If you're not a young, white, straight male, you're a "Special Interest"

[Rose Siding]

and, according to the Washington Post, the Democratic party can be faulted for its "over-attention" to you.

snip>
Incoming Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean spent yesterday in a series of meetings with valued Democratic constituencies at the Hilton Washington....
Cynics might call this regimen emblematic of the Democratic Party's over-attention to special-interest groups.....
...
"You are among the most persecuted people in the history of mankind," Dean tells his first audience, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus. This leads off a rapid-fire series of applause lines from Dean......
...
He darts out to a standing ovation and heads a few rooms over to address the National Seniors Coordinating Council. "Democrats have a lot of work to do among seniors," he tells them...
...
After a break, Dean walks in to a standing ovation from the Women's Caucus. Women are not an interest group, he says, "they are a majority."......

And on it goes with Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Pacific Island Americans, and...

It's after 6 p.m. when Dean bounds into his last meeting, with the Hispanic Caucus. "This is my seventh meeting of the day," he declares to the crowd. "I think they only have one caucus in the Republican Party," which he calls "homogenous."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17718-20...

Who is this staff writer, Mark Leibovich, and when did the press get to decide that it's OK to label a MAJORITY of Americans with the pejorative "special interests" tag? When did women and seniors and minorities assume the same negative associations as CORPORATE SPECIAL INTERESTS?

Dean said it out loud in his remarks to the women's caucus and the piece is *STILL* called "The Special-Interest Group Hug"! If anyone has time for a letter, please, we need to take this language back.

[blondeatlast]

1. Since when did what's good for the country become a "special interest?"

Never mind, the answer is abundantly clear: November 2000.

[CalebHayes]

2. CRAP I'm not a special interest.

[Ashamed_American]

3. Whew!

I MADE THE CUT!!!!!


www.BlackEyedSundays.com

[blondeatlast]

4. "Special interst" means anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homphobic,

anti-poverty, anti-chronically-ill, anti-union, ad infinitum.

In other words, the best of big D Democratic principles.

We couldn't possibly have it apply to say, big oil or big pharmaceuticlas, could we? /sarcasm off/

[MuseRider]

5. Been hearing that a lot

while phone banking. We are trying to alert people to the Fred Phelps petition on our March 1st ballot. Most of the people I talk to are disgusted and will vote to defeat this however the one overriding theme I get from the others is the "special interest, special laws, special favors" crap. The worst was a guy asking me when the government was going to protect the real persecuted group in this country...WHITE MALES! I almost laughed then almost threw up then managed to politely disagree and end what was turning into a long rant by the guy.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. What if I'm a Jew?

I thought that we were the biggest special interest of all.

[shance]

7. Great catch. What would be nice however, is if we didn't have labels

and were all part of the whole.

Your point about special interests is right on. So I guess white, wealthy straight males are "the" race and everyone else is the exception?

The danger of labels is while they give us a false sense of belonging, they also create classism, sexism and other divisive, exclusionary problems.