The Dean Zone
Irony ran thick in a recent July 26 speech by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. After lambasting the Bush administration for dividing the nation, Dean demonstrated his own mastery of divisive rhetoric by accusing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of being an “anti-Semite” and then comparing U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris to communist dictator Joseph Stalin.
Only the esteemed former governor of Vermont turned presidential candidate turned DNC captain could be so duplicitous without batting an eye.
During his remarks before the Democratic Professionals Forum in West Palm Beach, Florida, Dean pointed an accusing finger at Bush, saying the president is blaming others for America’s woes. “It’s always somebody else’s fault,” Dean opined, according to the Associated Press. “It’s the gays’ fault. It’s the immigrants’ fault. It’s the liberals’ fault. It’s the Democrats’ fault. It’s Hollywood people. Americans are sick of that.”
Dean then embarked on his own blame game by firing a few verbal mortar rounds at Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki, calling him anti-Jewish. In keeping with the whole civility motif, Dean also launched into a playground tirade against Katherine Harris. “Thank God for Bill Nelson, because we’d have another crook in the United States Senate if it weren’t for him,” Dean was quoted by the Sun-Sentinel as remarking, referring to Florida’s Senatorial race between Harris and Nelson. “She doesn’t understand that it’s…improper to be chairman of a campaign and count the votes at the same time. This is not Russia and she is not Stalin.”
Such rhetoric is nothing new from the former presidential candidate affectionately known in conservative circles as “the screamer.” To all but the most inattentive observers, such inexplicable paradoxes are expected whenever Dean shoots off his mouth. In one breath, the renowned DNC Chairman chides Bush for being the most divisive president in American history and waxes eloquent about the need for graciousness in political dialogue. In the next breath, he compares a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate to one of the 20th century’s most brutal dictators, responsible for the deaths of millions of civilians, and accuses the Iraqi president of bigotry against the Jewish people.
To understand this two-faced rhetoric, you must enter “The Dean Zone.” In this odd corner of American politics, civility and honor are acceptable, provided they apply to the other guy. Only the GOP is held to a high ethical standard of public discourse. For Democrats, it’s open season. Espousing the merits of honor and decency in politics is fine and good - just don’t hold the Democrats to their own standard when it comes to actual behavior.
In other words, do as I say, not as I do.
Such speechifying from Dean serves as an excellent example of a problem that has the potential to be the Democrats’ Achilles heel during the ‘06 elections - the party has no issues and must rely on vicious attacks in order to remain afloat in America’s turbulent political waters.
Ever since September 11, Democrats have floundered in search of a platform that resonates with the American people. Time and again, they have failed. Democrats assure us that voters simply don’t understand their platform - if they did, John Kerry would be president and two Ted Kennedy clones would be on the U.S. Supreme Court. But that simply doesn’t jive with reality. Values voters recognized the dire implications of the Democrats’ vie for power in ‘04 - major steps toward the legalization of homosexual marriage, failure to recognize the war on terror, less regulation of abortion, slack immigration policies, a continuation of the slide into moral chaos - and they rejected it.
The Democrats’ problem is not that voters lack awareness of their platform. Instead, it is that voters are simply rejecting their platform, which is based not on issues but on bashing the Bush administration and conservatives in general. That’s precisely why the kind of rhetoric rampant in the Dean Zone might hamper the Democrats’ efforts to retake the reins of power during the next election, provided Republicans can exploit the weakness.
Bank on this: If the GOP loses big in November, the blame be attributed to no one except Republicans themselves. The Democrats are providing all the ammunition needed for the Party of Lincoln to maintain control of the U.S. House and Senate. The only stumbling block is if GOP candidates weaken their platform by pandering to moderates and failing to listen to their most active constituencies - a surefire recipe for disaster.
by David N. Bass