Dean makes racial-political history

[Emillereid]

Howard Dean’s December 7 speech is the most important statement on race in American politics by a mainstream white politician in nearly 40 years. Nothing remotely comparable has been said by anyone who might become or who has been President of the United States since Lyndon Johnson’s June 4, 1965 affirmative action address to the graduating class at Howard University.

<snip>



Last Sunday, Howard Dean broke that covenant:


In 1968, Richard Nixon won the White House. He did it in a shameful way – by dividing Americans against one another, stirring up racial prejudices and bringing out the worst in people.
<snip>




The Republican Party would never win elections if they came out and said their core agenda was about selling America piece by piece to their campaign contributors and making sure that wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a few.




To distract people from their real agenda, they run elections based on race, dividing us, instead of uniting us.

....more....

www.blackcommentator.com

I don't think this speech of Dean's was given its due -- the honest vision he laid out on race, etc. as well as his speech yesterday on foreign relations are among the reasons I like this man.He will truly give America a clear and genuine alternative to Dubya and take the Democratic Party beyond the game of electoral strategy (although it's clear his team know well enough how to build a campaign) so that we actually stand in history's path with a clear and constant vision to lead our country back to its roots and toward its promise.

[bemildred]

1. I agree.

It was a direct attack on the current divide-and-rule schema.

[Emillereid]

2. More about Dean's speech

<snip>
Since early this year, Gov. Dean has been making the case that poor and working-class people of all races and from all regions share a common interest in getting better jobs, education, and health care. Dean is the rare politician who dares to speak out about the way race is still used as a wedge in our country. He was wrong when he said he is the only white politician talking about race, but his may indeed be the strongest white voice calling for a serious conversation on these issues.




Skeptics may say that a five-term governor from nearly all-white Vermont lacks credibility talking about race. But the fact is, Dean's outreach to African Americans is nothing new. The New York City native requested black roommates at Yale, he worked as a student teacher and a doctor in NYC and New Haven, and he spent a summer laboring on a Florida cattle ranch where almost no one else spoke English. These experiences, which coincided with the 1960s fight for civil rights, help him speak from experience in a way that demonstrates real heart, soul, and guts on these issues.


<snip>

http://redstaterebels.typepad.com/red_state_rebels/2003/12/reaching_out_ac.html

Even if Dean is not your candidate, it is time that all the dems start talking honestly about the shadow that race plays in American politics!