Why I like Howard Dean
June 9, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton
January 2005:
“I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for. ”
February 2005 in Kansas:
“I'm not going to have these right-wingers throw away our right to be tolerant. This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good…”
“The issue is not abortion; the issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.”
UPDATE: A few weeks ago on Meet the Press:
“Our moral values, in contradiction to the Republicans', is we don't think kids ought to go to bed hungry at night.”
Last week at a convention in D.C.:
“You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever and get home and still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well Republicans, I guess can do that. Because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives… our vision for America is much better than the dark, difficult and dishonest vision of the Republican party offers America… There's some things you can't possibly agree with me on, such as Civil Rights for all Americans and a woman's right to make up her own mind about what kind of health care she has.
This past Monday:
“The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. They pretty much — they all behave the same and they all look the same and they all — you know, it's pretty much a white Christian party.” [Go here to listen to Monday’s]
Call me optimistic, but I think most Americans are intelligent enough to see these comments for what they are- lies generated on irrational hate. Since I think most people see this, I’m pleased Howard Dean is the chair of the DNC, and I hope he’s there for a good while. He adds a little more humor to my life.
Tonight on Hannity & Colmes Newt Gingrich said he was afraid Dean’s comments would make Republicans lazy- we may depend on Dean to get all of our votes for us. I think we can still make our cases persuasively while the left-wing self-destructs.
Related posts:
- Think I've been Exaggerating?
- Book Review: Reagan’s Children by Hans Zeiger
- Air America Update
- How Todd is Saving England: Part II
- A Sincere Question
- Save G'itmo
Posted in Main Page, Politics, Roger's Posts
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June 9th, 2005 at 1:39 am
When I learned that Dean was chosen to lead the Dems, I actually laughed out loud. After the blow up he had last year in his bid to become president, I figured he would quietly flame out, but it appears that the Democrats weren't satified with a *hopefully* quiet and *partially* gracious exit on his part.
Big Chris
Because I said so blog
June 10th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
I don't see Dean's comments as lies, Roger, just reality from a different perspective – one not exactly like mine, but no entirely dissimilar to mine.
June 10th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
So then it's true that “right-wingers” are trying to throw away tolerance, are evil, want children to go to bed hungry, have never earned an honest living, want to deny civil rights to all Americans and look the same since we're all white Christians? Come on Bill, that's absurd. Please tell that to Ken Melman, the RNC chairman since he's a Jew. Anyone who believes these sort of things clearly isn't living in the real world.
June 10th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
Bill, I know you would only say such a horrible thing if you had no real understanding of who Republicans are, what they believe, and why. It saddens me to hear that you think such hate-filled stereotypes are reasonable. In fact, it's a little scary to me that you have come to believe statements like these that are often said by people like Dean. It's scary because it means that even normal people who actually have had some contact with Republicans have bought into this propaganda. I'm constantly bombarded by mischaracterizations of Republicans–jokes about how they hate people and want poor and gay people to die, jokes about their lack of intelligence, etc., etc. What I don't often hear (if ever) is actual engagement of the arguments and reasons Republicans offer. People like Dean don't have to engage the arguments if they can use emotional rhetoric to convince enough people that Republicans are evil.
The few times when I have been able to get past people's anger and hate for Republicans and explain the reasons for conservative positions, I have been met with assurances that what I have said is completely reasonable…but then they add that I'm different from all the other conservatives because they only hold those positions because they're mean and hate people. I'm not exaggerating. The whole thing is pathetic and disturbing.
I hope you'll read through this past post and consider hearing reasonable people from the other side once in a while and actually giving them the benefit of the doubt that one of their values is *not* wanting children to go hungry, that trying to save innocent human life is *not* preventing women from choosing their health care, and that Republicans do *not* hate minorities (this would certainly be a surprise to Powell and Rice). The fact that these things are not obvious is extremely frustrating.
June 10th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
I think you are being provocative here Bill. We could come up with any number of things wacky folks on the right have said about Democrats and I doubt you'd affirm them as reality from another perspective.
Even if Dean's comments were accurate, they are political suicide, which is why many top Dems are distancing themselves from him (even as they enjoy the $$ he'll bring in from the fringe left).
June 10th, 2005 at 8:36 pm
Howard Dean: “I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Howard Dean: “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Only a Sith lord deals in absolutes.”
Howard Dean: “There's some things you can't possibly agree with me on.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Then you are lost.”
Howard Dean: “Aaaaaaaa!”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: “You were the chosen one!”
Howard Dean: “Aaaaaaaa!”
Palpatine: “Padme is dead.”
Howard Dean: “NOOOOOOOOOOO!”
June 10th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
LOL!!!! That's just too good Tim, you might need to restrain yourself.
I'm hearing the Dean scream…. Aaaaaaaaaaaa!!
June 28th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
Amy, I am not at all pleased by this statement. I have been a registered Republican more of my life than I have been a democrat.
Do you not find it the least bit unreasonable that you are this upset by what Dean has said in the last few months give what Rush Limbaugh has said over the last few decades? How is it that you find this so much more hatefilled a characterization than Rush Limbaughs characterization of the left?
June 28th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
Bill, I was more upset by you saying you agreed than by anything Dean said. I expect these sorts of things from him, but if even you think that Republicans want kids to go to bed hungry, then there's really a problem. Whether you're pleased about it or not, if you think these things are true, you don't understand the motivations of Republicans. You're not basing your assessment of them on what they say and do (since you've said you agree with many of their actions), but only on what you feel their true motivations must really be. You're guessing and making assumptions, and it's unfair for you to critique people based on your assumptions and not their actions and explanations of their actions.
Secondly, I haven't listened to Rush Limbaugh for years, but what I've heard him say in the past has not been like these comments by Dean. Limbaugh may critique the actions of liberals and the results of their policies, and he may do parody sketches about different people, but I've never heard him say he hates liberals, and I've never heard him say liberals have secret evil motives–even if he thinks they are wrong or even foolish. There's a difference between 1) making fun of someone and/or trying to convince others that person is wrong and 2) ascribing dark, secret, evil motives to the opposition–saying they want to kill certain people or starve children. This second kind removes the possibility of debate because it shifts the discussion from the issue to something you can never prove about a person (their secret motives), and there's no way to argue against this kind of emotional rhetoric. Limbaugh worked to convince people liberals were wrong, not evil.
The same goes for the other people I've heard (with the exception of Savage). They critique the actions and results of liberal policies, but I do not hear the kind of hate (and by “hate” I don't mean criticizing, I mean characterizing the opposition as having secret evil motives and actually *saying* they hate someone) that I hear from Dean and Air America. But if you have examples of comments like these from Limbaugh, I'm open to being proved wrong here.
I talked about all this earlier in the post I referenced in my comment.
June 28th, 2005 at 6:25 pm
Bill, you are being partisan here. The issue is not what Rush Limbaugh has said (which I agree qualifies as “hatefilled” at times) but with statements made by the elected head of the Democratic National Committee. Rush Limbaugh has never been elected to any position within the Republican party, but Dean is the DNC chair. Until you clarify how your position is different from or similar to what Dean has said, I share Amy's sentiment that “you would only say such a horrible thing if you had no real understanding of who [we] are, what [we] believe, and why.”
June 29th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
I actually disagree with a good number of Republicans actions. I agree with the Republican tendancy toward laissez fair economic policies and free trade (though Clinton did better at this than Bush). I don't believe you yet have a sense of the complexity of my political views. I haven't yet said much about them, I know. Please though, don't assume they are simple.
Saying that he hates the Republican party may be a sentiment I've never directly heard from Rush Limbaugh. I have heard a great deal of condecension, disrespect, implication of stupidity and immorality. If Limbaugh hasn't said it directly, and I believe he has, he has certainly inferred secret motives of the “liberals” he exists to attack.