Saturday, October 14, 2006
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Was Howard Dean the Craziest of them All?
Rarely, will I offer commentary on this blog. However, this morning I woke up with memories of the Howard Dean campaign and the statement it makes about the soul of America, the power of the media, and the failure of our democracy.
The last time I heard someone mention Howard Dean, a friend of mine who is well-read and politically savvy said, "That man is crazy!" She then went on to talk about the scream. (See it the way it actually happened in the video above and read the media's belated apologies for misrepresenting it here.) My heart broke for what this says about the soul of America. Yes, the scream was funny and the various remixes and parodies still make me laugh out loud. However, America got so distracted by a scream and labeled it as crazy that they forgot what true craziness is.
True craziness was the fact that none of the Democratic leadership was taking a stand and saying that we should not go into Iraq. Howard Dean was one of the few who had the guts to take that stand. Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, and many others who wanted our vote were not standing up against the drive to Iraq. Now that we've lost thousands of American lives in Iraq, over 600,000 Iraqi lives, had billions of dollars spent, and more people who hate us, people still think of Dean as the crazy one.
True craziness is also the fact that the Democratic Party has all but cast aside the black vote while Howard Dean was the only one who was speaking boldly on race. See his speech on race in America given in Columbia, SC and The Black Commentator's analysis of it as "the most important statement on race in American politics by a mainstream white politician in nearly 40 years"). Also, see Dean's stand on the importance of race during Hurricane Katrina.
So mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me, who is the craziest of them all? Better yet, when did progressives get their definitions of what is crazy so daggone mixed up!
But alas, there is hope. With the rise of candidates who came from Dean's grassroots anti-politics-as-usual efforts (my own interest/involvement in politics was heightened by his campaign), perhaps his work was not in completely vain.
The last time I heard someone mention Howard Dean, a friend of mine who is well-read and politically savvy said, "That man is crazy!" She then went on to talk about the scream. (See it the way it actually happened in the video above and read the media's belated apologies for misrepresenting it here.) My heart broke for what this says about the soul of America. Yes, the scream was funny and the various remixes and parodies still make me laugh out loud. However, America got so distracted by a scream and labeled it as crazy that they forgot what true craziness is.
True craziness was the fact that none of the Democratic leadership was taking a stand and saying that we should not go into Iraq. Howard Dean was one of the few who had the guts to take that stand. Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, and many others who wanted our vote were not standing up against the drive to Iraq. Now that we've lost thousands of American lives in Iraq, over 600,000 Iraqi lives, had billions of dollars spent, and more people who hate us, people still think of Dean as the crazy one.
True craziness is also the fact that the Democratic Party has all but cast aside the black vote while Howard Dean was the only one who was speaking boldly on race. See his speech on race in America given in Columbia, SC and The Black Commentator's analysis of it as "the most important statement on race in American politics by a mainstream white politician in nearly 40 years"). Also, see Dean's stand on the importance of race during Hurricane Katrina.
So mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me, who is the craziest of them all? Better yet, when did progressives get their definitions of what is crazy so daggone mixed up!
But alas, there is hope. With the rise of candidates who came from Dean's grassroots anti-politics-as-usual efforts (my own interest/involvement in politics was heightened by his campaign), perhaps his work was not in completely vain.
// posted by blackdemocracy @ 10:52 AM 
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