Age of Reason

Howard Dean for DNC Chair

From Draft Howard:

The Republicans and media elites who manufacture conventional wisdom diagnose our problems for us: we’re wrong on the issues, they say, and we’re on the wrong side of what they call culture. They are wrong.

Our first problem is message. We let Republicans define the debate. They run on guns, God and gays—and instead of standing up for our values we try to excuse their extremism. We move further and further to the right and we fear standing up against what we know to be wrong. We compromise our values for the sake of victory and wind up with neither integrity nor victory.

Our other problem is morale. It says something about the state of our party that so many of us believe what Republicans and a complicit media tell us about ourselves. Many of our leaders and our ordinary members have been convinced that our fundamental values are simply wrong.

We are a party that passionately believes in every person’s right to see a doctor; that poverty and inequality in the world’s richest nation are a disgrace; that we have a responsibility to help people grow old with dignity; that a nation must manage its finances responsibly and not pass more and more debt to our children; and that America should be both the military and moral leader of the world.

Our party is in crisis. We need a leader who will not only convince America that we are right—we need a leader who will inspire us to stand up for the fundamental values we know are right.

In sum, we need Howard Dean.

posted by conchis @ 7:34 PM