The more they don't. These words sound like today in so many ways...but at least Bush is heading out the door.
A tribute to one who achieved so much for the Democrats. That's what he called his speech that day in Burlington when he announced his candidacy.
Hat tip to
a Politico blogger for this reminderThe prophet of Dean
If Obama's still looking for inspiration, he should check out Howard Dean's '03 hat-in-the ring address, arch-Deaniac Joe Trippi suggests.
Dean, who has been spurned by the O folks, seemed to be about five-and-half years ahead of the O curve, urging America to"rejoin the word community" and warning of a looming economic crisis wrought by Bush's tax cuts, the lack of affordable health care and a beggared middle class.
A (bitter) taste:
"Our president and too many in Washington are giving away our future so that we pass to our children not a flickering flame of freedom but the chain of insurmountable debt... No parent would do this and America must not do this."
Many of the goals were accomplished, but now others are getting the garlands and rewards. That's just the way it goes, I hear.
The Great American RestorationGovernor Howard Dean June 23, 2003
Today, our nation is in crisis. At home, this crisis manifests itself in this President's destruction of the idea of community. This President pushes forward an agenda and policies which divide us. He advocates economic polices which beggar the middle class and raise property taxes so that income taxes may be cut for those who ran Enron.
He divides us by race by using the word quota, which appeals to the worst in us by instilling fear that people of color might take our jobs or our places in the nation's best universities. He divides us by gender by attacking a woman's right to make her own health care decisions. And even by attacking young women's right to have the same athletic opportunities that young men do. He divides us by sexual orientation by supporting senators who have slandered gay Americans, and he appeals once again to the worst instincts within us, instead of that which is good in all Americans.
The tax cuts that are the radicals' weapon are not about tax cuts for working people. They are not even about tax cuts for millionaires. Instead, the tax cuts are designed to destroy Social Security, Medicare, our public schools and our public services through starvation and privatization.
Our President and too many in Washington are giving away our future so that we pass to our children not a flickering flame of freedom but the chain of insurmountable debt.
No parent would do this and America must not do this.
And he spoke of a meaningless vocabulary used by politicians. It appears it may be used once again in the name of bipartisanship.
When confronted with a dedicated band of right wing ideologues, too many Americans have stopped participating, stopped voting, and stopped believing that they can change America.
And we in politics have not given our people a reason to vote or a reason to participate. We have slavishly spewed sound bites, copying each other while saying little. We raise millions of dollars and each year make lofty promises, while every year the struggles of ordinary Americans increase and fewer Americans vote. Our politicians, many of them good people, have been paralyzed by their fear of losing office. Our leaders have developed a vocabulary which has become meaningless to the American people.
Best to him in his new private endeavors. And to his endeavors working with center left parties abroad who do not shun his accomplishments as his own party has done here.
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