Why I'm Still Supporting Dean

A friend of mine wondered recently if Dean's post-Iowa speech (and the subsequent distortion thereof by the mainstream conservative media) had made him unelectable. Nobody at this stage can accurate answer that, but I thought it was a good opportunity for some self-examination. Do I still support Dean? Is he still the best candidate to beat Bush?

For me, the answer is yes. Here's what I wrote back in reply:

WHY I'M STILL SUPPORTING DEAN

1. Dean has balanced budgets, and has delivered healthcare to the children, working poor and seniors of his state. These are two of the most important issues concerning Heather and I, and I regret to say that he's the only candidate in the Democratic field who can claim to have actually done these things. This is the main thing that stops me supporting people like Kerry, Gephardt, Kucinich and Lieberman ... they've been in Washington for years and we've got bupkis to show for it. They've "fought" for all these things ... what they forget to mention is that they've lost, and rolled over to the Republicans when the wind blew their way (like voting on the blank war cheque). Dean may not be perfect, but he's very unlikely to roll over to anybody.

2. Dean has funded his campaign ... the most successful Democratic fundraising campaign ever, btw ... almost entirely through small donations (averaging around $70/person). So far he has raised at least $40 million that way. This is the way it should be done, and has been the big problem hobbling the Democratic Party for years now ... a slow corruption brought on by the "need" to take corporate bribery in an attempt to keep up with the ethics-free RNC. Dean has proven that they don't need to do that. If he leaves nothing else as a legacy, I support his effort to reform the DNC.

3. He has, as Douglas Adams would have put it, an annoying tendency to be right. Look at his actual positions on things (not the broad generalities like "I support children," the real position papers) on the issues. His pre-candidacy positions have all turned out to be right, often well ahead of other Democrats coming around to his conclusions. That's what we used to call a leader with vision.

4. He's doesn't REPEATEDLY LIE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC and PISS OFF OUR ALLIES. He doesn't promote a program one day (getting the positive news coverage) and then CUT IT THE NEXT DAY (like he did with veteran's benefits, No Child Left Behind, etc etc). He's not BLOODTHIRSTY and he's not BOUGHT AND PAID FOR. If he wins the election, he will have done so by BEING ELECTED. All of these things make him morally, ethically and politically superior to the man he will be replacing.

There are qualities I see in all the other Democratic candidates that I wish Dean had. And any of them (yes, even Sharpton!) would be better than Bush. It appalls me that there is anybody in this country dumb enough not to see that the Bush administration is, at best, awash in bullshit. I have to believe that a lot of Bush's "base" are really just putting on a front because they've been Republicans a long time and are proud of some of the things some Republicans have accomplished and can't stand to admit that the lib-ruls were actually right about something -- or many things.

Bottom line: Dean has actually done things the other Dems have only talked about doing (for 30 YEARS) and actually says things real people say. I watched the so-called "embarrassing" post-Iowa rally speech and saw nothing wrong or embarrassing about it. He was firing up the troops after a surprisingly poor showing and over-shouted himself (and he was probably in poor voice to start with). I didn't hear him say anything odd or out of character, I didn't hear him change position on an issue, I didn't see anything in the performance that should be embarrassing -- in context. You could take a cheerleader doing cheers, Photoshop her into a funeral, and it would look bad. Taking Dean's "manic" performance out of context makes him look a little overexcited (at best), but hardly "nuts" like Ross Perot or as silly as Bush "dancing" with Ricky Martin. I'd much rather have a passionate President than a treasonous one, which is what we've got now.

That's why I continue to support Dean, and will support his agenda and ideas (particularly about reforming the Democratic Party) even if he doesn't win the nomination. America needs people like him, and as he often says himself: it's not about him, it's about us taking back our country. These neocon fuckers have warped the very idea of America into some horrible imperialistic overfed retarded cowboy bully that the world fears and which I barely recognise as the country I chose to be a part of 30 years ago. They are to real Americans as Hitler's brownshirts were to real Germans.

I want my country back.