John Deeth Blog

The Future

Dean Is Back, and Not on the Fringe, Either

The feisty former Vermont governor, determined not to be a fringe player, is boning up on the political right for guidance on how to better organize the left -- not just for November's elections but beyond. He is studying the tactics used by Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and Ralph Reed, who helped make the Christian Coalition a political power. A decade after Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Reed, now a private consultant and adviser to President George W. Bush's campaign, helped usher in an era of Republican power, Mr. Dean hopes to begin to shift the balance back toward his progressive agenda.

"Those people were very organized, they were very methodical about what they did," he says. If history is amused by the ironies, Mr. Dean believes it soon will have to sit up and take notice.

Conservatives dismiss the whole Dean phenomenon as an overhyped, second coming of the 1970s liberal George McGovernites that moved Democrats to the left for years after. But there are two distinctions -- ones that echo themes of the Republican "revolution" a decade ago. First, the record government spending and huge budget deficits under President Bush give Mr. Dean an opening to stress fiscal responsibility. Second, increasing unhappiness about Iraq lets him cast the elections as a moral struggle about what it means to be an American.

"We've lost our standing as the moral leader of the world," Mr. Dean says. "I want [the U.S.] to be the moral leader of the world in how we provide for our people....I want to elect a president as good and strong as the American people."

"We've lost our standing as the moral leader of the world," Mr. Dean says. "I want [the U.S.] to be the moral leader of the world in how we provide for our people....I want to elect a president as good and strong as the American people."

... when "Dr. Dog" and "My Morning Jacket" perform this Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, Music for America organizers will be on hand to sign up young voters and expand their cadre of activists in that battleground state. While that isn't quite what the Christian Coalition might think of as choir practice, there is a genuine sense of community that surrounds the bands, including young people who are involved in their own world -- but distrust traditional politics.