Howard Dean Won't Bring Democrats Back To Life Says Union Leader

[Itsthetruth]

February, 2005

Shocking the Donkey ... Again

All Howard Dean's energy and enthusiasm won't bring the Democrats back to life.
by Chris Townsend

Chris Townsend is the Political Action Director of the
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)

Howard Dean now takes the helm. The former Vermont governor has muscled his way onto the national political scene over the past couple of years, and I have to commend his energy and enthusiasm. Lord knows, the Democratic Party is in dire need of a good shot of adrenaline. A rejuvenated and energetic Democratic Party would be a healthy addition to a nationwide political scene. But, at this point, it behooves us to review a bit of forgotten history.

So, while Dean brings unquestioned passion and some new ideas, we have been down this road before. When I was just a teenager, I recall progressive stalwart Michael Harrington's many efforts to "reform" or "influence" the Democratic Party. Mike Harrington was as decent and genuine a man as one will meet; but his decades of effort to get the Democrats to vigorously promote the interests of working people largely came to naught.

Dean has laid out an ambitious plan to construct permanent party structures at the state level. But the likely participants in this endeavor will be the same consultants and political "professionals" who have led the party to this nadir in the first place. And I see nothing in the Dean program to indicate that he intends to put this new, grassroots Democratic Party into the long overdue struggle to organize unions.

We must be careful not to believe that because Dean was able to out-organize his opponents -- most of whom were political nobodies -- that the Democratic Party is now somehow unified around his ambitious program. Former President Clinton sure isn't on board. And Clinton is just one of many "New Democrats," corporate Democrats, who want nothing to do with the Dean scheme.

http://www.thelaborparty.org/a_dean.html

[ladjf]

1. Re: the Clinton's lack of support: The have only an "Clinton

Agenda" and that doesn't including empowering Dean.

[Corgigal]

2. I wonder if he wants

any cheese with his whine?

Another idiot who wants us to split. Yeah that works pretty damn well.

[Plaid Adder]

3. Well, gang, this IS the Labor Party.

From a purely self-interested viewpoint, they would prefer to be able to declare the Democratic Party dead, because that would open up more space for a progressive third party. I am all about progressive third parties--Liza is a member of the Labor Party, actually--but I also think we ought to try to keep the second one alive if we can.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Zenlitened]

4. Re: Chris Townsend... whose payroll is he on?

:shrug:

[Itsthetruth]

11. The Union "Payroll".

Guess you missed this. Chris Townsend is the Political Action Director of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE).

Here's the link to the UE website:

http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/index.html

[Zenlitened]

14. No, I didn't miss that. But thank you for the link. - n/t

[Deep13]

5. We're not dead.

Once again the people in charge of the party just don't get it. Dean is not trying to reanimate the party, he wants to let the party reanimate itself. Those of us out in the country were people live and work know what needs to be done. We just want national leadership that will not outsmart itself and undo our work. Dean has promised to empower the local people and deemphasize the Washington consultants who have no idea how this country works.

[kentuck]

6. The majority of the leadership of the Party are reactive...

and we will be at a disadvantage until they decide to find a way to attack this fascist regime...I don't see any light in the tunnel yet...

[Larkspur]

7. Guess this guy doesn't agree with SEIU, who loves Dean

Dean won the DNC Chair the same way he won the SEIU endorsement, which was a big one for Dean when he was a Prez candidate. Dean won SEIU's endorsement by following Andy Stern's advice and meeting with local SEIU groups to win their suppot. Andy Stern said that of all the 9 Dem Prez candidates, who got the same advice from Stern about how to win the SEIU endorsement, Howard Dean was the only one who followed his advice. Not even so called Dennis Kucinich was interested in doing the hard work and meeting with most local SEIU groups.

What sets Howard Dean apart from most Dem politicians, including Bill Clinton, is that Howard Dean is willing to go and meet average Americans and listen to them. Dean is willing to work hard and anti-Dean people just don't understand that about Dean.

Townsend is right that Dean alone can not salvage the Dem Party. It will take grassroots activists and rank-and-file Dems to hold elected Dems accountable and if Clinton Dems continue to thumb there noses at the Dem base, the Dem Party will be the loser in the short term, but the Clinton's are a waning fad. Dean is the waxing movement.

Of course, maybe unions, like Chris Townsend's United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, are the dinosaurs of the workers movement. SEIU is the contemporary union that uses participatory democracy as it's ruling mechanism. Many old time unions are top-down structures, like corporations are.

[quiet.american]

8. Dean has already "reformed and influenced the Democratic Party"

Chris Townsend neglects to understand what he claims Dean cannot do, Dean has already done.

Who remembers any neck-and-neck "race" for DNC Chairman before Dean entered this most recent one?

When was the last time the DNC finished financially ahead of the Republicans, and in the black, after a presidential campaign? (The credit for this is summarily given to Terry M., however, if the Dem power structure were so confident in his abilities, then why "pre-Dean" was there so much handwringing about how Bush would have $200 million raised for his campaign and how the Dems couldn't possibly compete?)

Not to put Michael Harrington down, but did he have tens of thousands of Democrats -- and some Republicans -- pouring into the streets at all hours of the day and night to hear what he had to say -- and then like what they heard enough to send "the bat" soaring off the charts again and again?

What about successfully assisting Democrats in getting elected to office at all state levels - some of whom had never run before? Sounds like Dean's plan is working to me!

I suspect these are vastly different times than the one Michael Harrington was operating in, and no doubt he cleared a path of some sort for those to come, but to compare Dean to him as an example of why Dean won't be able to "influence" the Party doesn't work.

[Dr.Phool]

9. As a Union man

And local union officer all my life, I don't have very much faith in our national union leadership any more.

Case in point. I retired at age 49 with a good pension. I was so busy during the last election, that I didn't have time to read my union newsletter for about a week. The day after the election, I was horrified to see that my union had endorsed Kathrine Harris, whose opponent was Jan Schneider, a labor lawyer who handled the labor dept. transition for the Clinton Administration. WTF?:wtf:

[Eloriel]

17. O.M.G. Horrified doesn't begin to cover it.

I think I'd have gone ballistic, if not downright postal.

That's unbelievable. Was someone bought off?

[madfloridian]

10. Well, remember one of the founding purposes of the DLC...pro-business....

so stated by themselves so it can not be denied....was to make it unnecessary to rely on the "traditional" party interests like labor.

From 2001:
SNIP.."Simon Rosenberg, the former field director for the DLC who directs the New Democrat Network, a spin-off political action committee, says, "We're trying to raise money to help them lessen their reliance on traditional interest groups in the Democratic Party. In that way," he adds, "they are ideologically freed, frankly, from taking positions that make it difficult for Democrats to win."

http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.html

Howard Dean and the traditional interest groups in the party have an uphill battle to fight.

More from the article about the unions:
SNIP..."The DLC's effort to win Meeks's vote was part of a vigorous campaign by New Democrats to assure legislators that business groups would replace campaign contributions from labor lost by a pro-business China vote. In The New Democrat, the DLC's monthly magazine, Washington's most powerful business lobbyist, Thomas J. Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote that even though some members of Congress risked losing the AFL-CIO's support, "business will stick by Democrats on the China trade vote."

[YIMA]

12. We have no choice but to wait and see.

I would, however, be surprised to see a chairman of the party do anything to create wins. It's the candidate that wins or loses.

But, I must agree with one aspect of this article. If Clinton isn't on board, it's going to be really tough. And most of what I've read indicates he's not on board with Dean at all.

[Eloriel]

18. Why would it be tough at all?

I think the Clintons have made themselves irrelevent by NOT being on board with Dean. Maybe that's just my opinion, but who needs 'em?

[TWiley]

13. "Back" to life?

When did we die? There are probably more active democrats today than ever.

[Dawgs]

15. Right on...

I am sick and tired of hearing people say that the Democrats are dead, misguided, in trouble, etc. John Kerry got more votes than any other Democratic canidate ever.

[blm]

16. Dems got over 59 mil votes with 90% of broadcast news against them

and refusing to highlight Dem policies and issues.

The poor "health" of the Democratic party is a vastly exaggerated media story promoted by the Republicans who control the airwaves.

[K-W]

19. Its just a step in the right direction, nothing more. EOM

[paineinthearse]

20. What do the UL zombies know about life? nt

[bpilgrim]

21. dean didn't get where he is all by himself, hello

and he DEFEATED all those 'new' corporate dem ideologues who heavily BACKED those no name neo-liberals.

the only thing i agree with him is that the fight must continue and it ain't gonna be easy nor quick but it certainly will be a battle for the soul not only of the Dem party but of this nation.

peace