I would like to propose a toast---not to "Dean supporters,"

[janx]

as they are so often classified on this board...but to the people who did not support Dean during the difficult primaries but who are wholeheartedly supporting him now!

In doing so, you are supporting every American who knows how horrible the current administration has been for this country.

I salute you and thank you from the depths of my heart.

:patriot:

:toast:

[annabanana]

1. This Clarkie thinks Dean is doing a great job!. . . .n/t

[kittenpants]

3. this Kucinich kitten is right with ya!

[lonestarnot]

36. This Kerry freak is right on toe!

[eridani]

42. This one too.

Dean is exactly what the DNC needs right now.

[Eloriel]

32. Nominated! C'mon, folks! n/t

[bahrbearian]

2. YeeeHaaawwwww !

[KittyWampus]

4. Hmm, Well I Support Dean And All The Elected Democrats

and do my best not to trash any of them no matter how aggravating some votes, behavior may be.

[Pithy Cherub]

5. This Clarkie thinks Dean Rocks!

Thanks, janx :toast:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Clark supporter; lovin' Dean.

They are both fighters and that's why I love them.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Sure, I'll drink to that!

Of course, I don't need much of a reason to enjoy a good toast.

While I was a Kerry supporter, I contributed to Dean's campaign because I admired his willingness to talk honestly about these criminals who have taken over this government.

:beer:

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. Right on! Let's keep up the good work

:toast:

I am NOT a "Deaniac" whatever the hell that means...

I just think he's the greatest asset for the Democratic Party since FDR

:toast:

:dem: :kick:

[Adelante]

9. Very gracious

Thank you, Janx.

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. You're welcome and it's my pleasure to stand up

for Dr. Dean. He's the only one fighting for our party! :toast:

[Catch22Dem]

11. Another Clarkie who proudly lets Dean speak for me!

Any day of the week.

[cynatnite]

12. I never thought Dean had a snowball's chance in winning...

but I loved what he said during the election.

Keep it up, Dean!!! :loveya:

[ellenfl]

13. as an undecided democrat prior

to the 2004 iowa caucus, i think dean is a breath of fresh air. thanks for the welcome.

ellen fl

[camby]

14. What Dean lacked as a presidential candidate

he has in spades when it comes to firing up the base. I love his honesty, and I watch his appearances on C-SPAN whenever can. GIVE 'EM HELL, HOWARD!!!

[wadestock]

15. everything Dean said is true recently,....except....

it's not going to win over that precious undecided/generally unthinking swing vote that is vital for a 2008 victory.

The approach has to be one of common sense...not aggravation.
The party faces the challenge of reversing the mental illness, the anti-liberalism that has been so effectively sold by Limbaugh and repackaged in 1000 other different formats and spread throughout the now right wing controlled media.

We have to use the lesson of Limbaugh actually to reverse the damage. Think of how Limbaugh got the results he got in the first place. Not his misinformation, et al, but his soft effective way of "how can we really stand this crap" that people generally have accepted over the years. The father to son way of passing on all the evils of the world to the democrats. He's so freeking good at it a person forms the wrong opinion right off the bat without even thinking about anything to do with facts or logic.

Take that style and throw in the real facts....with a real man that truly cares about this country. There's a number of people out there that have this talent that can bring forth the belief in people that there was never anything WRONG with democrats in the first place. Then you have to champion a few simple messages, not a litany of things....so that it takes root in one's emotions.

When I look deep into the fundamentals, the bottom lines that make me unshakably liberal, I don't think of my hatred of other repukes, I think about such things like these basic facts....

#1 - The right wing radical right which has come forth as representing the worse strategic business philosophy that this country could ever adopt is selling off America as fast as they can make profits. Many of them actually do believe that it makes sense for everyone to seek the greatest strategic competitive advantage, no matter what the cost. The stanch believe in constant growth (or exponential use of resources) is their downfall (plus destruction of the middle class, etc etc). Tax cuts to the rich fuel this indecent business attitude is already on the verge of producing irreversible economic ruin for this country. Get that down. This is a case of sheer survival for the COUNTRY...not a select few at the 1/10th of one percent on top. Make a science out of explaining the math in easy to appreciate "Ross Perot" type language.

#2 - The neocons that have infiltrated the party have taken us to war and sold it as a holy war. People can sit on the sidelines and debate the what ifs for the next 10 years as we observe the street fight in Iraq. What's really going on?....you better quickly educate the country about the "Thomas Barnett school of military strategy" which has become such a quick seller throughout our military thinkers...now mixed up with the neocons. We are proceeding right now with the plan for military bases all over the "gap" for the sake of spreading democracy and freedom around the world. This is an unprecedented and dangerous twisting of historical facts in terms of how democracy has or should spread.

But back to Dean...Howard...you're right, you can stereotype the repukes and I understand exactly what you mean....but you're doing no good to advance us toward a victory in 2008.

Oh....want some more honest Howard.
Why don't you announce Hilary is not going to be propped up to be slaughtered by a party that seeks only to destroy its adversary with cheap personal slander. She is the sitting duck they are now plotting thoroughly to take down.

Get over it and get someone in there that can bring the party forward with a message that can bring back pride to the party and finally get people to have true respect for being liberal, aka Clark-style.

This party needs some real strategy and person of strength that won't falter. Clark is the only one I can really think of at this point.

[janx]

16. Do not make the mistake of thinking that independent

voters lack brains or that they are generally undecided.

Independent voters are often very opinionated voters, and many of them just want the truth. They have no love for the religious right and the neocons.

Why you bring Clark into this (in your certain context) is beyond me.

[wadestock]

21. well, because it's the Clark qualities that we have to start taking ...

A majority of Americans are stupid....but they've been indoctrinated to be that way.
They crave the sensation and easy gratification, not the fundamental principles.

We need someone to bring us back to the fundamental principles. Clark's the best I've heard yet. And I think his family and upbringing is all for real and part of it.

I come from an extremely large family, and we've gotten together for the past 40 years or so. There was a time in that generation that values really did matter. You could own a store in the neighborhood, like my one uncle did, and be satisfied to live at a level of wealth within the community. This wasn't socialism, it was love of our country, responsibility and wanting to have something better for your kids. I think back about what the average person had in the family back then...yeah maybe on average only one car in the garage...but their kids grew up and went to school. Most of them went on to get a house and get jobs. Most of them had some form of pension.

The get together we had last year...well, one cousin was axed after 25 years, given 25K...etc etc. The language was markedly frustrating, futile in its content. Only a few of the old timers still got it.

The spend spend, screw someone in the back strategic science of competitive advantage has taken us to a place that we can't settle down to listen to the right stuff. The majority of people are punch drunk from it all.

It's still all there...the majority of people just can't tune in.

[The Magistrate]

19. It Seems To Me, Mr. Stock, Your View Is Mistaken

Electoral politics is about forming group identities, and so is necessarily about drawing lines between people, and getting the largest possible number to coalesce towards a banner on your side of the line. To do this, a fighting character and demonization of the enemy is essential. Those persons "in the middle" are no different from anyone else; they are moved more greatly, and more reliably, by emotion than by reasoned persuasion. They respond to the passionate convictiion with which a message is presented more than to the content of the message itself. If a message is presented passionately, but in a form of jargon they are unfamiliar with or conditioned to despise, they will of course reject it energetically, and this is one reason stereotyped left agitations seldom achieve anything. But a thing presented in their own language, in their own common terms, will have an effect commensurate with the passionate aggression with which it is presented. Gov. Dean seems to be one of the few leading Democratic political figures who understands this fact of moving people en masse....

[wadestock]

23. It won't work

And as an analogy I'll give you the workplace.

Find yourself in the general midst of those in power where you work being stanch repukes. Find yourself trying to get to a point where you have respect and power within the organization.

It is all possible, but you have to have the respect first. You can be right on with how they've screwed you, manipulated you...and you'll get EVERYONE you talk to to say...hmmm...yes I know it's true.

If you do it right, you can work the whole thing around because those people that have used crap, misinformation, and manipulation to get where they are can actually be more easily worked over than you think if you do it correctly. They are inherently incompetent....just as Howard has told us...which is true...

But you never let that be known....you just work around it.
Clinton also knew how to do this.

[The Magistrate]

24. Not A Good Analogy, Sir

Trying to rise within a structure formed of your enemies is a very different proposition than the political position before us. Control of ofice, particularly when gained by margins of small percentages, should not be confused with control of the feelings of the electorate at large. It is necessary to draw the lines someplace more beneficial to our side, and so alter the composition of the contesting groups somewhat, and the change does not have to be very large to be adequate for the purpose....

[wadestock]

43. Controlling the few?

I see what you mean...we're on the same track but with different approaches.
You win back the party for another 40 years when you do it in a compelling way like I've described.
Strategically, you could say in the end you are simply getting that many more swing votes.. but to do it...I believe you have to address the majority in a compelling way. Hit the 50% that could conceivably be impressionable....and you'll get the fallout of the 10% you want.

The main reversal of ideas I'm talking about is to simply boast that liberalism is fine, that it's great to be a democrat....I'm proud to be a democrat and why. Limbaugh has tilted the game so that people are in fact ashamed to be liberal.
As you drift from one shining sea to another, you can change the complexion of the country that way....and it will translate into just that much more support for the party....that incremental end result you're looking for...

But it doesn't occur and stick unless you get into the majority of the people can embellish the message.

[The Magistrate]

45. Indeed We Are, Sir

What is necessary is to shift the fracture point a little in our direction. Aggressice action seems to me the best way, now, to achieve that. The doubts many are beginning to feel about the current regime must be articulated, if those who feel them are to identify, at the polls where it counts, with our side. It is not a matter of splitting differences in individual minds to leave them marginally in our favor, but rather a question of provoking whole-hearted identification in a number of people only loosely affiliated at present with the public expounders of our views. People being what they are, Sir, boldness is the best means to that end.

"Political action is the art of getting people to think your thoughts, and feel them their own as they do. In electoral politics, the side whose line most often provokes people into exclaiming "That's just what I think!" wins."

[Tom Rinaldo]

35. Dean doesn't need any lectures

And he is moving us closer to victory in 2008. He is the leader of a partisan organization, so Dean being partisan ultimately won't hurt Democrats at all. People understand that, except for the ones who are totally brainwashed, and you know what? If they are already that brainwashed the only hope to reach them is to wake them up and you don't do that by whispering. Meanwhile many other Democrats are starting to believe in their Party again. That is what a Party Chair has to do.

But I would rather this thread stayed on topic. This is a unity thread, and I appreciate it. Thanx janx. I always liked and respected Dean. I think he's doing a great job and I don't mind in the least saying so, and letting others know how I feel.

[bpilgrim]

44. lol - you want Dean to be more like LIMPBALLS but criticize him for being

"aggravation" in contrast to limpballs soft effective way of "how can we really stand this crap"

:rofl:

peace

[Bouncy Ball]

17. I salute them, too.

And that being said, I like Wes Clark a LOT more than I used to!!!! I never disliked him, but I was a Dean person from the beginning and I like Clark quite a bit now, too.

[Lexingtonian]

18. He has learned a lot

and he's doing a lot of humble but very necessary business now. Rebuilding is difficult work, extraordinarily so in the earliest Wow, What A Disaster Area stage and the Figuring Out The Mess My Predecessor Left Especially For Me stage. It hasn't looked like a lot has happened, but he's to be commended for getting as much done as he apparently has. When he gets to reforming the Ohio and Florida state parties, that's when I'll know the Party is preparing to rule in earnest.


Wishing he gets his due for this service, :toast:

[Eloriel]

31. Actually, he's done quite a bit,a nd if anyone gets a chance to see

his speech at the DNC Meeting from this past Saturday, by all means do. It was wonderful (IMHO). It showed a picture of what the Party is going to be like that I've been yearning for for years, decades really. And he's actually accomplished a lot. Here's just a peek, and this isn't even anything to do with re-organizing the DNC staff (which he's done), and a number of other things:

But a comparison of Dean's first three months as chairman shows that he has actually out-raised his predecessor during the same period in 2003. Dean raised $14.8 million between February and April (the latest data available), versus $8.5 million during that period in 2003, the previous non-election year. Additionally, the DNC has raised more in comparison to the RNC over the past three months than it did during 2003.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200506030009


ALSO: To the info at MyDD:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/6/2/85226/67718
First Quarter of 2005 - $16.7 million
Q1/2004 - $28.7 million
Q1/2003 - $8.7 million
Q1/2002 - $11.8

ALSO:
A final word on Dean and raising money
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1825374


ALSO:
lojasmo
Response to Original message
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1517824#1518457
69. DNC has raised MORE MONEY THIS QUARTER
than any first non-election year quarter on the books.

A quick look at actual FEC reports
http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00010603

shows that Dean has raised more money in an off year than any DNC Chair in history.

First Quarter of 2005 - $16.7 million

Q1/2004 - $28.7 million (presidential election year)

Q1/2003 - $8.7 million

Q1/2002 - $11.8

And Dean is on pace to break the midyear fundraising of $23.7 in the first six months of 2001. "

[Cha]

20. That's Sweet Janx..

I know exactly how you feel and I want to toast them, too..
It means so much~!

:toast:

[janx]

22. It really does.

The primaries were hell personified. But this is beautiful.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. Yes, it is.

And let's remember that the primaries were hell, so maybe we won't fall into that same circular-firing-squad, my-candidate-is-great-and-yours-totally -sucks trap again next time.

[mitchum]

25. I have extreme buyer's remorse that I did not support Dean...

during the primaries. My apologies to Dr Dean and all of his supporters. You were right.
I am proud of him. He is truly a FIGHTING DEMOCRAT.

[mcar]

26. Thanks.

I liked him during the primaries but I'm lovin' him now.

How refreshing is it to hear a real Democrat speaking out for us?

Go Dean!

[SW FL Dem]

28. Another Clark supporter who thinks Dean is doing a great job

I heard him speak in April and he was awesome!

[Eloriel]

29. Amen, and thanks for doing this, Janx

I've noted how solidly so many non-Deaniacs have climbed on board and rallied for Dean as DNC Chair and it warms my heart.

He's a GOOD man, and he's putting his heart and soul into all this. The support he gets here is really wonderful. I salute -- and thank -- all of you too.

[Stinky The Clown]

30. Howard Dean was the ONLY choice for DNC chair

Supporting Dean now is easy as pie. And thanks, Janx, for your kind words.

As a side note, I nominate 'The Scream' as the Dem rallying cry for the 06 midterms and beyond. Scream proudly.

YeeeeARGH!!!!!

[janx]

33. It's past my bed time,

but thanks to all of you. There are interesting times ahead!
--jk

[FreedomAngel82]

34. Just love Dean!

I wasn't orginially for anybody in the primaries because I wasn't involved in politics back then but was totally into John Kerry and all that. But the more I've seen of Dean, read and heard of him the more I like him. He's a straight shooter and he isn't afraid of the RNC bastards. I love it! :loveya: I wish he could run again. :cry: (On the cspan site I'm watching old stuff of him now hehe I love seeing him interact with people and he really listens and is great with all ages. I've noticed in a lot of his rallies were people my age, I'm twenty-two)

[Straight Shooter]

37. You say Dean is a "straight shooter"?

AFAIC, that's the best compliment ever! :7

[ninkasi]

38. I love Dean

I used to cringe when I read accounts of the ones who should have been our leaders tip-toeing around issues, afraid of the wrath of the White House. They are still doing things I hate...agreeing with the Repukes on Dean is one of them.

I used to mutter when I read, or saw on t.v., the Democrats who should have been fighting for us, caving in to the right wing, and trying to tinker with the right wing agenda, hoping that they could attract voters that way, but appearing weak and craven in the process.

When Dean speaks, I applaud, and one thing's for sure...he keeps our message front and center. Go, Dean. It's nice to be proud to be a Democrat again.

[lakeguy]

39. thanks, dean is kicken some serious a@#! i hope he keeps it up!

[BigBearJohn]

40. I will definitely drink to that! CHEERS!

[friesianrider]

41. Loved Kerry from day 1...but came back to DU thanks to Dean...

I was a Kerry supporter from way-back-when. First Kerry rally I went to had about 150 people there! ;) I always liked Dean but thought he'd never be marketable to the American public. On early November of last year,I left DU angry, frustrated, and hopeless. After Dean's comments this past week I came back to DU renewed and ready to fight again. Dean's given me hope thatmaybe we can shake things up a bit and get this great country we all love back to what it's supposed to be.

[IowaGuy]

46. This Kerry supporter thinks we got the right man in the...

right job. He is not running for anything, he doesn't have to modify his message to mollify the masses...his only job is to be an unabashed supporter for the Democratic and a a bomb thrower that will keep the MSM focused on story lines that help us. I think he's doing a good job at that. There are other aspects re: organization an fund-raising, but that requires a team effort...we all need to pull together on that and just let Howard be Howard.

[donheld]

47. You want toast? I'll give you toast

happy now?

[Sparkly]

48. Dean + Reid = What we need!!

I think Dean's doing a great job, and I hope he continues to speak out and fight back!