Howard Dean Democrats Leading America Back to Greatness
Howard Dean is the DNC Chairperson. With his strong leadership the Democratic Party will
again champion the best policies to bring back the promise of the American Dream to all.
Remarks by Governor Howard Dean Accepting the Chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee
I. INTRODUCTION/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
If you told me one year ago that I'd be standing here today, as your choice for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, I wouldn't have believed you. And neither would have a lot of other people.
But let me say that standing here with the opportunity to lead this Party, is a great honor.
I am thankful.
I am humbled.
And I'm ready to get to work.
This was the first race for DNC chairman truly driven by the grassroots of this Party. And so, I want you to know this is not my chairmanship, this is our chairmanship.
You have given me an enormous responsibility. But it is a responsibility we share.
We can change this Party... but only by working together and competing in all 50 states. We can change this Party... but only by working together and becoming a national party again. We can change this Party... but only by working together at thelocal level.
If we want to win nationally, we have to win locally.
With your help, I am certain that today will not mark the end of the process of selecting a DNC chair. Today will be the beginning of the reemergence of the Democratic Party.
We have a lot of work to do.
But we have a bright future... exemplified by the other candidates who joined me in this race. They are all great Democrats.
I want to thank Terry McAuliffe. He has given this party so much. Not to mention every waking day of the past four years as our Chairman.
He has also given us something else - a Party in strong financial shape, with the infrastructure to meet the challenges of the future. That is no small gift. Thank you, Terry McAuliffe.
I also want to thank my family. I wouldn't be here without their support, or their belief in a more fair and just America.
I especially want to thank my wife, Judy, for her patience and her love. She's here with me today.
We all know that we're the party of the big tent and new ideas.
We know that we're the party for young Americans looking for a government that speaks to them... we know that we're the party for working Americans desperate for a government that looks out for them... and we know that we're the party for older Americans and veterans and members of the Armed Services expecting and deserving a government that honors them.
And we know that no matter where you live or who you are, what you look like or how you worship, ours is the diverse party that welcomes you.
But right now, as important as all of that is... it is not enough. We have to move forward. We cannot win if all we are is against the current President.
Republicans wandered around in the political wilderness for 40 years before they took back Congress. But the reason we lost control is that we forgot why we were entrusted with control to begin with.
The American people can't afford to wait for 40 years for us to put Washington back to work for them.
It can't take us that long.
And it won't take us that long... not if we stand up for what we believe in... organize at the local level... and recognize that this Party's strength doesn't come from the consultants down, it comes from grassroots up.
II. STANDING UP FOR WHAT WE BELIEVE IN
The first thing we have to do is stand up for what we believe in.
This week, the Republicans introduced a $2.5 trillion budget that deliberately conceals the cost of their fiscal recklessness.
Their budget doesn't account for the cost of the war in Iraq, or privatizing Social Security. It cuts education, children's health, veterans benefits, and community policing.
As far as I'm concerned, this budget does only two things:
It brings Enron-style accounting to our nation's capital.
And it demonstrates what Americans are beginning to see: Republicans cannot be trusted with your money.
The Republicans know the America they want... and they are not afraid to use any means to get there.
But there is something that this Administration and the Republican Party are very afraid of. It is that we may actually begin fighting for what we believe — the fiscally responsible, socially progressive values for which Democrats have always stood and fought.
Because we are what we believe.
We Democrats believe in fiscal responsibility and we're the only ones who have delivered it.
The first time our nation balanced its budget, it was Andrew Jackson, father of the Democratic Party, who did it. The last time our nation balanced its budget, it was Bill Clinton who did it. Democratic governors do it every single year.
Not one Republican President has balanced the budget in almost 40 years. Borrow and spend. Borrow and spend. Borrow and spend. Americans cannot trust the Republicans with their money.
Americans want a strong and smart national security.
It was Democrats who pushed to create a Department of Homeland Security. It was Democrats who pushed to make our airlines safer. It is Democrats who are now working to make sure we close the remaining gaps in our security. It was Democrats who demanded reform of the intelligence community.
And it is Democrats who are pushing for a foreign policy that honestly deals with the threats of today, and the threats of tomorrow - like securing the nuclear materials around the world.
Republicans had to be dragged kicking and screaming to our side on all of these issues. There is no reason for Democrats to be defensive on national defense.
We believe that a good job is the foundation of a strong family, a strong community, and a strong country. We're going to work to create good high-paying jobs here in America, and we're going to keep good high paying jobs here in America.
And there is no reason for us to apologize for being willing to stand up for our belief that Americans who get up and go to work everyday have the right to join a union.
We believe every American should have access to affordable health care. It is wrong that we remain the only industrialized nation in the world that does not assure health care for all of its citizens, particularly our children
We believe the path to a better future goes directly through our public schools.
We believe that every single American has a voice and that it should be heard in the halls of power every day. And most importantly, it ought to be heard by guaranteeing an open and fair vote on Election Day.
And finally, we believe that a lifetime of work earns you a retirement of dignity. We won't let that be put at risk by leaders who continually invent false crises to justify policies that don't work... in this case, borrowing from our children and shredding our country's social safety net in the process.
The President's plan for Social Security does nothing to guarantee Social Security's future. But it will cut benefits and cost an estimated 2 trillion dollars. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, we will have to borrow 4.5 trillion dollars to finance the privatization of Social Security in the first 20 years alone.
Let me give you a sense of how much money that is. There are 118 million people under the age of 30 in America today. That means borrowing nearly $45,000 in each of their names.
That's a legacy of debt our children don't deserve.
Social Security is one of the proudest achievements of the Democratic Party, and we don't intend to let it fall victim to a dishonest scheme that only serves to heap greater debt on America's young people.
We need to set the agenda. And we're going to work with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and our Democratic governors and local elected officials to do just that.
I met with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid this past week, and we are looking forward to standing together in the battles ahead.
We're all going to need to be united. And we're going to need to be organized.
Really organized.
III. ORGANIZE
That means we frame the issues; Republicans will not tell America what our agenda is. We will do that.
Organizing means raising money not only from big donors but small contributors, not only through dinners and telephone solicitations and direct mail, but also through the Internet and person-to-person outreach.
Organizing means transforming us into a Party that can communicate with its supporters and with all Americans.
Politics is at its best when we create and inspire a sense of community. The tools that were in part pioneered in my campaign — like blogs and MeetUps and most importantly, community building — are just a start.
We are going to use all of the power and potential of technology as part of an aggressive outreach to meet and include voters, to work with your state parties, and to get our message out.
We cannot run 18 state presidential campaigns and expect to win.
You all know we have a strategy for every state and territory. It's very simple. Show up.
People will vote for Democratic candidates in Texas, and Utah, and West Virginia if we knock on their door, introduce ourselves and tell them what we believe. That's what organization allows us to do.
IV. GRASSROOTS
But all of the ideas and organization in the world won't matter if people don't see our ideas as relevant to them, or the political process as connected to them.
So, third, we are going to recognize that our strength lies at the grassroots.
If we are to take our country back for everyday working Americans, Democrats will have to match or exceed the Republicans ability to motivate voters.
You might find this hard to believe... but I'm not much of a Zen person. But I've found that the path to power, oddly enough, is to trust others with it. That means putting the power where the voters are.
That is something Republicans will never understand.
But we do.
V. CONCLUSION
Standing up for our beliefs... organizing... and transforming our party into a grassroots organization that can win in all 50 states: That's how we will rebuild the Democratic Party.
We will rebuild our Party because only we are the party of reform. Republicans can stop progress, but only Democrats can start it again.
And we will rebuild our Party because our greatest strength is something the Republicans can and will never match - the diversity represented in this room.
Look around - we look like America. We are America. Republicans stop progress, but only Democrats start it.
It's going to take a lot of work. And I'm going to be asking a lot of all of you. It is not my chairmanship; it is ours.
Election by election... State by state... Precinct by precinct... Door by door... Vote by vote...
We're going to take this country back for the people who built it.
"When I announced last week that I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency, I urged my supporters not to be tempted by any independent or third party candidate. I said I would support the nominee of the Democratic Party, because the bottom line is that we must defeat George W. Bush in November, whatever it takes...."
"If George W. Bush is re-elected [sic], the health, safety, consumer, environmental, and open government provisions Ralph Nader has fought for will be undermined. George Bush's right-wing appointees will still be serving as judges fifty years from now, and our Constitution will be shredded. It will be government by, of, and for, the corporations - exactly what Ralph Nader has struggled against . Those who truly want America's leaders to stand up to the corporate special interests and build a better country for working people should recognize that, in 2004, a vote for Ralph Nader is, plain and simple, a vote to re-elect [sic] George W. Bush." [Complete Article] See http://naderwatch.blogspot.com/ for more information about how Nader is helping Bush.
In recent years, thousands of good paying American jobs have been sent overseas. Free trade has made it much easier for corporations to do business elsewhere, but free trade does not make it easier to protect workers and the environment elsewhere. This results in lost American jobs and downward pressure on American wages and benefits; leading to just what short sighted leaders in the world business community hoped for - to make quarterly results better.
But the truth is that there are very few "American" corporations of any size left. An even sadder truth is that many of these large multinationals no longer value employees as people, they see labor as nothing more than a commodity. And in the last ten years, they have seen small investors as a commodity as well.
The examples of corporations taking advantage of laborers and consumers are well-known. Enron bragged of how they cheated grandmothers who depended on them for electricity in California and also cheated their own employees by recommending they buy more stock in their pension funds as company executives were selling. [Continued]
"Wisconsin: The Independence to Make Up Its Own Mind"
We Can Win
For Democrats, the most exciting development in the Presidential campaign over the past three weeks is the growing sense that George W. Bush can be beaten.
Howard Dean is the candidate who returned the backbone to the Democratic Party and galvanized it to fight George W. Bush. While the Democrats in Washington were voting for George W. Bush's agenda, Howard Dean had the courage to say that the only way we can beat George Bush is to stand up strongly to him.
Now Democrats all across the country must decide who is best to carry the message of change against Bush this fall: a candidate who truly represents change from outside Washington or a candidate who represents not only business as usual but the go-along, get-along style of the Democratic Party that Howard Dean first challenged?
No Rush to Judgment
Only ten percent of Democrats have had a chance to cast ballots so far. Wisconsin voters have the chance to say let's not rush to judgment. Let's not have the pundits and the polls decide our nominee before 90 percent of Democrats have spoken. Let's not rubber stamp a Democratic nominee.
The primary schedule this year has not given voters, outside of Iowa and New Hampshire, much time to carefully look at the candidates. This election is too important, too much at stake to end this debate now. Bill Clinton did not secure the nomination in 1992 until June. The people of Wisconsin have the power to keep this debate going and make sure the Party nominates the strongest candidate against George W. Bush.
Why Howard Dean?
Howard Dean is the best choice is to face George W. Bush in November:
o The best way to beat George W. Bush is with the candidate who already has stood up to him on issues that matter -- like health care, investing in our children, the national debt, and the Iraq war. A Washington Democrat who has cut bad deals with George Bush on these issues can't credibly stand up to him this fall.
o The best way to beat George W. Bush is with the candidate who has truly delivered results, not rhetoric, for working Americans A candidate like John Kerry, with a weak record of legislative accomplishments, can't offer that alternative.
o The best way to beat George W. Bush, whose White House is wholly owned by special interests, is with a candidate from outside Washington, who is independent and owes nothing to anyone but you. 4 of the last 5 presidents were governors. The last sitting Senator to be elected president was 44 years ago. And John Kerry is no John Kennedy.
Ready To Win Wisconsin
The next ten days can be -- and must be -- the proudest, strongest, and most enthusiastic phase so far of Howard Dean's campaign for the presidency. On February 17, we must win Wisconsin -- and we will.
Governor Dean and the entire campaign team are gearing up for the Wisconsin contest, and supporters across the country are demonstrating that they are more committed than ever to winning. Thursday morning, Governor Dean sent an email appeal to supporters seeking $700,000 by Sunday for the effort in Wisconsin. By this morning -- Friday -- we had already far surpassed that goal- - more than $800,000 and rising every hour.
Beginning Monday, Governor Dean will be campaigning continuously in Wisconsin through the February 17 primary.
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 - The struggle for the Democratic presidential nomination is not just about personalities and programs, but also about the direction - maybe even the soul - of the party. While still very much a work in progress, the Democratic Party emerging from Iowa and New Hampshire is different from the careful centrism of the Clinton era.
Howard Dean may not have won a primary or caucus yet, a circumstance that led to a major shake-up of his campaign on Wednesday, but his mark on the party is unmistakable. His defeats are less a victory for the Democratic establishment than a sign of the other leading candidates' ability to adjust, and harness the energy originally tapped by Dr. Dean's insurgent campaign: the anger at President Bush, the opposition to the war with Iraq, the demand for a different direction in domestic policy.
This is a Democratic Party spoiling for a fight. Dr. Dean's rallying cry was, and is, "It's time to take our country back!" Senator John Kerry throws Mr. Bush a defiant challenge that becomes an empowering group chant: "Bring it on!" Senator John Edwards cites his long legal career fighting big corporate lawyers and declares, "I am so ready for this fight!"
At Thursday night's debate in South Carolina, Dr. Dean brushed aside the talk of turmoil in his campaign and declared: "Everybody on this stage, or a lot of people on this stage, have now embraced my message. They all talk about change. They all talk about bringing people into the party. The truth is I stood up for that message when nobody else would." [Complete Article]
Mary MacElveen writes: As we focus on the New Hampshire primary, after Senator Kerry took a victory bounce from Iowa, we should remember. There was another primary which did not get any attention from the mass media. That primary was the unbinding voter's rights primary in Washington DC, where Governor Howard Dean won handily.
I applaud Governor Dean, Cong. Kucinich, the Reverend Al Sharpton and Ambassador Carol Mosley Braun for taking part in this primary which brings into focus that those citizens in DC do not have the voting rights as many living across this country. What astonishes me is that Senator Kerry, Senator Lieberman, Senator Edwards, Congressman Gephardt and General Clark did not even bother participating in that primary, even if it was non-binding. Does this send a message that some voters matter where others do not? If that is the case, shame on all of them. [Complete Article].
Becky Burgwin writes: I'm only asking because I think the citizens of our country need to have their collective heads examined. People are actually buying the fact that an excited, rousing speech by Howard Dean to a roomful of 3500 young people who came from ALL OVER THE WORLD, has ruined the run of the candidate who has broken all the records on fund-raising and grass roots organizing held by any democrat in this country's history. Forget about the fact that he was smiling the whole time and that the unedited version shows you can barely hear him over the screams of the crowd. The press has decided Dean's angry and, by-gum, that's just the way it is. [Complete Article].
Patty McIntosh writes about What Really Happened in Iowa: The real story from someone who saw and heard the whole thing vs. the 'Howard Dean, Angry Candidate' myth: "I'm back home now from Iowa and I just wanted to toss this out there for those of you who weren't there (and for the members of the media who were not actually there as well): What you may have seen or heard on TV/radio was edited in such a way that it sounded like Howard was a raving lunatic. But that's only half of the story." [Complete Article].
Alice Pfeifer writes about her experiences in Iowa: "All of us left, I think, with decidedly mixed feelings. For example, I am convinced, now more than ever, that some of the kindest and gentlest people that one could ever meet are Dean people. I am also convinced, now more than ever, that something is terribly wrong with a political process that turns so many ordinary folk into raging pit bulls. Perhaps as I tell you what happened during our time in Iowa, you will understand where these two final impressions have come from." [Complete Article].