Beating around the Bush (about the Dean movement) - Orion online

[fabius]

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/03-6om/McKibben.html

At the moment of this writing Howard Dean is enjoying an enormous surge in his run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Covers of Time and Newsweek, poll numbers jumping, Sunday morning political TV all agog. The question is, should this hearten those of us who think the environment, broadly considered, is the defining problem of our time? My guess is that it should -- that in fact we should be delighted. But for reasons that say at least as much about the possibility of a new politics as about Howard Dean.

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Anyone but George Bush in the White
House would be nice; the mindless
vandalism of our nation would slow down.

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But it's also possible that he understands it's all only a little bit about him -- that "his" campaign instead might become a campaign for a newer American politics, one less about the obvious divisions in our national life than about the obvious challenges that lie ahead of us. About global warming, about how you deal with all the baby boomers retiring, about the lack of connection that keeps people feeling powerless. He's a vessel right now for something precious, a quantity of hope and earnestness; should he have the wisdom to understand that the vessel is less important than what it carries, he just might emerge as a real force. This happens rarely in our politics -- Bobby Kennedy was the last time a hack suddenly turned into a force; John McCain came pretty close before Karl Rove cut him off at the knees.

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It seems at least possible that Dean will figure out how to turn a campaign -- and maybe even an administration -- into a two-way conversation with its supporters. If so, he will have done something truly remarkable, giving the people the voice they are meant to have in a democracy.

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http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/03-6om/McKibben.html

[realFedUp]

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