The Next Great Crossroads

I hesitated before posting this to Running Scared, because it's (a) lengthy [it's too bad Blogger never incorporated 'cut tags' like LiveJournal has] and (b) quite the polarizing document. But then, I have to admit, I began to feel a certain feeling I get sometimes ... a sense of pride when I manage to nail exactly how I'm feeling about something. This is how I feel. Aside from the continual use of the word "we" implying that I'm solidly bound to the Democratic Party, which I did a bit for effect, this is pretty much honestly how I feel about the next crossroads, and so, here we go as I put it out into the ether before getting cold feet. I sent this to Illinois' delegates to the DNC:

I'm sure that you were alarmed as I was to witness John Kerry's defeat on November 3, 2004. It was, for me, a nightmare come true: now, without the restraints of re-election concerns, the next four years will prove to be a neoconservative agenda run amok, and I truly believe that we're going to see some of the worst times this country has ever experienced. Imagine if America had to deal with the domestic horrors of McCarthyism and the wartime horrors of Vietnam at precisely the same time, and that is what is in store for America for the next four years.

I imagine that you are, at the moment, being blanketed with what is called "astroturf" in some circles — the etymology of that coming from the idea of "fake grassroots." But this is something that I actually wrote myself, and is not fake, cut-and-pasted text. Even the "fake grassroots" folks, though, still mean what they're writing about, so I hope you pay attention to them as well.

At the risk of alienating you, I must say I feel the Democratic Party needs a new vitality of purpose, or else it's not going to survive. The Democratic Party faces an extremely momentous decision when it elects its next chair, and this decision will, I believe, determine its very survival.

It is for this reason that I am asking you to vote for Howard Dean as the DNC's next chair.

I believe the Democratic Party lost the November 2 election not because George W. Bush was the better candidate, but because John Kerry's most widespread message was that he was not George Bush. The large bulk of Kerry votes — including mine — were not for John Kerry. They were for "Not George Bush." If a vegetable was called upon to describe itself, if it told you that it was not meat, that would not tell you much about what it inherently was. It could still be a potato, a piece of broccoli, or a carrot.

This was the problem inherent with the widescale Democratic loss in November. We need to start getting out to the public the message, on a widespread, national basis, as to who we truly are — because Air America isn't widespread enough (or, frankly, good enough) to do the job, and the Republicans pundits (like Coulter, Limbaugh, O'Reilly) are. And the people are listening to the only message being publicly shouted from airwaves. Howard Dean knows how to leverage these new medias.

The other alarming trend seemingly being considered by the Democratic Party at the moment is the adoption of a more centrist and conservative platform, as a reaction to the large conservative showing in the 2004 election. I think that may be a fatal mistake. If the Democratic Party positions itself as "Republicans Lite," then the Republicans are going to vote for the Republicans, and large amounts of alienated Democrats are going to seek out third parties. We will certainly never gain enough of a quorum to bring a Democratic candidate to the White House.

Sen. Edwards' and Sen.-Elect Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention this year were amazing visions of the Democratic Party that resonated and excited the American populace. Bush may have cast himself as a "uniter," but the first term of his Presidency has polarized the American public to a degree never before seen, and that trend will only continue to a far worse degree in his second term as he takes more and more action to further the fundamentalists' and neoconservatives' agendas. The Democratic Party needs to be there as a viable, exciting alternative, to embrace and envelop those who dissent against Bush's tyranny. They need to say, as the cover of the Seattle periodical The Stranger did on November 11:

"Do not despair. You don't have to leave. You don't have to move to Canada. You may feel out of place in this United States today. You may feel like you're surrounded by fundamentalist-church-going, gun-hugging, gay-bashing, anti-choice Bush voters, but you're NOT! George W. Bush only got 51% of the national vote."

An additional, corollary note: Dean has paid attention to the teachings of cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff, who has wisely observed exactly how over the past 20 years, the Republican Party has engineered its use of terminology and thought patterns (i.e., "pro-life" implying that the alternative is "anti-life", etc.) to great success. The Democratic Party must pay attention to this process, as exhaustively studied by Lakoff in Moral Politics and other texts, in order to win back the harts and minds of the American populace.

I am 30 years old, and Howard Dean was the first candidate to motivate me to participate in and volunteer for Democratic politics. Were I there, physically, in your office, I would actually get down on my knees and beg you to cast your vote for Howard Dean as the chair of the Democratic Party, if that would make a difference. I would do this because I believe that your decision is one of those votes upon which, honestly, and I'm sorry for the melodrama, the fate of the country hangs.

Like it or not, America is a two-party system, and thus, the Democratic Party is the only viable alternative to the now-neocon-hijacked Republican Party. The fate of most of the sane people in America rests in your hands as you decide what its leadership will be, and as a result, how viable a competitor it will be. If the Democrats do not reinvigorate themselves, then Karl Rove may be right when he envisions a Republican dynasty stretching far into the future. Please, please, please make the right choice, and elect Howard Dean as the next DNC chair.

Thanks for your time. I hope you made it all the way to the end of this letter — I had a lot to say, but when it's about the future of this country and everything you hold dear, it's hard to cut it down.

If, by any weird chance, this actually influenced anyone, go check out DraftHoward.Com.