in March if he's still in the race or not, but I was getting a little easier about holding my nose and voting for Kerry if he's the nominee while ignoring:

      Kerry's coziness with special interest money
         Connection with Torricelli and Gibbs in the Osama Iowa ad

       Vote enabling Bush to invade Iraq

       Vote enacting the Patriot Act

and other things I've heard that I find troubling...

I'll probably still vote Dean in the primary and Kerry (if he's the nominee) in November. But reading this article someone posted a link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42676-2004Feb14?language=printer

 to in Trapper John's thread on the main page has reminded me...these are the Democrats we're talking about.

Dean and his campaign took me to a remembered place of values and ideals which I first associated with  the Democratic party when I was growing up. Responsible for Viet Nam, sure. But also associated with the best of America: human rights and dignity, compassion and standing up and fighting like hell to make things right. Dems were the party of the working class, the underclass. Repubs were the party hugging corporate influence and the affluent.

Dean made me forget for a moment the party I'm dealing with here and now. You'd think after thirty years of electoral practice I''d be sharper than this...

This Washington Post article is essentially a discussion where Kerry spokespeople, Tom Daschle and Nancy Pelosi map out the Democratic  platform for the coming election.

Parts of it that stuck out for me were these:

In a nod to the party's more conservative members, especially those in the South, Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said there is broad agreement to play down gun control and other cultural issues.

Ah, Zell Miller's defection stings, doesn't it?

So much for attacking head to head on the guns, gays and God coding the Repubs use to hold on to the South as Dean wanted to do, neutralizing it's deceptions with an economic message of how the Repub policies screw NASCAR dads and their families.

Understandable. It's a broad expansive project that would have to happen over a period of YEARS and through many election cycles. But it's still disappointing to see the Dems not even plant one small flag here.

But if we don't hold or gain seats in the south this time around, THEN can we try something like Dean proposed? What is the risk? It seems we pay an awfully high idealogical price for crumbs here...

Also, so much for the idea that Kerry is a more progressive  Dem than Dean who had more "conservative" stands on guns. I  guess, in a way, Kerry CAN have it both ways: he's more liberal on gun issues than Dean but the campaign will be staying tactfully silent on that so what difference does it make?

According to the article,

The result: Voters this year likely will be presented with two clear, but not dramatically different, approaches to solving the nation's domestic problems, ranging from failing schools to soaring drug costs.

That's the old Democratic party I know and hold in contempt...clearly different, but (whispering now) just not too much....

Democratic officials say this split-the-difference policy approach reflects the party's nascent November strategy of stoking its base, already aggressively anti-Bush, but also appealing to swing voters as Clinton did in 1992 and 1996. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean's approach of playing to liberal activists with confrontational ideas such as eliminating all of the Bush tax cuts has been largely rejected by voters and most members of Congress.

Kerry, Daschle and Pelosi said they are confident that Democratic liberals, moderates and conservatives will remain so united in their loathing of Bush that the policy disputes that have long divided the party will cease or at least quiet to a whisper. They point to one constant in polling of voters in primaries and caucuses: Democrats across the board are more concerned about electability than ideological purity.

And then there's this priceless (and unfortunate) quote from a Kerry aide:

"The political reality of being out of power . . . means people will swallow things they usually wouldn't," said Steve Elmendorf, a senior aide to Kerry.

Wonderfully honest but a little too tough to...digest so soon after the idealism of the primaries...

Assuming Kerry wins the nomination, party leaders said, the Massachusetts senator will have two distinct advantages in keeping Democrats in Congress united behind him: his long record of Senate service and his political wild card in congressional dealings, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). Kennedy can help keep liberals on the reservation when Kerry reaches for the center in the general election, Democrats say. "What Senator Kerry wants to do is to harmonize this message, so it's working for the Senate, working for the House and working for [himself]," Kennedy said.

That's what I keep forgetting. A candidate needs to worry about keeping the other guys in his party in Washington happy first. Silly me. I kept thinking it was about you and me and the other little guys going to the polling places and sending in our little checks.

The Democratic nominee will inherit a congressional party that has been slow to adopt a pugilistic minority mentality but has shown signs of starting to fight  as one in the aftermath of the 2002 elections, when they lost seats in both chambers.

See? When Dean is 'confrontational' that's something we need to stamp out! When it's the party adopting a fighting tone,,,well, that's what we've been waiting for!

Thanks, guys, I needed to see this. This was my morning after wake up call. Basking in the dreamy eyed idea that the Democratic party stands for the values of my youth  which Howard  Dean--that centrist from Vermont--awakened has been like a rowdy and wonderful week long party.

Reading this and knowing I will be probably be voting Dem for president in the Fall is like waking up with one doozy of a hangover...