Why Dean supporters should stay in the race
Derosa, David
AS SOMEONE WHO worked on Ralph Nader's 2000 campaign staff, I've grown tired of the question, "What are you `progressives' gonna do in 2004?" Coming from party-line Democrats, it sounds more...
...Nader's best motto in 2000 was "Vote your conscience, not your fear...
...And Ralph's true believers ask the question as if it were rhetorical— because no argument could undermine Ralph's airtight logic for another run...
...All voters to the left of the ever-moving "center" must help make Kerry the candidate he needs to be to win...
...When Kerry and the other major candidates were reading from the Democratic Leadership Council's timid and timeworn script, Dean was honest enough (and sometimes careless enough) to think out loud...
...I believe that most Dean voters, and many Nader voters, will vote for Kerry...
...In our quest to reach 5 percent of the electorate, we could tell the truth about issues Democrats and Republicans couldn't, while inspiring some voters to go back to the polls who had written off voting as irrelevant to their lives...
...Dean described the task best when he said, "We must take back our party, then take back the country...
...He smiled and compared our predicament to the one he faced when he first took office—when he was determined to transform the state's health care system in one fell swoop...
...If these people wanted me, but got Kerry, they should still vote for him in November—because he's much better than Bush...
...Coming from party-line Democrats, it sounds more like a threat than an inquiry...
...Dean's honesty energized the youth of America as no candidate had since Eugene McCarthy in 1968, and no contender since Jesse Jackson in 1988 had made such a bold appeal for the Democratic Party to return to its populist roots...
...I sympathize with those who feel little enthusiasm for Kerry's candidacy...
...8 n DISSENT / Spring 2004...
...I asked him what his supporters should do if they were disappointed with the remaining Democrats...
...At the same time, I urge party-line Democrats to hold off on the bullying, accusatory approach that so many use with Nader supporters...
...Then again, in 2000 I wouldn't have been attracted to a candidate who was best known as a fiscally conservative Democrat with a good rating from the National Rifle Association...
...Just voting for Kerry isn't enough, though—we have to put our passion into it...
...So we went at it incrementally, and that worked...
...It's an idea Dean discussed in his campaign, one that would improve both national and individual political decision making...
...Look, when I tried to fix health care in one bill, it failed...
...When I went to work as the environmental issues outreach staffer for Nader in 2000, I was excited to start fighting on ground that the Democrats had ceded over eight lackluster years...
...elsewhere he looks DISSENT / Spring 2004 n 7 COMMENTS & OPINIONS good on some scales, bad on others...
...This year, our fear informs our conscience, and it compels us to work like hell in defending what we care for, then to vote for the top of the Democratic ticket...
...Insofar as Nader tries to draw Republican voters to him or new voters to the process, he can serve a function...
...But now I've been hearing the question from a newer, more sincere quarter—from troubled fellow "Deaniacs," who appear to honestly want to know what to do in this election cycle...
...So why should we disaffected Dean supporters work for Kerry...
...Like Dean, his fiscal discipline helps distinguish him from Bush...
...Most important, it could give third-party candidates of all stripes a reason to vote for a major party candidate who's dedicated to fixing a corrupt process...
...Here's my short answer: I have no regrets about working for Ralph Nader in 2000, I supported Howard Dean in 2003/2004, and I hope you'll join me in working as hard as you can to elect John Kerry president this November...
...DAVID DEROSA works as a union researcher in Washington, D.C...
...But overall, the best answer I heard came from Dean himself, soon after he dropped out of the race...
...he was the environmental issues coordinator for the Nader 2000 team...
...For those progressives tempted by thirdparty politics, I say this is the year to ask for something concrete, such as a commitment to Instant Runoff Voting...
...Now, in 2000 I might have considered Dean's pragmatism heresy...
...Certainly, any new claims about the "duopoly" ring hollow when it's apparent that one party is so consumed with the fundamental politicization of every issue that it is dedicated to wiping out the other party and all of its bases—organized labor, civil rights groups, gay and women's organizations...
...If so, I ask only that you retrace the sometimes painful steps I took on the path to get to it...
...By bringing estranged voters back to politics, it would give a balance to our representation that's been sorely lacking...
...But if my own experience of being put on the defensive is typical (and from conversations with former Naderites and Deaniacs I believe it is), we are less likely to be enthusiastic, and in some cases may not even vote, if we are treated dismissively...
...I certainly like his record on the environment...
...Think of Kerry as the container for our vision—whether it's national health care, better trade deals, a more "humble" foreign policy while keeping Americans safe, or just getting rid of Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe in the same year we finally say good-bye to John Ashcroft—and act accordingly...
...And I think that kind of pragmatism will work in the general election too...
...I know, I know, such an answer may be anathema to you...
...While Kerry was casting his vote to authorize the Iraq War, Howard Dean was staunchly opposing the bipartisan march into the quagmire of our time...
...He previously worked as a Greenpeace toxics campaigner and for other progressive causes...
...otherwise he is a distraction...
...BUT 2004 REALLY is a different year...
...The level of hostility makes this an undeclared "Civil Cold War"—and like it or not, there are only two sides...
Vol. 51 • April 2004 • No. 2
