Dean people - have you learned anything about power from your experience?

[Michael Costello]

I try to think about different classes, and who has power and who doesn't, and what forces in society different people represent (Gephardt - labor, Sharpton - blacks, Kucinich - left of party, Lieberman - right of party) and that sort of thing. I was wondering if what happened to Dean, not just in the elections but in the press and so forth has been educational to you about how the press works, about how groups can get things done or be defeated, about how much power the Dean contingent has in society and who anti-Dean people are, and that sort of thing. I'm not just talking about Kerry, I'm talking about the whole thing.

[w4rma]

1. Remember that Gephardt and Dean split the labor endorsements between

them and Kucinich couldn't get much support from the left of the Party who seem to be mostly pragmatic and split between Dean, Kerry and a lesser extent Clark.

Lieberman alienated more and more Democrats whenever he'd speak and gave up the support from the right of the party to Edwards and to a lesser extent, Clark and Kerry.

As for the gang-bang on Dean which, imho, allowed Kerry to get by under the radar, that reminded me of tactics in many 3+player strategy games I've played:

In said strategy games a good tactic was to appear weak but not weak enough to appear easily taken out, while building up strength as quickly and quietly as possible. And then trying to provoke a fight between other players while staying out of the way, hording resources, growing stronger and quietly helping any underdogs do as much damage as possible. Then once everyone else has weakened themselves enough on one another, come in and wipe them all out.

Also, I shouldn't forget to mention Dean's statment about breaking up the big media oligopoly 1 week before Iowa. Big media has too much power and they need to be broken up, imho.

[patricia92243]

2. Knew, forgot, and learned all over again the power of the press.

[mandyky]

7. Ditto about the TV news media!

I will work til my dying day to bring back the fairness doctrine. Soundbyte news with bias is almost as bad as not having a free press at all!

[CWebster]

3. Just reaffirmed how invasive and determined

the power structure is to maintain the corporate ruling class.

Dean represented a balanced change to the paradigm--a real threat to the dominating influences--Kerry is a member of the club.

[jpgray]

4. Sorry, but insofar as there is a club, both men are members

Ask Dean about his deals with IBM in VT. Both are good guys, but Dennis Kucinich they are not.

[CWebster]

9. Note the use of the word "balance"

With Dean the shift was on a psychological level, an attidude that engendered hope and spoke to the anger. The anger is real--we are not wrong to be angry--it would be wrong not to be angry. Kerry represents the status quo of the elites. Aside from his Viet Nam experience there is ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION in life experience or even interest from Kerry's privileged existence.

[farmbo]

5. Two things: If it's not on TV, it didn't happen. And even if it didn't ...

...happen, It DID happen if they SAY it happened on TV.

And any guesses who controls TV?

[edzontar]

6. We learned that we have many enemies, and not all of them are in the GOP.

It has been depressing.

[Atlant]

8. Did we also learn that some folks we thought should have been allies...

Did we also learn that some folks we thought should have been allies
turned out to be enemies?

And that "the media" now means more than just the press, TV, and radio?
It also includes web sites?

Atlant

[edzontar]

14. Yes, we did.

It has been sad to learn how much fear and suspicion there is, even within the ranks of our party and progressive "movements."

I have had to change many of my old assumptions.

[jpgray]

12. If by 'enemies' you mean supporters of other candidates, then yes

If you mean people who hated just Dean utterly and worked to destroy him at all costs, then I totally disagree with you. If Dean had been nominated, no true Democrat would have failed to work very hard for him. Based on Dean's positions and personality, I think we would all have worked for him with a lot of enthusiasm. Whatever you want to say about Dean's campaign, he resonated with the base.

[edzontar]

13. Certainly NOT. I have nothing but respect for supporters of

Of ANY other DEM candidate.

I was referring to a much smaller and more localized phenomenon.....

[Robb]

10. Learned a new rule

No matter how great you are, or how far ahead you are in the polls, don't announce you're going to break up big media. :)

[edzontar]

15. THAT is so true.

And NEVER assume that just because someone is a Dem that they will value the same things that you do---peace, justice, fairness, openess, and public accountabilty, for example.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi Michael Costello!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: