MEMORANDUM
From: Chris Bellomy, Amateur Radio Guy and Longtime Lefty
To: Establishment Anti-Dean Democrats
Date: December 9, 2003
Re: Electability
Back in July, even before I went to see Howard Dean speak at a rally in Dallas, the constant chatter from Democratic Party regulars was that however appealing Dean may have been to his small liberal base, he was too liberal, too angry, too Northeastern, too conservative, too insurgent, and too Not Clinton to beat George W. Bush next year.
Today, Al Gore endorsed Dean's campaign for the nomination of our party for President. Yes, the same Al Gore that I wouldn't vote for in 2000, precisely because he had been co-opted by your Democratic Leadership Council and its ensnarement in the tentacles of corporate influence. He couldn't win without you. As it turned out, he didn't win with you, either.
You guys burned down the candidacy of Bill Bradley back then because he was too [whatever] to win. And then you went out and rode your guy to a narrow but devastating loss.
Last year, you guys counseled caution to congressional Democrats on issues like the resolution to authorize the use of force in Iraq. Too many Democratic congressmen and senators blindly went along with Bush, causing too many rank-and-file Democrats to stay home last November. In a stunning reversal of historical trends, we gave the Senate back to the Republicans in an off-year election when we should have strengthened our hand.
Heck, let's look all the way back to 1994, when Newt Gingrich and his merry band of corporate looters took control of the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. After that, you guys counseled President Clinton to move to the right in his policymaking, in hopes of winning back the political center and ultimately the Congress. Well, you succeeded in convincing a Democratic president to emasculate himself on policy, and he managed to win re-election against a Republican hack in 1996, but we never won back the House, and the groundwork was laid for the radical shift to the right undertaken by Bush after his disputed appointment as President four years later.
In short, you guys moved political center to the right -- and the Republicans just said, "Thanks," and embraced extremist politics that, up to then, had been unthinkable. Moreover, your strategy of pandering to the center DID NOT WIN US SHIT.
Fellas, it is with all that in mind that I not so politely request that you shut the fuck up about the electability of Howard Dean in 2004. You had your chance to prove that you knew what you were doing. You failed. Now step aside and let a genuine grassroots effort have its moment. Win or lose, at least it's a fight that we'll fight on our terms, and not on the Republicans' as you have advised for so long.
