Dean Lays Out His DNC Platform

Compliments of Kos, here's John Dean's formal letter announcing he wants to be Chairman of the DNC, with comments by me and snide additions in red. Please, God, grant him his prayer. (Be sure to go to Kos' site, where there were 262 comments at the time I lifted this.)

Today, I'm announcing my candidacy for the Chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, and I am asking for your vote.

Terry McAuliffe will soon step down, leaving the Democratic Party solvent and poised for growth for the first time ever after a presidential campaign. Because Kerry didn't spend tons of contributed bucks. As a result, our Party has an enormous opportunity to build on the energy EEEAAAAAYAAAH! and experience of the last election (Yes, please repeat that experience!) -- and your decision about our next leader will be critical to building a party that grows our base and creates a lasting majority.

We need a party focused on more than the next election. We need to build an infrastructure now that will remain in place not only in 2008, but in 2005, 2006, 2007 and beyond. (Does this chronology make sense to you?) There is only one way to do this: together, we must build from the ground up.

The states are a central piece of that strategy. The Democratic Party needs a vibrant, forward-thinking, long-term presence in every single state. We must give our state parties the tools and resources they need in order to be successful. We must be willing to contest every race at every level. We can only win when we show up. (P:ursuing this strategy -- trying to turn, say, Kansas red -- is about as nonsensical as the GOP spending money on presidential campaigns in California, which it does not do.)

Another integral part of our strategy must be cultivating the party's grassroots. Our success depends on all of us taking an active role in our party and in the political process, by encouraging small donations and other donations from Soros, by taking the Democratic message into every community, and by organizing at the local level. After all, new ideas and new leaders don't come from consultants; they come from communities.

As important as organization is, alone it cannot win us elections. Offering a new choice means making Democrats the party of reform -- reforming America's financial situation (What if they're working fine, as it is?), reforming our electoral process (no more DNC corruption), reforming health care (Hillary redux), reforming education (more unaccountability for teachers) and putting morality (appeasement) back in our foreign policy. The Democratic Party will not win elections or build a lasting majority solely by changing its rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other side's positions. We must say what we mean -- and mean real change when we say it.

But most of all, together, we have to rebuild the American community. We will never succeed by treating our nation as a collection of separate regions or separate groups. There are no red states or blues states (Oh, but there are), only American states. And we must talk to the people in all of these states as members of one community. (Oh, but they aren't.)

That word -- 'values' -- has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe. (Must be a mighty big fringe ... or it's just a codeword for 'values.') But when political calculations make us soften our opposition to bigotry, or sign on to policies that add to the burden of ordinary Americans, we have abandoned our true values. (Oh, good, Howard's for Christmas displays in the public square, then! Oh, bad, Howard's for equal rights for terrorists.)

We cannot let that happen. And we cannot just mouth the words. We have to let 'em rip, kinda like this: EEEAAAAAYAAAH! Our party must speak plainly and our agenda must clearly reflect the socially progressive, fiscally responsible, oxymoronic values that bring our party -- and the vast majority of Americans (48%) -- together.

All of this will require both national perspective, which I, as the governor of a tiny and largely irrelevant New England state have, and local experience. I know what it's like to lead hands-on at the state level and I know what it's like to run for national office and crash and burn, experience you're no doubt eager to sieze as your own.

My organization, Democracy for America, has already begun creating the kind of organization the Democratic Party can be. This past election cycle, we endorsed over 100 candidates at all levels of government -- from school board to U.S. Senate. (How many of those 100 won, Howard?) We contributed close to a million dollars to nearly 750 candidates (That's a whopping average of $1,300 per candidate ... wow...) around the country and raised millions of dollars more for key candidates, including John Kerry.

We helped elect a Democratic governor in Montana, a Democratic mayor of Salt Lake County, Utah and an African American woman to the bench in Alabama. Fifteen of the candidates we endorsed had never run for office before -- and won.

I also have experience building and managing a local party organization. My career started as Democratic Party chair in Chittenden County, Vermont (population 148,295). I then ran successful campaigns: for state legislature, lieutenant governor and then governor. In my 11-year tenure as governor, I balanced the state's budget every year.

I served as chair of both the National Governors' Association and the Democratic Governors' Association (DGA). And as chair of the DGA, I helped (that "helped" is a tad vague) recruit nearly 20 governors that won -- even in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi.

All of these experiences have only reaffirmed what I know to be true. There is only one party that speaks to the hopes and dreams of all Americans, but they don't understand what we're saying when we speak, the idiots, which is why we lose. It is the party you have already given so much to. It is the Democratic Party, the party of 48%.

We can win elections only by standing up for what we believe: creeping socialism, immoral social policies and appeasement.

I look forward to speaking with you and hearing your thoughts in the coming weeks. Please feel free to contact me at 802-xxx-xxxx or via e-mail at xxxxx.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.