An Unwavering BRAD BLOG Endorsement!
By Brad Friedman on 1/11/2005, 3:55pm PT  

Howard Dean announces his intention to run for head of the DNC, and The BRAD BLOG heartily and without hesitation endorses him for the job!

The reasons for our support are well described in these paragraphs from the announcement just posted to his Democracy for America website. (But we will have a bit more to on the matter say below it)...

Today, I'm announcing my candidacy for the Chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic Party needs a vibrant, forward-thinking, long-term presence in every single state and we must be willing to contest every race at every level. We will only win when we show up and fight for the issues important to all of us.

Another integral part of our strategy must be cultivating the party's grassroots. Our long term success depends on all of us taking an active role in our party and in the political process, by volunteering, going door to door and 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, it alone can no longer win us elections. Offering a new choice means making Democrats the party of reform—reforming America's financial situation, reforming our electoral process, reforming health care, reforming education and putting morality 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, only American states. And we must talk to the people in all of these states as members of one community.

That word—'values'—has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe. 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.

We cannot let that happen. And we cannot just mouth the words. Our party must speak plainly and our agenda must clearly reflect the socially progressive, fiscally responsible values that bring our party—and the vast majority of Americans—together.

We couldn't have put it any better than he just did.

But in order to cut off either the Democratic naysayers or the Wingnut trolls out there in Bradville, who may wish to pull the old "He's too far to the left...The Republicans will eat him up!" argument from the primaries out of mothballs, we would say what we said back then. Namely, that old "don't throw me in the briar patch" nonsense was bunk back then --- when the Dems foolishly chose Kerry --- and it's as much bunk now.

Don't play into that strawman scenario. It's a bought and paid for scheme straight out of the Republican playbook, and Dems who fell for it last time are now...well, out of a job.

If there is any question about that, we would point you to the statement of "President" Bush himself..."Fool me once, shame on you...Fool me twice... (pause) (pause)... You can't fool me again!"

Dean was the man then for the Democrats. Dean is the man now for the Democrats.

Anyone who says differently, does not have the best interests of either the DNC or America in mind.

UPDATE: It looks as if the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) also concur with our Dean endorsement, expressing their interests in helping "'the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party' to take a giant step forward by electing former Vermont Governor Howard Dean as the new Chair of the Democratic National Committee next month." Their complete essay gives more good reasons for their endorsement...which we endorse.

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