Let Us Now Praise…Howard Dean

Let me just say, for the record that I always liked Howard Dean. I mean, not that I voted for him (as an independent I am not eligible to vote in party primaries in Pennsylvania, and anyway, by the time we had our primary it was a done deal), but he always came across as a genuine human being in a sea of pre-programmed stuffed shirts (I mean, c’mon Gephardt? Kerry? Not to mention the terrifying war-bot Clark. And I never fell for John Edwards’ southern charm schtick – I actually prefer Dick Cheney’s crusty old man schtick and thought he mopped the floor with Edwards in the VP debate).

I liked it when Dean said he wanted the votes of “guys with confederate flags on their pickups.” The other candidates reacted with utter shock and horror, like they didn’t want those votes too and were too pure to even suggest such a thing. Gimme a break. Dean was the only one honest enough to say so (and, anyway, aren’t those guys entitled to cast a vote too??).

And Dean was the only candidate with a real shot (sorry, Dennis and Al) who was unapologetically against the Iraq war from the get-go. Iraq was not a threat to us and we shouldn’t be engaging in preventive war, he said. And that seems, well, right.

The Dems, we are encouraged to believe, are committing electoral suicide by electing the “left-wing” Dean as head of the DNC, but it’s clear that Dean is fairly centrist on a lot of issues. For one, he had a reputation as a budget hawk in Vermont and takes what seems to me to be a quite sensible federalist approach to gun control. Which is not to say that I don’t have my disagreements with him, I just don’t think he’s some kind of scary left-wing boogeyman.

In fact, here libertarian Justin Logan suggests that what the Dems need to do is reposition themselves as an “America First” party and that Dean might be the guy to do it:

[W]hat I think the Dem leadership needs is a blue collar, unapologetic, mildly nationalist, workin’ man’s pugilist. A non-Klan baggage Bob Byrd. Somebody who you’d feel AOK if tasked with responding to an attack, but who harbors only contempt for people like Bill Kristol. Somebody who can explain that it’s blue collar folks who’re payin’ for this high falutin’ war, with their blood, and with their paychecks, and that somebody’s gonna stand up for them when it counts.

That we’ll respond viciously if attacked, but that we care for our own first. This leader would point out that the current president seems almost to care as much about each Iraqi as he does each American. This fightin’ tough, blue collar pugilist would (of course) demagogue economic issues like social security and outsourcing, and take a stand for the little guy. He’d claim that the Republicans don’t know how to stand up for anything other than big business and Wilsonian adventurism, and that he’s not gonna stand idly by and watch the Bush administration fritter away this country’s essence.

Now, of course, there are elements of this platform that I think are dopey, but I think it’s as close to a winner as the Dems are likely to come up with. The party of Nancy Pelosi is never, never going to be the hawk party. It just isn’t. What I think Dean can bring to the table is a *perish the term!* America First mentality that should be bubbling up in some wavering Red Staters. […]

I think Dean could actually hold his own, and come off as a strong, gun-rights-believin’, health care socializin’, America Firstin’, fiscal discipline favorin’ leader. Now, of course, the Dems would have to tweak their positions on gun rights and fiscal sanity, but they ought to be willing to be flexible if there’s a Great Vermont Hope out there.