If I were Howard Dean, I'd wrap myself in Norman Rockwell's flag

[Armstead]

Vermont gets a lot of bashing as a hippie paradise. And Dean as the Peter Pan emissary of that la-la land of granola and the "McGovernite wing" of the Democratic Party.

But in reality, this corner of New England has long had another reputation -- as Norman Rockwell's America. Millions flock to this part of the world to visit (or live)evey year to recapture what they lost when they screwed up their own cities and suburbs and countryside.

They come here faster and more desperatly as the Corporate Megapolis ruins their own communities and countryside with increasing ferocity. They come because they live in alienating, awful places where the neighborhood lunch counter has been replaced by McDonald's and 7-11. They see the USA losing its soul, and they want it back.

They come here because they know in their hearts that we are on the wrong track in this goddamn nation. We are fouling out nest and pulling out the rug from under the interests of all real Americans.

And so they come to visit. If they can afford it, they buy weekend homes in places like the Vermont of Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders and Jim Jeffords.

Those three politicians do not share the exact same views -- but they do share the fact that they are products of a culture of tradition of small towns, community ties and politics that actually connects with people.

And it's a set of values and a type of politics that people want to return to.

Americans made a mistake in the 1980's. Many of them turned to the right-wing GOP, because that's what the spinmasters propaganda promised them. Reagan's "Morning in America." Today GW is doing the same thing when he poses as jest another Texas cowpoke...The American flags that the American Facist Media sticks all over the screen also stands in people's minds for what Norman Rickwell reflected.

However, in reality, the conservative Corporate Facists want to destroy the idealistic American Qualities that most people want to restore. Abd the balance of individualism and sense of community that most people long to return to.

Those idealistic American Qualities are also the values of progressives and liberals.

Norman Rockwell -- who lived in Vermont and nearby Massachusetts -- painted that world and the idealistic side of America. Many conservatives embrace Rockwell today, while clutching their flags. "Now he was a real patriot," they say. But Rockwell was also a Liberal.

That's what "the swing voters" want. And the positive aspects are the same values as liberals and progressives. If Howard Dean can honesty convey the fact that he is Mainstream America (regardless of what part of the map he comes from)that, IMO is something the centrists, the liberals and the progressives could all get behind.