Muslim American interviews Howard Dean about Obama. Some blunt Q & A

[madfloridian]

Wajahat Ali is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent. He is a playwright, essayist, humorist, and Attorney at Law, whose work, “The Domestic Crusaders” is the first major play about Muslim Americans living in a post 9-11 America. His blog is at http://goatmilk.wordpress.com/.

From Huffington Post:

The Case for Obama: An Interview with Howard Dean

Long interview, hard to just post snips. The questions from the interviewer are often quite blunt.

ALI: The addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican campaign, which has revitalized the Republican base and won over many undecided voters, suggests Republicans still maintain the stronghold on "cultural values." Republicans portray themselves successfully as harbingers of morality, security, God and stability. Democrats are painted as Godless, elitist, baby killing, homosexual pornographers. How do you convince the American voter that your party best represents their "cultural values?"

DEAN: All you have to do is look at the past 8 years. I mean Bush and McCain have talked for 8 years all about "their cultural values." Look where we are today? We see bankruptcies. We see a government that cares more about mortgage companies than mortgage holders. In short, they've turned out to be a total fraud. Here, McCain is talking about what he's going to do to change Wall Street. He was part of a huge banking scandal about 15 years ago!

The voters have figured out that the Republicans talk about values, but they don't really have many. The Democrats, on the other hand, have been quietly plugging along, and really doing things for people. When we took over again in 2006, one of the first things we did was we raised the minimum wage. That gets a long way to assure equal pay for women. The next thing we did was restore the Pell Grants (student loans) that Republicans had cut. But I think we have much better values than the Republicans, which seem to be "you're on your own, and we're gonna' get what we want out of the government and out of the tax payers."

The party of God concept:

ALI: There is a Republican monopolization as the "Party of God," and the party of "religious values."

DEAN: We've made a major effort to counteract that. We had an Imam from Chicago on a credentials committee in Denver. I think that's the first time that has ever happened. We've really reached out to Americans of all faiths, including Islam. Because we believe the future of America is diversity. And young people know that. They get what the Democratic values are. They scratch their heads at how the Republicans have been saying all these things all these years, and been doing exactly the opposite.

The subject of racism:

ALI: Obama represents a new type of America, which is in fact a historical America. He is multiracial, has an Arabic name, he has a White mom, an African American father. Yet, he also represents another side of America. We see many people openly saying they won't vote for him due to his race or due to his Arabic name, and there have been sleazy connotations and smear campaigns as a result. What do you think this reflects about America?

DEAN: We now have two Muslim American Congressmen representing a very diverse group of people. The country has changed. You don't have to be a particular race in order to get people to vote for you who look like you. It doesn't work that way anymore. Again, there is unfortunately still some racism. But there's a lot less than it used to be. And I think the rise of Barack Obama is really the rise of a new generation that has grown up in a very multicultural country, and I think that's very good for America.

Dean has always been working with the Muslim community.

Howard Dean tells muslim group: "stand up and say who you are and be proud of it."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told American Muslims gathered in Rosemont to think beyond voter registration drives.

"You need to run for political office," Dean said Saturday. "The only way you can achieve your goals is to stand up and say who you are and be proud of it."

Those in the packed house rose to their feet and applauded.

He has done more work with the Muslim community. Here is a video that really impressed me.

Video of Dean's message to MPAC

"Howard Dean addresses (via pre-recorded video) the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Muslim community during MPAC's 6th Annual Convention titled "Revival, Renewal, Relevance: Understanding Islam for the Future" on December 16, 2006 at the Long Beach Convention Center in California. ..."

There is more in the Huff Post interview of interest. Just couldn't go over the copyright limit.

This has been a shameful time in our country. So many stood by and let the Republicans scapegoat and ridicule nearly all minorities.

We need a Democrat in the White House badly.